be a little of both, but not quite all of either. The Chinaman loves preaching. He also loves history. He also loves history. He loves the two combined. And in every respectable town tea-shop of any size his tastes may be gratified most nights in the year. Having been once, the inevitable "to be continued in our next" at the more exciting parts-which phrase we seem to have imported without acknowledging its native home-urges him to come again.

"High Heaven and Great England'-weighty arguments! as weighty as any in the universe." "Foreign devils!" exclaims one reader, following the printed "barbarians," but the argument holds all the same. Truth is that which cannot be disproved. It is true. "The forces of heaven and earth are with them. Nay, the general is, to his own showing, a host in himself, a prodigy of scholarship, of adversity-proved determination, and of that valour which can afford to be sarcastic. His peroration is irresistible. We follow it heart and soul. The perfect peace' men, restorers of the Chinese dynasty, are the men for us. Yes, they are the men.”

"Of course we are!" exclaim several "Longhaired" who have mingled in the crowd. A good gospel indeed, and we hope you will feed us well while we are here."

Alas! The present practical application of the sermon means that all our ready money is fast going to feed a crowd of ravenous beings from other provinces, who are singularly unlike the "Heaven-king" as far as the relative prominence given to bodily necessities is concerned. It is a good gospel, but what preachers! We may support Buddhism, it is true. It is old-established and respectable, though the priest-beggar in our particular district is neither. But here comes the crowd again, clamouring for meat and wine. It is always festival with them.

We

"Yes," cries the leader, we want meat and wine. could only get rice and herbs at the monastery at Hanyang, though we killed the old man's pet pigs and chickens, and made him and his apprentices-three hundred of them-eat a morsel raw. What a menagerie there was!"

"

'You don't mean to say you have killed the animals

there!

One of them had the soul of my own grandmother

in it. O ancestors protect! O p'u-sah, protect!"

'Ha ha ha! I am sorry for your grandmother, but the p'u-sahs protecting, the abominations protecting! That's good. Do you know those eighteen images, the lohans,2 have promised to help us? Wood and mud idols are no good. Bronze will protect us, and the 'kingdom of heaven'

too. But quick, I say, with your wine. Not hot yet! The lohans were heavy, and it was hard work."

"What, have they gone?"

健康

"Yes, why not? Idols are false, but cannons and cash are true. Cannons and cash? Ah, now I feel a bit lively. Bronze idols do protect. Ha ha ha! We need them. They come to our help. Aha! What do I see? Your old

1 P'u-sah is the term used throughout the Empire for idols generally. It is cut down from P'u-ti-sa-to, a transliteration of the term Bodhisattva in its Pali form Bodhisatto (T. Watters, Essays on the Chinese Language).

2 These (eighteen) are generally called Buddha's immediate disciples, but of these only sixteen were disciples of the historical Buddha. The other two are not in all places the same, but Kumarajiva, the translator; and the Military Emperor, 502-550 of the Liang dynasty (already referred to in connection with the thousand character classic and the sympathy of the pines), seem to be popular additions. These lohan images are the "mandarins" of our grandfather's mantelpieces! (T. Watters).

special bronze family idol, ever so old? Well, it's cost you a lot of incense, candles, and crackers, and has been no use. It will protect you now, when we've altered it a bit. Ha! ha ha! Here men, a prize! But you, be quick and warm an extra pot of wine for me! I must have a good drink on the strength of this!"

Chapter X.

GODS MANY AND LORDS MANY.

TAOIST MARVELS TERRESTRIAL AND CELESTIAL-THE MAKING OF THE GODS-AN IMPROVEMENT ON NIRVANA-A GREAT STATESMAN DEGRADED INTO A LITTLE GOD-HEAVEN'S DECREE.

"The thousand and myriad gods are all about the same."

Chinese Proverb.

LIEU came back at early dawn after a rather long absence, long indeed to country folk when every day seemed an age. He brought a considerable "stock" with him. It needed two men to carry, and he himself was loaded with etceteras besides. The men were dismissed before anyone saw them. Lieu, indeed, arrived before his young hopeful was awake. Having aroused him, he told his son to be quick and help him in with the box or two. "Heavy!" exclaimed the lad. But a curse stopped any further remark. Once within, however, and the door barred, Lieu's spirits seemed to rise. He unloosened his girdle, and, to his son's surprise, displayed among his garments a yellow waistcoat trimmed with reddisplayed an inch or so of it, that is. This he hastily covered up again, then, seeing that his son looked curious, told him he had got a few old clothes as security for a debt, but he would kill him if he mentioned it.

Having adjusted his garments in an inner chamber, opening a large box and locking it, and trying the lid, he emerged, undid his lighter package or two, and opened shop.

The news he brought created great consternation, for he dealt in glaring colours and short suggestive sentences. It was not what had happened, however, so much as what might

be expected nearer home. The news of temple destruction, for instance, affected the priest by arousing his fears for the safety of the particular temple in which he earned a modest competency. Such fears were partly mollified by the increased custom which the terrors of the villagers brought him. But how long would that last?

As long as Lieu had a candle or cracker or stick of incense, perhaps ; for Lieu did his best to arouse the inquirers to the necessity of worship. Indirectly, of course, for it was not his to exhort men." But he could, by short, tantalising answers, arouse their fears to fever-point. Tsaitien being in imminent danger, he advised them not to go, there to inquire. They had better not go out of sight of their homes; the temple peak would form a good watch-tower, and so forth.

Folks came from all the villages to get news, and have a cup of wine, most of them going up the hill with a little yellow paper bundle, until the hillside paths, usually grassgrown, shone out like white serpents.

After a day or two, the news flew from mouth to mouth one afternoon that the "Longhaired" had come—at least a "Longhaired." This the traveller certainly was, and unshaven; but on closer inspection he proved to be nothing more formidable than a Taoist priest-pedlar. The utmost ignorance prevailed as to what the rebels were like, their usual costume and other such details, for Lieu was singularly ignorant and contradictory on these points.

But here was a Taoist who had news to relate. His first business, however, was business. He had come from Hunan, and had had a great sale of charms. He himself bore a charmed life. He had walked through rebel-invested parts apparently unseen, for amid carnage and bloodshed no one had molested him. A truly miraculous power lay in his charms. The special one which could render him unseen he was not at liberty to disclose. Moreover it only operated when danger was near. It had been communicated to his former venerable teacher by the "master of heaven," the Taoist pope himself, who lived away down in Kiangsi, ever so far, whose chair was closely curtained, so that he might not see the ox or sheep or pig from which the folks had