in
its power. Yet, although Mongolia is scantily peopled, in comparison
with its immense extent, it could, at a day's notice, send forth a
formidable army. A high Lama, the Guison-Tamba, for instance, would have
but to raise his finger, and all the Mongols, from the frontiers of
Siberia to the extremities of Thibet, rising as one man, would
precipitate themselves like a torrent wherever their sainted leader might
direct them. The profound peace which they have enjoyed for more than
two centuries, might seem to have necessarily enervated their warlike
character; nevertheless, you may still observe that they have not
altogether lost their taste for warlike adventures. The great campaigns
of Tsing-Kis-Khan, who led them to the conquest of the world, have not
escaped their memory during the long period of leisure of their nomadic
life; they love to talk of them, and to feed their imagination with vague
projects of invasion.

During our short stay at the Blue Town we had constant conversations with
the Lamas of the most celebrated Lamaseries, endeavouring to obtain fresh
information on the state of Buddhism in Tartary and Thibet. All they
told us only served to confirm us more and more in what we had before
learnt on this subject. In the Blue Town, as at Tolon-Noor, everyone
told us that the doctrine would appear more sublime and more luminous as
we advanced towards the West. From what the Lamas said, who had visited
Thibet, Lha-Ssa was, as it were, a great focus of light, the rays of
which grew more and more feeble in proportion as they became removed from
their centre.

One day we had an opportunity of talking with a Thibetian Lama for some
time, and the things he told us about religion astounded us greatly. A
brief explanation of the Christian doctrine, which we gave to him, seemed
scarcely to surprise him; he even maintained that our views differed
little from those of the Grand Lamas of Thibet. "You must not confound,"
said he, "religious truths with the superstitions of the vulgar. The
Tartars, poor, simple people, prostrate themselves before whatever they
see; everything with them is Borhan. Lamas, prayer books, temples,
Lamaseries, stones, heaps of bones,--'tis all the same to them; down they
go on their knees, crying, Borhan! Borhan!" "But the Lamas themselves
admit innumerable Borhans?" "Let me explain," said our friend,
smilingly; "there is but one sole Sovereign of the universe, the Creator
of al