means that we must pass sundry incarnations in the
forms of animals, a horrible thing, so we chose the lesser evil and
gave way, and afterwards obtained absolution for our sins from the Great
Lama. Myself I did not see this queen, but I saw the priestess of their
worship--alas! alas!" and Kou-en beat his breast.

"Why alas?" I asked, as unconcernedly as I could, for this story
interested me strangely.

"Why? Oh! because I may have forgotten the army, but I have never
forgotten that priestess, and she has been a great hindrance to me
through many ages, delaying me upon my journey to the Other Side, to the
Shore of Salvation. I, as a humble Lama, was engaged in preparing her
apartment when she entered and threw aside her veil; yes, and perceiving
a young man, spoke to me, asking many questions, and even if I was not
glad to look again upon a woman."

"What--what was she like?" said Leo, anxiously.

"What was she like? Oh! She was all loveliness in one shape; she was
like the dawn upon the snows; she was like the evening star above the
mountains; she was like the first flower of the spring. Brother, ask me
not what she was like, nay, I will say no more. Oh! my sin, my sin. I am
slipping backward and you draw my black shame out into the light of day.
Nay, I will confess it that you may know how vile a thing I am--I whom
perhaps you have thought holy--like yourselves. That woman, if woman
she were, lit a fire in my heart which will not burn out, oh! and more,
more," and Kou-en rocked himself to and fro upon his stool while tears
of contrition trickled from beneath his horn spectacles, "_she made me
worship her!_ For first she asked me of my faith and listened eagerly as
I expounded it, hoping that the light would come into her heart; then,
after I had finished she said--"'So your Path is Renunciation and your
Nirvana a most excellent Nothingness which some would think it scarce
worth while to strive so hard to reach. Now _I_ will show you a more
joyous way and a goddess more worthy of your worship.'

"'What way, and what goddess?' I asked of her.

"'The way of Love and Life!" she answered, 'that makes all the world
to be, that made _you_, O seeker of Nirvana, and the goddess called
Nature!'

"Again I asked where is that goddess, and behold! she drew herself up,
looking most royal, and touching her ivory breast, she said, 'I am She.
Now kneel you down and do me homage!'

"My brethren, I knelt, yes, I kissed her foot