enter a large fore-
court, at the extremity of which a colossal gateway leads into the
inner courts. Under the archway of this portico are two War Gods,
each eighteen feet high, in menacing attitudes, and with horribly
distorted features. They are placed there to prevent evil spirits
from entering. A second similar portico, under which are the four
Celestial Kings, leads into the inmost court, where the principal
temple is situated. The interior of the temple is 100 feet in
length, and 100 feet in breadth. The flat roof, from which hang a
number of glass chandeliers, lamps, artificial flowers, and silk
ribbons, is supported upon several rows of wooden pillars, while the
multitude of statues, altars, flower-pots, censers, candelabra,
candlesticks, and other ornaments, involuntarily suggest to the mind
of the spectator the decoration of a Roman Catholic church.

In the foreground are three altars, and behind these three statues,
representing the God Buddha in three different aspects: the past,
the present, and the future. These figures, which are in a sitting
posture, are of colossal dimensions.

We happened to visit the temple just as service was being performed.
It was a kind of mass for the dead, which a mandarin had ordered for
his deceased wife. At the right and left altars were the priests,
whose garments and gesticulations also resembled those of the Roman
Catholics. At the middle altar was the mandarin, piously engaged in
prayer, while two stood beside him, fanning him with large fans.
{104} He frequently kissed the ground, and every time he did so,
three wax tapers were presented to him, which he first elevated in
the air, and then gave to one of the priests, who placed them before
a statue of Buddha, but without lighting them. The music was
performed by three men, one of whom twanged a stringed instrument,
while the second struck a metal globe, and the third played the
flute.

Besides the principal temple there are various smaller ones, and
halls, all adorned with statues of gods. Especial honour is paid to
the twenty-four Gods of Pity, and to Kwanfootse, a demi-god of War.
Many of the former have four, six, and even eight arms. All these
divinities, Buddha himself not excepted, are made of wood, gilt
over, and painted with glazing colours.

In the Temple of Mercy we met with an adventure which was nearly
attended with unpleasant consequences. A priest, or bonze, handed
us some little tapers