the
purchases, and the discipline. The scribes keep the registers, and draw
up the regulations and orders which the governor Lama promulgates for the
good keeping and order of the Lamasery. These scribes are generally well
versed in the Mongol, Thibetian, and sometimes in the Chinese and
Mantchou languages. Before they are admitted to this employment, they
are obliged to undergo a very rigorous examination, in presence of all
the Lamas and of the principal civil authorities, of the country.

After this staff of superiors and officers, the inhabitants of the
Lamasery are divided in Lama-masters and Lama-disciples or Chabis; each
Lama has under his direction one or more Chabis, who live in his small
house, and execute all the details of the household. If the master
possesses cattle, they take charge of them, milk the cows, and prepare
the butter and cream. In return for these services, the master directs
his disciples in the study of the prayers, and initiates them into the
liturgy. Every morning the Chabi must be up before his master; his first
task is to sweep the chamber, to light a fire and to make the tea; after
that he takes his prayer-book, presents it respectfully to his master,
and prostrates himself thrice before him, without saying a single word.
This sign of respect is equivalent to a request that the lesson he has to
learn in the course of the day may be marked. The master opens the book,
and reads some pages, according to the capacity of his scholar, who then
makes three more prostrations in sign of thanks, and returns to his
affairs.

The Chabi studies his prayer-book, when he is disposed to do so, there
being no fixed period for that; he may spend his time, sleeping or
romping with the other young pupils, without the slightest interference
on the part of his master. When the hour for retiring to bed has
arrived, he recites the lesson assigned him in the morning, in a
monotonous manner; if the recitation is good, he is looked upon as having
done his duty, the silence of his master being the only praise he is
entitled to obtain; if, on the contrary, he is not able to give a good
account of his lesson, the severest punishment makes him sensible of his
fault. It often happens, that under such circumstances, the master,
laying aside his usual gravity, rushes upon his scholar, and overwhelms
him at once with blows and terrible maledictions. Some of the pupils,
who are over maltreated, run away and se