'm a man and you're a cow,
I'll eat you as you eat me now.

Fire Worshippers.--Mazdeism, the religion of Zoroaster, based upon the
worship of fire, and in that sense not altogether unfamiliar to the
Chinese, reached China some time in the seventh century A.D. The first
temple was built at Ch'ang-an, the capital, in 621, ten years after
which came the famous missionary, Ho Lu the Magus. But the lease of life
enjoyed by this religion was of short duration.

Islamism.--Mahometans first settled in China in the year of the Mission,
A.D. 628, under Wahb-Abi-Kabcha, a maternal uncle of Mahomet, who was
sent with presents to the Emperor. The first mosque was built at Canton,
where, after several restorations, it still exists. There is at present
a very large Mahometan community in China, chiefly in the province of
Yunnan. These people carry on their worship unmolested, on the sole
condition that in each mosque there shall be exhibited a small tablet
with an inscription, the purport of which is recognition of allegiance
to the reigning Emperor.

Nestorians.--In A.D. 631 the Nestorian Church introduced Christianity
into China, under the title of "The Luminous Doctrine;" and in 636
Nestorian missionaries were allowed to settle at the capital. In 781
the famous Nestorian Tablet, with a bilingual inscription in Chinese and
Syriac, was set up at Si-ngan Fu, where it still remains, and where it
was discovered in 1625 by Father Semedo, long after Nestorianism had
altogether disappeared, leaving not a rack behind.

Manichaeans.--In A.D. 719 an ambassador from Tokharestan arrived at
the capital. He was accompanied by one Ta-mou-she, who is said to have
taught the religion of the Chaldean Mani, or Manes, who died about A.D.
274. In 807 the Manichaean sect made formal application to be allowed
to have recognised places of meeting; shortly after which they too
disappear from history.

Judaism.--The Jews, known to the Chinese as those who "take out the
sinew," from their peculiar method of preparing meat, are said by some
to have reached China, and to have founded a colony in Honan,
shortly after the Captivity, carrying the Pentateuch with them. Three
inscriptions on stone tablets are still extant, dated 1489, 1512, and
1663, respectively. The first says the Jews came to China during the
Sung dynasty; the second, during the Han dynasty; and the third, during
the Chou dynasty. The first is probably the correct account. We know
that