when in June we reached the city of Ping
Yang. We found this place peculiarly interesting to us, with a
population noticeably different from the inhabitants of the seaport
towns, and we remained there perhaps a month. I spent a good deal of
time wandering about the town, looking at such examples of old bronzes,
embroideries, curious bits of jewelry, etc., as I could find in the
shops and bazaars, and I frequently had occasion to pass a small temple,
maintained by the Buddhists in one of the lower quarters of the town.
Not over half of the Chinese are Buddhists, as perhaps you may know, the
number of devotees of that religion being considerably greater in the
western and northwestern part of the empire, toward Thibet, from which
country the religion originally passed into China. This temple, of
which I speak, was a small one, but was notable because of the fact that
a portion of the bone of the little finger of Buddha was preserved, or
said to be preserved, among the relics of the shrine. I had frequently
observed the priest, who had charge of the temple, sitting sunning
himself outside its doorway as I passed, and on several occasions I had
dropped some coins into his hand with a salutation which would be
equivalent to our English good luck. One day when I was passing, I
remarked to one of my servants who was with me and who understood
English fairly well, that I was curious to see the interior of the
shrine, and he, after a conversation with the temple priest, informed me
that, if I wished it, there would be no objection to my doing so. I
thereupon entered and found myself in a gloomy chamber dimly illuminated
by several oil lamps hanging from the low ceiling. Around the walls of
the room hung some wonderful embroideries, which represented, so the
priest informed me, incidents in the life of Buddha. There were no
seats, of course, and the floor was of hard-packed clay. At the center
of the rear end of the room was a high wooden screen, elaborately
carved, and lacquered in dull red and gold. Through an opening in this
screen I perceived a large bronze figure of the Buddha, before which was
arranged, upon the low altar, a profusion of flowers and food, offerings
of the faithful to the deity. There were a number of small candles
burning before the bronze figure, and behind and beyond it I saw a small
room which evidently served as the living or sleeping chamber of the
temple priest. After he had shown me everything in the