[Illustration:  THE SCHOOLMASTER.]

Every lama carries with him a quantity of written prayers, which he reads or recites, and the oftener they are repeated the greater is their supposed efficacy.  Quantity is more important than quality, and to facilitate matters they frequently have a machine, which consists of a wheel containing a lot of prayers.  Sometimes it is turned by hand and sometimes attached to a wind-mill; the latter mode being preferred.

Abbe Hue and others have remarked a striking similarity between the Bhuddist and Roman Catholic forms of worship and the origin of the two religions.  Hue infers that Bhuddism was borrowed from Christianity; on the other hand, many lamas declare that the reverse is the case.  The question has caused a great deal of discussion first and last, but neither party appears disposed to yield.

The final stretch of road toward the Siberian frontier is across a sandy plain, six or eight miles wide.  On emerging from the hills at its southern edge the dome of the church in Kiachta appears in sight, and announces the end of Mongolian travel.  No lighthouse is more welcome to a mariner than is the view of this Russian town to a traveler who has suffered the hardships of a journey from Pekin.

[Illustration:  TAIL PIECE]

CHAPTER XXXIII.

The week I remained at Kiachta was a time of festivity from beginning to end.  I endeavored to write up my journal but was able to make little more than rough notes.  The good people would have been excusable had they not compelled me to drink so much excellent champagne.  The amiable merchants of Kiachta are blessed with such capacities for food and drink that they do not think a guest satisfied until he has swallowed enough to float a steamboat.

I found an excellent compagnon du voyage, and our departure was fixed for the evening after the dinner with Mr. Pfaffius.  A change from dinner dress to traveling costume was speedily made, and I was gotovey when my friend arrived with several officers to see us off.  About eight o’clock we took places in my tarantass, and drove out of the northern gate of Troitskosavsk.

My traveling companion was Mr. Richard Maack, Superintendent of Public Instruction in Eastern Siberia.  He was just finishing a tour among the schools in the Trans-Baikal province, and during fourteen years of Siberian life, he had seen a variety of service.  He accompanied General Mouravieff oil the first expedition down the Amoor, and wrote a detailed account of his journey.  Subsequently he explored the Ousuree in the interest of the Russian Geographical Society.  He said that his most arduous service was in a winter journey to the valley of the Lena, and along the shores of the Arctic Ocean.  The temperature averaged lower than in Dr. Kane’s hibernation on the coast of Greenland, and once remained at -60 deg. for nearly three weeks.  Of five persons comprising the party, Maack is the only survivor.  One of his companions fell dead in General Mouravieff’s parlor while giving his account of the exploration.