sh tint, has an exquisite odour, something like that of
cinnamon. The Lamas informed us that in summer, towards the eighth moon,
the tree produces large red flowers of an extremely beautiful character.
They informed us also that there nowhere else exists another such tree;
that many attempts have been made in various Lamaseries of Tartary and
Thibet to propagate it by seeds and cuttings, but that all these attempts
have been fruitless.

The Emperor Khang-Hi, when upon a pilgrimage to Kounboum, constructed, at
his own private expense, a dome of silver over the Tree of the Ten
Thousand Images; moreover, he made a present to the Grand Lama of a fine
black horse, capable of travelling a thousand lis a day, and of a saddle
adorned with precious stones. The horse is dead, but the saddle is still
shown in one of the Buddhist temples, where it is an object of special
veneration. Before quitting the Lamasery, Khang-Hi endowed it with a
yearly revenue, for the support of 350 Lamas.

The fame of Kounboum, due in the first instance to the celebrity of
Tsong-Kaba, is now maintained by the excellent discipline of the
Lamasery, and the superiority of its teaching. Its Lamas are deemed
students throughout their lives, for religious knowledge is reputed
inexhaustible. The students are distributed into four sections, or
faculties, according to the nature of the special studies to which they
desire to apply themselves. 1. The Faculty of Mysticism, which
comprehends the rules of contemplative life, and the examples exhibited
in the career of the Buddhist saints. 2. The Faculty of Liturgy,
comprising the study of religious ceremonies, with the expounding of all
that appertains to Lamanesque worship. 3. The Faculty of Medicine, which
applies itself to the four hundred and forty maladies of the human frame,
to medical botany, and to the pharmacopoeia. 4. The Faculty of Prayers,
the most esteemed of all, the best paid, and, as a matter of course, the
most numerous.

The voluminous works which serve as the basis of instruction in prayers,
are divided into thirteen series, which represent, as it were, so many
degrees in the hierarchy. The place which each student occupies in the
schoolroom and the temple service, depends upon the series of theological
works through which he has passed. Among the Lamas, you see old men
proclaiming, by their low position in the hierarchy, their idleness or
incapacity; and, on the other hand, mere yout