Hamilton’s account of .the east indies.

5°3

before, that file holds in a praying pofture. In every one of her hands (except the twothat are dedicated to prayer) {he bears fome thing emblematical, as an axe, a fword, aflower, &c. '.The great God that made the heavens and earth, they bellow an humanIhape on him, like a young man in ftrength and vigour, quite oppofite to the churchof Rome , who make his pifture like Salvadore winter, old, cold, and hoary. I havefeen many more whofe names I have forgot, fome with human bodies, and dragons,lions, tigers, and dogs heads, and one 1 faw like Stour Yonker in Finland , with aman’s body and clothes, and with eagles feet, and talons in ; the Head of hands.

The prieflhood are in no great efteem among the people, being generally of low'extract. They have many different orders among them, which are diftinguiflied bybadges, colour of habit, or fafhions of their capes. They are all obliged to celibacywhile they continue in orders, and that is no longer than they pleafe. But while theycontinue in orders, and flrould, or chance to be conviflred of fornication, they multexpiate the crime with their lives, except their high prieft, who is called Chiam, andhe always-keeps near the Emperor ’s perfon, and is in very great repute, and hehas liberty to marry, becaufe the high priefthood mull always continue in one family,as Aaron’s did for a long while, but not half fo long as it has been in this family,who has. kept up the cuftom above 1000 years fucceflively, without the intruflon ofinterlopers.

There are no perfons of figure or fortune that care to have their children confecratedto ferve at the altar, fo that the priefls who can have no iffue of their own, are obligedto buy novices of fuch mean perfons as neceffity forces to fell their children, and theirftudy being in the large legends of their divinity, and not having the benefit of con-verfation with men of letters or polity, they are generally ignorant of the affairs of theworld, which makes them contemptible among fo polite a people as the ingenious and.converfible Chinefe laity are.

Confucius , or as the Chinefe call him, Confuce, was the prince of their philofophers.He was near contemporary with Artaxerxes, Nehemiah , and Malachi, about 450 yearsbefore our Saviour Jefus Chrift. He both taught and pra&ifed moral philofophy toperfeftion, and acquired fo great a veneration among his countrymen, that his fentencesare taken for poftulata to this day, not one fince having offered to contradict any-thing that he has left behind in writing. They have another doctor of philofophycalled Tanfiw, who was almoft as ancient as Confucius , and wrote many excellenttrails of a virtuous life, and the methods to attain to it, but his character is inferior toConfucius ’s.

Their preachers take fome apophthegms out of thofe great mens writings, for texts tocomment and expatiate on. They live very abftemioufly, and rife early before day topray. Every temple has a cloifter or convent annexed to it, and has a certain ftipendallowed by the Emperor to fupport the priefts and novices, but they get much moreby letting of lodgings to travellers, who generally lodge in their cells, than the Em-peror ’s allowance. Befides, they have a genteel way of begging from ftrangers, bybringing tea and fweetmeats to regale them.

The Chinefe do not bury in or near their temples, but in the fields, and when abouzi or prieft tells a rich dying perfon, that fuch a piece of ground is holy, andthat the infernal fpirits have no power to haunt fuch ground, they will perfuadethe poor man that is diftempered both in body and mind, to buy it at any rate to beburied in, and foinetimes they will pay a thoufand tayels for ten yards fquare of fuchholy ground.

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