604 DESTRUCTION OF CHAM-CIIN-THAUNQGU,

and mouth full of gunpowder; and then we wrapped up a great
piece of wild-fire in his bonnet; and then, sticking all the com-
hustibles we had brought with us upon him, we looked about to
see if we could find anything else to help to burn him, when my
man remembered that by the tent or hut where the men were
there lay a heap of dry forage, whether straw or rushes I do not
remember, Away he and one of the Scotsmen ran, and fetched
their arms full of that. When we had done this, we took all our
prisoners, and brought them, having untied their feet and un-
gagged their mouths, and made them stand up, and set them just
before their monstrous idol, and then set fire to the whole.

We stayed by it a quarter of an hour, or thereabouts, till the
powder in the eyes, and mouth, and ears of the idol blew up, and,
we could perceive, had split and deformed the shape; and, in a
word, till we saw it burn into a mere block or log of wood: and
then, setting the dry forage to it, we found it would be quite
consumed, when we began to think of going away. But the
Scotsman said, No, we must not go; for these poor deluded
wretches will all throw themselves into the fire, and burn them-
selves with the idol.” So we resolved to stay till the forage was
burned down too, and then we came away and left them.

In the morning we appeared among our fellow-travellers, ex-
ceedingly busy in getting ready for our journey; nor could any nan
suggest that we had been anywhere but in our beds, as travellers
might be supposed to be, to fit themselves for the fatigue of that
day’s journey.

But it did not end so. The next day came a great multitude
of the country-people, not only of this village, but of a hundred
more, for ought I know, to the town-gates, and, in a most out-
rageous manner, demanded satisfaction of the Russian governor
for the insulting their priests, and burning their great Cham-Chi-
Thaungu; such a hard name they gave the monstrous creature they
worshipped. The people of Nortsinskoy were, at first, in a great
consternation ; for they said, the Tartars were no less than thirty
thousand, and that in a few days more would be one hundred
thousand strong.

The Russian governor sent out messengers to appease them, and