to bend their
steps, in search of knowledge at the fountain-head; resolved to visit
Thibet, and to attack Buddhism in its very stronghold, Lha-Ssa. To this
change in their original plan, we owe the most interesting portion of
these travels. Although they made no secret of their intentions of
proselytism, they were received in all the Lama-houses as
fellow-laborers in the field of religious instruction, and as such
became initiated into all the habits of Lamanist life. One cannot help
reflecting how different would be the reception of Lamas, who should
visit Rome, with the avowed purpose of converting the subjects of His
Holiness to Buddhism. The details given by M. Huc on Lamanism in general
are more complete than any we remember to have read, and are given with
a natural piquancy rarely to be met with in writers on such grave
subjects.

Tartary is, perhaps, of all the countries in the world, the most
priest-ridden; the Lamas forming, it is said, one-third of the entire
population. In most families, with the exception of the eldest son, who
remains "a black man," all the sons are Lamas. Their future destiny is
decided from the very cradle, by the fact of their parents causing their
heads to be shaved. As they are vowed to celibacy, it is probable that
Chinese policy has favored the natural bias of the people towards a
religious life, in order to arrest the progress of population. Certain
it is, that while the government of Pekin suffers its own bonzes and
priests to remain in the most abject condition, it has always honored
and encouraged Lamaism in Tartary and Thibet. The remembrance of the
exploits of their ancestors is not yet extinct beneath the tents of the
Moguls, and legends of conquest and traditions of empire still serve to
wile away the long leisure hours of their roving life. Notwithstanding
two centuries of peace, and the enervating influence of Chinese
misgovernment, if an appeal were made to Tartar fanaticism, hordes might
yet pour down from the vast country, extending from the frontiers of
Siberia to the farthest limits of Thibet, which would make the Celestial
Emperor tremble on his throne in Pekin. The spread of Lamaism is the
best safeguard against such a contingency, and the empty honors paid by
the sceptic and worldly Chinese to the different Grand Lamas, have no
other motive than a desire to appease the susceptibility of the Tartar
tribes. The Lamas are divided into three classes: those that remain