ld
Of wondrous wisdom, profiting all flesh,
Who shall deliver men from ignorance,
Or rule the world, if he will deign to rule.'
In this wise was the holy Buddha born."

In Fig. 4, Plate xci., the same subject is also illustrated. Prof.
Fergusson, referring to it, says:

"Fig. 4 is another edition of a legend more frequently
repeated than almost any other in Buddhist Scriptures. It was,
with their artists, as great a favorite as the Annunciation
and Nativity were with Christian painters."[118:1]

When Buddha _avatar_ descended from the regions of the souls, and
entered the body of the Virgin Maya, her womb suddenly assumed the
appearance of clear, transparent crystal, in which Buddha appeared,
beautiful as a flower, kneeling and reclining on his hands.[118:2]

Buddha's representative on earth is the _Dalai Lama_, or _Grand Lama_,
the High Priest of the Tartars. He is regarded as the vicegerent of God,
with power to dispense divine blessings on whomsoever he will, and is
considered among the Buddhists to be a sort of divine being. He is the
Pope of Buddhism.[118:3]

The _Siamese_ had a Virgin-born God and Saviour whom they called
_Codom_. His mother, a beautiful young virgin, being inspired from
heaven, quitted the society of men and wandered into the most
unfrequented parts of a great forest, there to await the coming of a god
which had long been announced to mankind. While she was one day
prostrate in prayer, she was _impregnated by the sunbeams_. She
thereupon retired to the borders of a lake, between Siam and Cambodia,
where she was delivered of a "_heavenly boy_," which she placed within
the folds of a _lotus_, that opened to receive him. When the boy grew
up, he became a prodigy of wisdom, performed miracles, &c.[118:4]

The first Europeans who visited Cape Comorin, the most southerly
extremity of the peninsula of Hindostan, were surprised to find the
inhabitants worshiping a Lord and Saviour whom they called _Salivahana_.
They related that his father's name was Taishaca, but that he was _a
divine child horn of a Virgin_, in fact, an incarnation of the Supreme
_Vishnu_.[119:1]

The belief in a virgin-born god-man is found in the religions of China.
As Sir John Francis Davis remarks,[119:2] "China has her mythology in
common with all other nations, and under this head we must range the
persons styled _Fo-hi_ (or Fuh-he), _Shin-noong_, _Hoang-ty_ and their
immediate su