lsion of the demon is first a matter of
medicine. The Lama physician next proceeds, as Lama apothecary, to give
the specific befitting the case; the Tartar pharmacopoeia rejecting all
mineral chemistry, the Lama remedies consist entirely of vegetables
pulverised, and either infused in water or made up into pills. If the
Lama doctor happens not to have any medicine with him, he is by no means
disconcerted; he writes the names of the remedies upon little scraps of
paper, moistens the papers with his saliva, and rolls them up into pills,
which the patient tosses down with the same perfect confidence as though
they were genuine medicaments. To swallow the name of a remedy, or the
remedy itself, say the Tartars, comes to precisely the same thing.

The medical assault of the usurping demon being applied, the Lama next
proceeds to spiritual artillery, in the form of prayers, adapted to the
quality of the demon who has to be dislodged. If the patient is poor,
the _Tchutgour_ visiting him can evidently be only an inferior
_Tchutgour_, requiring merely a brief, off-hand prayer, sometimes merely
an interjectional exorcism. If the patient is very poor, the Lama
troubles himself with neither prayer nor pill, but goes away,
recommending the friends to wait with patience until the sick person gets
better or dies, according to the decree of _Hormoustha_. But where the
patient is rich, the possessor of large flocks, the proceedings are
altogether different. First, it is obvious that a devil who presumes to
visit so eminent a personage must be a potent devil, one of the chiefs of
the lower world; and it would not be decent for a great _Tchutgour_ to
travel like a mere sprite; the family, accordingly, are directed to
prepare for him a handsome suit of clothes, a pair of rich boots, a fine
horse, ready saddled and bridled, otherwise the devil will never think of
going, physic or exorcise him how you may. It is even possible, indeed,
that one horse will not suffice, for the demon, in very rich cases, may
turn out, upon inquiry, to be so high and mighty a prince, that he has
with him a number of courtiers and attendants, all of whom have to be
provided with horses.

Everything being arranged, the ceremony commences. The Lama and numerous
co-physicians called in from his own and other adjacent monasteries,
offer up prayers in the rich man's tents for a week or a fortnight, until
they perceive that the devil is gone--that is to say, u