Akaye, in another side of the court, lodged a Lama of
Chinese origin, who was accordingly called the _Kitat-Lama_ (Chinese
Lama). Though seventy years old, he was in far better condition than
poor Akaye; for though his frame was somewhat bent, it was still
comfortably filled out; his face, replete with animation, was adorned
with a fine white beard, somewhat yellowish towards the extremity. The
Kitat-Lama was a man eminent among the Lama _savans_; he wrote and spoke
perfectly Chinese, Mongol, and Thibetian. During a long residence in
Thibet and in several kingdoms of Tartary, he had amassed a large
fortune; it was said that in his cell were several chests full of silver
ingots; yet his avarice continued of the most sordid character; he lived
wretchedly, and clothed himself in rags; he was always turning his head
about on one side or the other, like a man in perpetual fear of being
robbed. In Tartary he had been considered a Grand Lama, but in Kounboum,
where Lamanesque notables abound, he was merely one of the crowd. The
Kitat-Lama had with him a _Chabi_ (pupil) eleven years old, a sharp,
mischievous little vagabond, though with a good heart at bottom. Every
evening we heard him at high words with his master, who regularly
reproached him at night for the monstrous extravagances of the day, in
respect of too much butter, too much tea, too much oil, too much
everything.

Opposite the dwelling of the Kitat-Lama was the lodging of the two French
missionaries; and beside their apartment was a small cell, wherein
modestly dwelt a young student of medicine, in his second year. This
young Lama was a tall, broad-shouldered fellow of twenty-four, whose
dull, lead-coloured, fat face convicted him of effecting in his small
abode a very considerable consumption of butter. We never saw him poking
his nose from his hole without thinking of Fontaine's rat, which, out of
devotion, had retired into a great Dutch cheese. This young man was
afflicted with a convulsive stammering, which sometimes almost choked him
when he talked, and this infirmity, in rendering him timid and reserved,
had also, perhaps, contributed to develop in him a certain amiability of
manner and readiness to oblige. His great horror was the little Chabi,
who took a malicious pleasure in imitating his manner of speaking.

The portion of the court which faced the residence of old Akaye was
composed of a range of small kitchens, quite separate the one from the