hs elevated, by their
application and their ability, to the highest ranks.

In order to obtain a degree in the Faculty of Prayers, all that is
required from the student is to recite, without stopping, the books he
has been directed to study. When he believes himself quite up, he gives
intimation of this belief to the Grand Lama of prayers, in the form of a
rich khata, a dish of raisins, and some ounces of silver, in ingots, the
amount depending upon the degree at which he aims; he also makes presents
to the Lama examiners. Although it is, of course, perfectly understood
that the judges are incorruptible, yet at Kounboum, as elsewhere, people
do say that a few offerings to the academy are not without their effect
at an examination. Men are men everywhere!

Before the principal temple of the Lamasery, there is a large square
court, paved with broad stones, and surrounded with twisted columns,
covered with coloured sculptures. It is in this enclosure that the Lamas
of the Faculty of Prayers assemble at the lecture hour, which is
announced to them by the sound of a marine conch; here they sit,
according to their rank, upon the bare stones, undergoing, in winter, the
cold, the frost, and the snow; and in summer, the rain and the sun's
heat. The professors alone are under shelter; they sit upon a sort of
platform, covered with a tent. It is a singular spectacle to see all
these Lamas with their red scarfs and great yellow mitres, so huddled
together that you cannot see the flagstones on which they sit. After
some of the students have given out the lesson of the day, the
professors, in turn, give commentaries, vague and incomprehensible as the
text itself, but nobody makes any objection; the explanation is quite
near enough. Besides, the universal conviction is that the sublimity of
a doctrine is in exact proportion to its obscurity and its
unintelligibility.

The lesson generally concludes with a thesis, supported by a student
previously named for that purpose, and whom the other students are
entitled to question, upon whatever subject comes into their heads at the
time. There is nothing more preposterous than these theses, which nearly
remind one of those famous discussions of the schools in the middle ages,
where there were such furious argumentations _de omni re scibili_. At
Kounboum the rule is for the conqueror to mount on the shoulders of the
conquered, and to be carried by him in triumph right round the wal