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They returned haughtily, That all the country reverenced the great Cham-Chi-Thaungu, who dwelt in the son, and no mortal would have dared to offer violence to his image, but some Christian miscreant; so they called them, it seems; and they therefore denounced war against him, and all the Russians, who, they said, were miscreants and Christians.
If the Tartars had their Cham-Chi-Thaungu for a whole village, or country, these had idols in every hut and every cave; besides, they worship the stars, the sun, the water, the snow; and, in a word, every thing that they do not understand, and they understand but very little; so that almost every element, every uncommon thing, sets them a-sacrificing.
But it did not end so; for the next day came a great multitude of the country people, not only of this village, but of a hundred more, for aught I know, to the town-gates; and in a most outrageous 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.
In this posture we encamped for the night; but the enemy was upon us before we had finished our situation: they did not come on us like thieves, as we expected, but sent three messengers to us, to demand the men to be delivered to them, that had abused their priests, and burnt their god Cham-Chi-Thaungu, that they might burn them with fire; and, upon this, they said, they would go away, and do us no farther harm, otherwise they would burn us all with fire.
So he takes his bow and arrows, and, getting on horseback, he rides away from our rear directly, as it were, back to Nertzinskay; after this, he takes a great circuit about, and comes to the army of the Tartars, as if he had been sent express to tell them a long story, that the people who had burnt their Cham-Chi-Thaungu were gone to Sibeilka, with a caravan of miscreants, as he called them; that is to say, Christians; and that they were resolved to burn the god Seal Isarg, belonging to the Tonguses.
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