ieve that
often all this proceeds on both sides with honesty and good faith. From
the information we obtained from persons worthy of the greatest credit,
it appears certain that all that is said of the Chaberons must not be
ranged amongst illusion and deception. A purely human philosophy will,
undoubtedly, reject such things, or put them, without hesitating, down to
the account of Lama imposture. We Catholic missionaries believe that the
great liar who once deceived our first parents in the earthly Paradise
still pursues his system of falsehood in the world. He who had the power
to hold up in the air Simon Magus may well at this day speak to mankind
by the mouth of an infant, in order to maintain the faith of his adorers.

When the titles of the living Buddha have been confirmed, he is conducted
in triumph to the Lamasery, of which he is to be the Grand Lama. Upon
the road he takes, all is excitement, all is movement. The Tartars
assemble in large crowds to prostrate themselves on his way, and to
present to him their offerings. As soon as he is arrived at his
Lamasery, he is placed upon the altar; and then, kings, princes,
mandarins, Lamas, Tartars, from the richest to the poorest, come and bend
the head before this child, which has been brought from the depths of
Thibet, at enormous expense, and whose demoniac possessions excite every
body's respect, admiration, and enthusiasm.

There is no Tartar kingdom which does not possess, in one of its
Lamaseries of the first class, a living Buddha. Besides this superior,
there is always another Grand Lama, who is selected from the members of
the royal family. The Thibetian Lama resides in the Lamasery, like a
living idol, receiving every day the adorations of the devout, upon whom
in return he bestows his blessing. Everything which relates to prayers
and liturgical ceremonies, is placed under his immediate superintendence.
The Mongol Grand Lama is charged with the administration, good order, and
executive of the Lamasery; he governs whilst his colleague is content to
reign. The famous maxim, _Le roi regne et ne gouverne pas_, is not,
therefore, the grand discovery in politics that some people imagine.
People pretend to invent a new system, and merely plunder, without saying
a word about it, the old constitution of the Tartar Lamaseries.

Below these two sovereigns, are several subaltern officers, who direct
the details of the administration, the revenues, the sales,