he people,
and is a never-failing refuge in sickness or worldly trouble. It is no
longer the subtle doctrine which was originally presented to the people
of India, but something much more clearly defined and appreciable by
the plainest intellect. Buddha is the saviour of the people through
righteousness alone, and Buddhist saints are popularly supposed to
possess intercessory powers. Yet reverence is always wanting; and crowds
will laugh and talk, and buy and sell sweetmeats, in a Buddhist temple,
before the very eyes of the most sacred images. So long as divine
intervention is not required, an ordinary Chinaman is content to neglect
his divinities; but no sooner does sickness or financial trouble come
upon the family, than he will hurry off to propitiate the gods.

He accomplishes this through the aid of the priests, who receive his
offerings of money, and light candles or incense at the shrine of the
deity to be invoked. Buddhist priests are not popular with the Chinese,
who make fun of their shaven heads, and doubt the sincerity of their
convictions as well as the purity of their lives. "No meat nor wine may
enter here" is a legend inscribed at the gate of most Buddhist temples,
the ordinary diet as served in the refectory being strictly vegetarian.
A tipsy priest, however, is not an altogether unheard-of combination,
and has provided more than one eminent artist with a subject of an
interesting picture.

Yet the ordeal through which a novice must pass before being admitted to
holy orders is a severe tax upon nerve and endurance. In the process of
a long ritual, at least three, or even so many as nine, pastilles are
placed upon the bald scalp of the head. These are then lighted, and
allowed to burn down into the skin until permanent scars have been
formed, the unfortunate novice being supported on both sides by priests
who encourage him all the time to bear what must be excruciating pain.
The fully qualified priest receives a diploma, on the strength of which
he may demand a day and a night's board and lodging from the priests of
any temple all over the empire.

At a very early date Buddhism had already taken a firm hold on the
imagination of Chinese poets and painters, the latter of whom loved to
portray the World-honoured One in a dazzling hue of gold. A poet of the
eighth century A.D., who realized for the first time the inward meaning
of the Law, as it is called, ended a panegyric on Buddhism with the
followin