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127 smugglers; for the bishop perceived that if the most rigorous watch had been kept at the great gates it would be easy to cross the wall in the mountains, or through the numerous breaches which time had made. Thus arrived, after long wanderings in Tartary, Bruguières chose for his residence the village of Sivang, which he found chiefly inhabited by native Christians. Though the latitude was not more than forty-two degrees north, he found the climate more cold than that of Poland. Chafing dishes had to be kept beside the altars, and the wine at the communion-table was kept in a vessel of warm water; but despite all those precautions, it would frequently be found frozen. His long fatigues and privations, had brought him to a poor bishopric indeed. The soil was poor, the harvests frequently failed, and famines were common. Nor were the manners of his flock calculated to please the senses of the poor bishop, accustomed to the civilised life of his own country. The greater part of the two castes of Tartars he found professing Lamism. The first of these, the Manchews, were a filthy race, who wiped their hands, dripping with grease, in their cloaks, to show that they could afford to eat meat. When one of his Manchew friends wished to compliment a host or guest, he took a huge bone and gnawed it all round, and then handed it to his friend, who gnawed it in turn. At the end of the repast the Tartar guest wiped his fingers in his host's robe, drawing a streak of grease from his head to his heel; and the rules of politeness established in the country required the host to reciprocate his delicate attention. Such was the kind of society to which the poor bishop voluntarily condemned