,
and the number of its resident Lamas. He is moreover
interrogated concerning the habits of the defunct Grand Lama,
and the principal particulars of his death. After all these
questions, prayer-books, tea-pots, cups, utensils, and things
of all kinds, are placed before him, and he is expected to
designate those which belonged to him during his preceding
life.

In general, the child, who is rarely more than five or six
years old, comes out triumphant from all these trials; replies
correctly to all the questions that are put to him; and makes,
without hesitation, the inventory of his former furniture.
"This," he says, "is the prayer-book I was in the habit of
using; here is the painted cup in which I used to drink tea,"
and so on through the whole list.

The Tartars are, undoubtedly, often the dupes of those who are
interested in making a Grand Lama of the brat. We think,
however, that often the affair is conducted on both sides with
perfect simplicity and good faith. From all we gathered from
persons most worthy of belief, it appears certain that the
wonders related of the Chaberons cannot be attributed to
juggling or delusion. A purely human philosophy would,
doubtless, reject such facts, or unhesitatingly lay them to the
charge of Lamaist imposture. We--catholic missionaries--think
that the great liar who deceived our first parents in Paradise,
prosecutes on earth his system of falsehood. He who was potent
enough to sustain Simon Magus in the air, may well speak in the
present day by the mouth of a child, in order to confirm the
belief of his worshippers.

As our duties are those of the critic, and not those of the inquisitor,
we will not stop to inquire how far the slightly Manichean doctrine
implied in the concluding remark of M. Huc is received as orthodox by
the Gallican Church; but, as a general observation, we may say, that
there seems no reason why, with such a method of accounting for
miracles, any should be disbelieved; nor do we understand how, under
this system, any miracles can be adduced as a proof of the truth of any
religion. Surely, since the days of the Scribes and Pharisees, no enemy
of Christianity ever attacked it more radically than by attributing the
power of miracles to Beelzebub, the prince of the devils! M. Huc reminds
us of a preacher whom we once he