foot of the fall through a steep shady path, and secured some pictures of the scenery. The cataract takes a leap of about 500 feet and then gushes downwards over the cliffs and edges like the graceful folds of a bridal veil; while the variously coloured rocks are covered with ferns and flowering shrubs.
It was interesting to watch the monks at their refections ; and this we contrived to do without being noticed ourselves. We found them as a rule particular in observing those rules of Buddhism, by which the external semblance of cleanliness is enforced. * The following are some of the laws which regulate diet: —
The dinner of a priest consists of seven measures of rice mixed with flour, the tenth of a cubit of pastry, and nearly the same weight of bread. To eat more is cupidity, to eat less is parsimony; to eat vegetables of any kind besides these dishes is not permitted. ' '
The last injunction is by no means commonly followed in China: —
" Then the priest shall off'er to the good and bad spirits, and repeat five prayers. He must not speak about his dinner, nor steal food like a dog, nor scratch his head, nor breathe in his neighbour's face, nor speak with his mouth full, nor laugh, nor joke, nor smack in eating; and if he should happen to find an insect in his food he must conceal it so as not to create doubt in the minds of others. "
There are a host of other very good rules laid down for his guidance ; but their general tendency when observed is to make a monk 's dinner a most solemn and most unsocial event. When we look through the Buddhist laws and precepts, we find them so minute and so wide-reaching, that they hedge the priest
- Laws and Regulations of the Priesthood of Buddha, in China. Trans,
by C. F. Newmann.
