l Lamas there is, however, a certain number who
derive their livelihood from occupations which seem more comformable with
the spirit of a religious life, namely, the printing and transcribing the
Lamanesque books. Our readers are, perhaps, aware that the Thibetian
writing proceeds horizontally, and from left to right. Though the idiom
of the Lamas is alphabetical, much in the manner of our European
languages, yet they make no use of moveable type; stereotype printing on
wood is alone practised. The Thibetian books resemble a large pack of
cards; the leaves are moveable, and printed on both sides. As they are
neither sewn nor bound together, in order to preserve them, they are
placed between two thin boards, which are fastened together with yellow
bands. The editions of the Thibetian books printed at Kounboum are very
rude, the letters are sprawling and coarse, and in all respects very
inferior to those which emanate from the imperial printing press at
Peking. The manuscript editions, on the contrary, are magnificent; they
are enriched with illustrative designs, and the characters are elegantly
traced. The Lamas do not write with a brush like the Chinese, but use
little sticks of bamboo cut in the form of a pen; their inkstand is a
little copper box, resembling a jointed snuff-box, and which is filled
with cotton saturated with ink. The Lamas size their paper, in order to
prevent its blotting; for this purpose, instead of the solution of alum
used by the Chinese, they sprinkle the paper with water mixed with
one-tenth part of milk, a simple, ready, and perfectly effective process.

[Picture: Buddhic Prayer]

Sandara the Bearded did not belong to any of the classes of industrials
that we have enumerated; he had a business of his own, namely, that of
_taking_ in the strangers whom devotion or other motives brought to the
Lamasery. The Mongol-Tartars in particular afforded him profitable
employment in this way. On their arrival he would introduce himself in
the character of _cicerone_, and, thanks to the easy, seductive elegance
of his manners and conversation, he always managed to get engaged as
their man of business during their stay. At Kounboum itself Sandara's
reputation was by no means unequivocal. The better Lamas shunned him,
and some of them went so far as to give us a charitable hint not to
confide too much in his fine words, and always to keep an eye upon our
purse when in his