haved
decently, evidently belonged to Chinese Buddhists, _ho-shang_; in Kublai's
time they had two monasteries in Shangtu, in the north-east and north-west
parts of the town." (_Palladius_, 29.) Rubruck (_Rockhill's_ ed. p. 145)
says: "All the priests (of the idolaters) shave their heads, and are
dressed in saffron colour, and they observe chastity from the time they
shave their heads, and they live in congregations of one or two
hundred."--H. C.]

[Illustration: Monastery of Lamas.]

NOTE 14.--There were many anomalies in the older Lamaism, and it
permitted, at least in some sects of it which still subsist, the marriage
of the clergy under certain limitations and conditions. One of Giorgi's
missionaries speaks of a Lama of high _hereditary_ rank as a spiritual
prince who marries, but separates from his wife as soon as he has a son,
who after certain trials is deemed worthy to be his successor. ["A good
number of Lamas were married, as M. Polo correctly remarks; their wives
were known amongst the Chinese, under the name of _Fan-sao_." (_Ch'ue keng
lu_, quoted by _Palladius_, 28.)--H. C.] One of the "_reforms_" of
Tsongkhapa was the absolute prohibition of marriage to the clergy, and in
this he followed the institutes of the oldest Buddhism. Even the _Red
Lamas_, or unreformed, cannot now marry without a dispensation.

But even the oldest orthodox Buddhism had its Lay brethren and Lay sisters
(_Upasaka_ and _Upasika_), and these are to be found in Tibet and Mongolia
( _Voues au blanc_, as it were). They are called by the Mongols, by a
corruption of the Sanskrit, _Ubashi_ and _Ubashanza_. Their vows extend to
the strict keeping of the five great commandments of the Buddhist Law, and
they diligently ply the rosary and the prayer-wheel, but they are not
pledged to celibacy, nor do they adopt the tonsure. As a sign of their
amphibious position, they commonly wear a red or yellow girdle. These are
what some travellers speak of as the lowest order of Lamas, permitted to
marry; and Polo may have regarded them in the same light.

(_Koeppen_, II. 82, 113, 276, 291; _Timk._ II. 354; _Erman_, II. 304;
_Alph. Tibet._ 449.)

NOTE 15.--[Mr. Rockhill writes to me that "bran" is certainly Tibetan
_tsamba_ (parched barley).--H. C.]

NOTE 16.--Marco's contempt for _Patarins_ slips out in a later passage
(Bk. III. ch. xx.). The name originated in the eleventh century in
Lombardy, where it came to be applied to the "heretics," otherwi