e of admonition, or reclining in repose
emblematic of the blissful state of Nirwana, is placed in the dimmest
recess of the edifice. Here lamps cast a feeble light, and the air is
heavy with the perfume of flowers, which are daily renewed by fresh
offerings from the worshippers at the shrines.

[Sidenote: B.C. 289.]

In no other system of idolatry, ancient or modern, have the rites been
administered by such a multitude of priests as assist in the passionless
ceremonial of Buddhism. Fa Hian, in the fourth century, was assured by
the people of Ceylon that at that period the priests numbered between
fifty and sixty thousand, of whom two thousand were attached to one
wihara at Anarajapoora, and three thousand to another.[1]

[Footnote 1: FA HIAN, _Fo[)e] Kou[)e] Ki_, ch. xxxviii. p. 336, 350. At
the present day the number in the whole island does not probably exceed
2500 (HARDY'S _Eastern Monachism_, p. 57, 309). But this is far below
the proportion of the Buddhist priesthood in other countries; in Siam
nearly every adult male becomes a priest for a certain portion of his
life; a similar practice prevails in Ava; and in Burmah so common is it
to assume the yellow robe, that the popular expedient for effecting
divorce is for the parties to make a profession of the priesthood, the
ceremonial of which is sufficient to dissolve the marriage vow, and
after an interval of a few months, they can throw off the yellow robe
and are then at liberty to marry again.]

As the vow which devotes the priests of Buddha to religion binds them at
the same time to a life of poverty and mendicancy, the extension of the
faith entailed in great part on the crown the duty of supporting the
vast crowds who withdrew themselves from industry to embrace devotion
and indigence. They were provided with food by the royal bounty, and
hence the historical books make perpetual reference to the priests
"going to the king's house to eat,"[1] when the monarch himself set the
example to his subjects of "serving them with rice broth, cakes, and
dressed rice."[2] Rice in all its varieties is the diet described in the
_Mahawanso_ as being provided for the priesthood by the munificence of
the kings; "rice prepared with sugar and honey, rice with clarified
butter, and rice in its ordinary form."[3] In addition to the enjoyment
of a life of idleness, another powerful incentive conspired to swell the
numbers of these devotees. The followers and successors of Wijayo