old astronomical religion of India, Chaldea, and Egypt, without understanding the idea it embodied.

According to the statements of Jesuit missionaries in China, the doctrine of the transmigration of souls sometimes manifests itself in singular results. Father Le Comte says: "One day two priests of Fo passing the dwelling of a rich peasant saw three large ducks before the door. They immediately stopped before the house and began to weep bitterly. The peasant's wife came out to inquire the cause of their grief. They replied: 'We know that the souls of our fathers have passed into those creatures, and the fear that you may kill them renders us wretched.' The woman promised they should be carefully tended, and neither killed nor sold. But they answered: 'Perhaps your husband may not be so compassionate as you are; and if any accident should happen, it would be a great affliction to us.' After some further conversation, the woman felt such sympathy with their filial anxiety, that she gave them the ducks."

The same writer says: "They called upon me one day to baptize a sick person, an old man of seventy, who lived upon a small pension given him by the emperor. When I entered his room, he said: 'I thank you, Father, that you are going to deliver me from a heavy punishment.' I replied: 'That is not all. Baptism not only saves people from hell, but conducts them to a life of blessedness.' 'I do not comprehend what you say,' rejoined the invalid; 'and perhaps I have not sufficiently explained myself. I have for some time past lived on the emperor's benevolence. The priests, who are well acquainted with what happens to the soul after death, assure me that I shall be obliged to repay the emperor's generosity by becoming a post-horse to bring despatches from the provinces to court. They exhort me to perform my duty well, when I assume this new form of being, and to take care not to stumble, or wince, or bite. They tell me if I travel well, eat little, and am patient, I may by that means excite the compassion of the deities, who often convert a good beast into a man

of quality, and make him a considerable Mandarin. I cannot think of all this without trembling. Sometimes I dream that I am harnessed, and ready to set out at the first stroke of the rider. I then wake in a sweat, and am very unhappy, not being able to determine whether I am a man or a horse. Alas! what will become of me, when I shall be a horse in reality? They tell me, Father, that people of your religion are not subject to such miseries; that men continue to be men in the next world, as they are in this. I beseech you to receive me among you. I am ready to embrace your religion; for, whatever it may cost me, I had rather be a Christian than become a beast." The Jesuit Father baptized him, and the poor old man departed from this life happy in the belief that he should not be obliged to reappear on earth in the form of a posthorse.

In some places assemblies of women are held, to perform certain religious ceremonies as a preparation for death. A venerable old priest comes to preside over the meeting. He arranges the sacred images, and covers the walls of the house with paintings representing the various torments of . the wicked after they leave the body. He sings anthems to Fo, while the women strike small kettles at intervals, and devoutly repeat the names of Omi-to and Fo. These festivals continue seven days, during which their principal care is to prepare and consecrate treasures for the other world. They build small houses with paper, and fill them with a great number of boxes painted and gilded. In these boxes they put hundreds of little rolls of gold and silver paper. They secure them with padlocks of paper, and fasten the house carefully. When the person who made the house dies, they burn it, with all its chests and keys, with many solemn ceremonials, for which the priests are paid. They believe the house will become a real house in the other world, and the rolls of paper will become genuine ingots of gold and silver. In the house they expect to reside, and with the treasures they hope to propitiate the eighteen guardians of souls in the regions of the dead.

With a view to laying up a store of religious merit, they repeat many prayers, and make many genuflexions before images; for the due performance of which the priests give them sealed certificates, varying in price, according to circumstances. These certificates are placed in a box, which is sealed up when the person dies, and is carried to the funeral with much ceremony. They call it Lou-in, which signifies a passport for travelling from one world to another.

They annually publish astronomical calculations of the motions of the planets, for every hour and minute of the year. They consider it important to be very exact, because the hours, and even the minutes, are lucky or unlucky, according to the aspect of the stars. Some days are considered peculiarly fortunate for marrying, or beginning to build a house; and the gods are better pleased with sacrifice offered at certain hours, than they are with the same ceremony performed at other times.

The doctrines of Fo, and the ritual of his worship, are contained in an old book, called Kio, which his numerous followers receive as sacred. An immense number of commentaries have been written upon it. It is said there is likewise a very ancient book in China, called Yekim, attributed to Fo himself; but it is written in hieroglyphics, and cannot be deciphered. All their holy books, and religious formulas, are written in a sacred language, called Pali, bearing a very close resemblance to the Sanscrit.

It is supposed to have been about four hundred years after the Christian era, that a holy hermit went from India and established himself on a mountain in Central Thibet, thenceforth called Bouddha La, which signifies the Mountain of Bouddha. He soon attracted numerous disciples, who listened reverently to his teachings. Such was his reputation for holiness, that after his death the belief prevailed that he was Bouddha himself, who had again descended from Paradise, and assumed the form of a pious VOL. I.-19*

anchorite, in order to effect the salvation of the people of Thibet. He taught them their forms of prayer, and left them a book called, "The Body of Doctrine," ascribed to Bouddha, and also some works of his own, which are held in great veneration. These, and all the other Sacred Books of Eastern Asia, are written in a modification of Sanscrit.

The worship of Bouddha remained confined to the region about Bouddha La until six hundred and twentynine years after Christ, when prince Srong Dsan Gambo, the founder of Thibetian greatness, married a princess of China, and a princess of Nepal, both educated in that religion. They brought with them images of Fo, Sacred Books and relics, and caused a great number of temples and buildings for devotees to be erected. The king estab lished himself on the sacred mountain, called Bouddha La, around which soon grew up the city of Lassa, the present capital of Thibet. This popular prince, who had achieved so much for the prosperity of his country, was believed to be the identical old saint, who more than two hundred years before had taught on Bouddha La, and who had now come back again into a human body, to establish his religion permanently in Thibet. Sects arose in opposition to the new doctrines, either from attachment to some older form of faith, or from jealousy of the priestly power. Once the new religion was nearly overturned in a civil war between two rival brothers, contending for the throne, one in favour of Buddhism, and the other opposed to it. It suffered various vicissitudes until the close of our eleventh century, when a son of the reigning monarch became a devotee of that religion, and his father made him Superior of a monastery built for him. He afterward succeeded to the throne, and was the first one in that country who united in himself the offices of High Priest and King. He also was declared to be the renowned old hermit of Bouddha La, who had reappeared on earth yet again to govern his beloved Thibet.

This was the origin of that form of Buddhism called

Lamaism. Lama means Pastor of Souls, and is the name applied to all the priests. Dalai Lama, or Grand Lama, means the Great Pastor, the Supreme Pontiff, who is at the head of all ecclesiastical and civil affairs in Thibet. The highest object of worship is Shigemooni, which is their variation of the name of Bouddha Sakia Mouni. The next is his disciple, the famous old hermit of Bouddha La, whose soul is supposed to be regularly transmitted through the succeeding Grand Lamas of Thibet, to watch over the people, whom he loved so well that he left Paradise to instruct them in the true religion. When the Grand Lama dies, it is necessary to ascertain into what body his soul has passed. This can be done only by other Lamas, who fast and pray, and perform various ceremonies, to be guided aright. Those who think there are signs of his having appeared in their family, give information of it to the proper ecclesiastical authorities. The names of the candidates are written on little golden fish, which are shaken in an urn, and the first one taken out is proclaimed Grand Lama. He is carried to Lassa in triumphal procession, all the people prostrating themselves before him as he passes along. Disputes have sometimes arisen concerning the succession, and in some cases there have been bloody wars, causing the destruction of whole villages. But the belief remains. deeply rooted that the immortal head of the church, by miraculous transmission of his soul, is always visibly present in the person of the Grand Lama, who is both pope and king. He is regarded as the vicegerent of God, with power to dispense divine blessings on whomsoever he will, either directly, or through the medium of subordinate Lamas. It is said fountains will flow at his command, even in the most parched deserts; that flowers spring up wherever his feet have passed, and that his person exhales celestial fragrance. He is supposed to see and know everything, even in the deepest recesses of the heart, so that he never has occasion to inquire on any subject. He is called, "The Immaculate," "The active Creator and Governor of the present World," "He who has clair