“We pray that we may receive from you a blessing. From among fat cattle we have chosen out meat for you. We have made strong tarasun (a liquor distilled from milk) for you. Let our ulus (villages) be one verst longer. Create cattle in our enclosures; under our blankets create a son; send down rain from high heaven to us; cause much grass to grow; create so much grain that sickle cannot rase it, and so much grass that scythe cannot cut it. Let no wolves out unless wolves that are toothless; and no stones unless stones without sharp corners or edges. Hover above our foreheads. Hover behind our heads. Look on us without anger. Help those of us who forget what we know. Rouse those of us who are sleeping (in spirit). In a harsh year (a year of trouble) be compassion. In a difficult year (a year of want) be kindness (in sense of help). Black spirits lead farther away from us; bright spirits lead hither, nearer; grey spirits lead farther away from us. Burkans lead hither to us. Green grass give in the mouths (of cattle). Let me walk over the first snow. If I am timid be my courage. If I am ashamed, be a proper face to me. Above be as a coverlid, below be as a felt bed to me.”—(“A Journey in Southern Siberia,” page 47.) After this prayer the worshippers all sat down in groups to eat the horse-flesh and drink tarasun, while many vultures hovered round to share the flesh. After this strange sacrifice is ended the Buriats indulge in wrestling. At Usturdi there is a Russian Orthodox Mission Church, and the Bible Society has undertaken to publish the Gospel of St. Matthew in the Buriat language. It seems strange that such uncivilised beings as those who would take part in the ceremonial described above, should be sufficiently literate to have a use for the Gospel; but it is estimated that all the Buriats in the north, and nearly all those in the south, will be able to read it. The population is about 290,000. The translation has been made by the Irkutsk Translation Committee, and is to be printed in Russ characters, as most of the Buriats are able to understand them. Mr. Curtin mentions a young Buriat whom he met as having studied six years at the Irkutsk gymnasium, and possessing a knowledge of history and science, besides being a considerable reader, so that evidently they are not uninfluenced by education.