so before, the monks
had been killed out by some fierce tribe who lived beyond the desert and
across the distant mountains, which tribe were heretics and worshippers
of fire. Only a few of them escaped to bring the sad news to other
communities, and for five generations no attempt was made to re-occupy
the place.

At length it was revealed to him, our friend Kou-en, when a young man,
that he was a re-incarnation of one of the old monks of this monastery,
who also was named Kou-en, and that it was his duty during his present
life to return thither, as by so doing he would win much merit and
receive many wonderful revelations. So he gathered a band of zealots
and, with the blessing and consent of his superiors, they started out,
and after many hardships and losses found and took possession of the
place, repairing it sufficiently for their needs.

This happened about fifty years before, and here they had dwelt ever
since, only communicating occasionally with the outside world. At first
their numbers were recruited from time to time by new brethren, but
at length these ceased to come, with the result that the community was
dying out.

"And what then?" I asked.

"And then," the abbot answered, "nothing. _We_ have acquired much merit;
we have been blest with many revelations, and, after the repose we have
earned in Devachan, our lots in future existences will be easier. What
more can we ask or desire, removed as we are from all the temptations of
the world?"

For the rest, in the intervals of their endless prayers, and still more
endless contemplations, they were husbandmen, cultivating the soil,
which was fertile at the foot of the mountain, and tending their herd of
yaks. Thus they wore away their blameless lives until at last they died
of old age, and, as they believed--and who shall say that they were
wrong--the eternal round repeated itself elsewhere.

Immediately after, indeed on the very day of our arrival at the
monastery the winter began in earnest with bitter cold and snowstorms
so heavy and frequent that all the desert was covered deep. Very soon it
became obvious to us that here we must stay until the spring, since
to attempt to move in any direction would be to perish. With some
misgivings we explained this to the abbot Kou-en, offering to remove to
one of the empty rooms in the ruined part of the building, supporting
ourselves with fish that we could catch by cutting a hole in the ice of
the lake above t