up sacrifices for the success of their predatory expeditions. It
is said that these brigands are in the revolting habit of eating the
hearts of their prisoners, in order to fortify their own courage; but,
for that matter, there is no monstrous practice which the Mongols of the
Koukou-Noor do not unhesitatingly attribute to these people.

The Kolos are divided into several tribes, each bearing a particular name
of its own; and it was only in the nomenclature of these tribes that we
ever, in this part of the world, heard of the Khalmouks, or Calmucks.
That which we, in Europe, ordinarily conceive to be Khalmoukia, is a
purely imaginary distinction; the Khalmouks are very far indeed from
enjoying, in Asia, the importance which our books of geography assign to
them. In the Khalmoukia of our imagining, no one ever heard of the
Khalmouks. It was a long time before we could even discover the
existence of the name at all; but, at last, we were lucky enough to meet
with a Lama who had travelled extensively in Eastern Thibet, and he told
us that among the Kolo, there is a small tribe called Kolo-Khalmouki. It
is just possible that at some former period the Khalmouks may have
enjoyed great importance, and have occupied a large extent of country;
but the great probability, at least, is, that it was the travellers of
the thirteenth century, who, relying upon some vague notions they had
picked up, represented this petty tribe to be a great nation.

Neither does the Koukou-Noor country itself merit the importance given to
it in our geographies: it occupies, in the maps, a far greater space than
it really possesses. Though comprising twenty-nine banners, its limits
are restricted: on the north it is bordered by Khilian-Chan, on the south
by the Yellow River, on the east by the province of Kan-Sou, on the west
by the river Tsaidam, where begins another Tartar country, inhabited by
tribes who bear the designation of Mongols of the Tsaidam.

According to the popular traditions of the Koukou-Noor, the Blue Sea did
not always occupy its present site: that great mass of water originally
covered, in Thibet, the place where the city of Lha-Ssa now stands. One
fine day it abandoned its immense reservoir there, and, by a subterranean
march, travelled to the place which now serves as its bed. The following
is the narrative of this marvellous event that was related to us.

In ancient times the Thibetians of the kingdom of Oui resolved to