CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CALMUCKS. 425 



times the priest is invited to give it the name which he finds in hia 

 book. Besides which, each Calmuck bears a certain sobriquet / fb: 

 example, badma, flower, narbo, jewel, etc. 



The Calmucks do not reckon their age from the time of their birth, 

 but by a peculiar calculation. Thus, the day of the new year (Novem- 

 ber 24th December 6th) being the general birthday, they reckon that 

 a child born, if only a few days before that day of the year, is two 

 years old. The Calmucks trouble themselves very little with the edu- 

 cation of their children. As soon as a child begins to walk, he is 

 abandoned to himself, and he habituates himself gradually, by his own 

 experience, to all the privations of a Calmuck existence. When ar- 

 rived at the age of eight years, the boy is sent to some priest to com- 

 mence his studies. These consist in learning to read and write and 

 endure for two or three years. The master is paid by means of pres- 

 ents received from the parents at the commencement and at the termi- 

 nation of the course. The girls of the Calmucks, as well of the poor 

 as of the rich, do not learn to read or to write. A girl having finished 

 her thirteenth, and the boy his fifteenth year, they convoke the near 

 relatives, and invite the priests. After a short prayer before the 

 idols, the boy or girl having attained majority is introduced, and 

 his or her hair clipped on the temples. From this moment they are 

 considered marriageable, and they shortly become betrothed. 



The religion of the Calmucks is Lamaic, or Buddhist. The doc- 

 trine of Buddha, undergoing corruption among the Calmucks from 

 generation to generation, consists at the present day of a most absurd 

 mixture of credences. 



According to their ideas, before the creation of the universe, there 

 existed an enormous abyss, which was 20,000,000 miles in depth, and 

 60,000,000 in breadth. From the bottom of this abyss there came out 

 golden clouds, which afterward condensed into a cloud charged with 

 lightning, and then melted into abundant rain, which formed the ocean. 

 This ocean was nearly 6,000,000 miles in length and 7,000,000 in 

 breadth. In time the winds gradually formed a great quantity of froth 

 on the surface of the ocean, and of this froth the continent was formed. 

 In the first place, there appeared the mountain Summer, which is more 

 than 200,000 miles in height. Upon the top of this gigantic mountain, 

 of which we only see the half, is found a vast plain. The mountain 

 itself has the form of a rock with four flanks. Each side of the moun- 

 tain has a different color : silvered on the side of the east, red on the 

 west, blue on the side of the south, and golden on that of the north. 

 Around the Summer are found four great islands, which form the four 

 parts of the world. The isle of the south is that which we inhabit ; 

 that of the east is peopled with men who live 150 years ; the isle of the 

 west, which abounds with cattle, is inhabited by giants ; lastly, the isle 

 of the north is peopled by peculiar beings they each live 1,000 years, 

 and the end of their lives is announced to them by an unknown voice. 



