The day on which the funeral is to be solemnized, all the relations and friends meet at the house of the deceased, dressed in mourning, who, together with the priests, form the funeral procession, which is attended with the images or pictures of men, women, elephants, tigers, etc., all destined to be burned for the benefit of the deceased. The priests, and those who are to read prayers or make a funeral panegyric, bring up the rear. Several persons march in the front, with brazen censers of a considerable size on their shoulders. The children of the deceased march directly after the corpse, on foot, leaning upon sticks, which is an expression-at least, an external one-of sorrow and concern. After the children come the wives and the more distant relations of the deceased, in a close litter. A great variety of ceremonies attends this procession, and it is accompanied with the sound of tymbals, drums, flutes, and other instrumental music. As soon as the coffin has advanced about thirty yards from the house, a considerable quantity of red sand is thrown upon it. Each family has a sepulchre belonging to it, which is erected on some little hill, or place adjacent, embellished with figures and other decorations, like those in the procession. At the interment prayers are offered, both vocally and by burning bits of paper containing appropriate words or inscriptions, and quantities of rice and corn, with some coin, are placed upon the filled grave or in the sepulchre.

Early in April there is a day specified in the imperial calendar when friends visit the graves of their ancestors, sweep and put them in order, burn incense and fasten strips of brown or yellow paper money upon the cement wall. Sometimes food and wine are offered and fire-crackers exploded.

MODERN CHINA.

Vast changes have been wrought in "the Flowery Kingdom" in modern times, by revolutions, by wars, by the adoption of many Western customs and ideas, and by the efforts of missionaries representing almost every creed of Christendom.

Missions were established there by Roman Catholic priests as long ago as the year 1240. Their good works met with serious impediments for many years, but the devoted fathers never lost heart in their service.

The evidence of the fathers in their reports to the Propaganda at Rome show plainly that, despite their unceasing efforts for the conversion of the Chinese, and although the numbers professing Christianity are large, it is a matter of impossibility to assert that one out of the thousands converted is a true Christian. The Chinese mind is so firmly imbued with superstitious fancies, their reverence for the manes of ancestors, their gross ignorance of subjects which are familiar to the foreign child from its infancy, all operate against the Celestial being ever thoroughly converted.

The records of the missions of every denomination show an apparent conversion of large numbers, but the sincerity of the so-called Christian Chinamen is seriously questioned by foreigners who have been long residents in the country. In 1875 an attempt was made to approximate the Roman Catholic population of the empire. Two authorities gave 300,000 and 700,000 respectively as fair estimates, which figures in themselves are evidences of strong uncertainty.

The leading Protestant denominations of the Old World and the aggressive churches of America, beside the devotees of the Russian Greek faith, have established missions and educational institutions in the larger cities, and in 1885 all were enjoying toleration, and attaining results, which, at least, gave them encouragement to enlarge the field of their operations. Doubtless much of the reputed regard for Christianity in the land of Confucius is owing to the training in the churches and Sunday-schools received by the Chinese who have come to the United States. From the time of the negotiation of the Burlingame treaty between China and the United States until Congress passed the bill restricting the number of immigrants by any one steamer to fifteen, the Chinese in the United States were devoted to the church and the Sunday-school. The Chinese government established an educational mission for its own people, in Hartford, Conn.,

with Yung Wing, who had graduated at Yale College in 1854, as Commissioner, and at one time it had 150 students. But in the last few years the aversion to the Chinaman on account of his active competition with the general laboring classes in the United States, became so strong that conflicts between the two bodies of working people were of frequent occurrence wherever the Chinamen had established themselves in considerable numbers. As a result of this feeling, no less than because of the legislation of the Federal government on the general subject of the Chinese in the United States, these people began to return home from San Francisco in 1885 in such numbers as to lead to the belief that this element would be speedily eliminated from the field of American labor.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PAGAN NATIONS.

The Japanese-Buddhism-Shintoism-Divinities and Festivals-Marriage and Funeral Ceremonies-The Introduction and Suppression of ChristianityThe "New Japan."

B

THE JAPANESE.

UDDHISM is one of the most noted religions of the world, because of the vast number of its followers. From India Proper, the country which gave it birth, it has almost entirely disappeared. On the other hand, it has become the religion of the great majority of the inhabitants of the high table-land to the north of the Himalaya, as far as the boundary of Siberia, and it is the prevailing creed of China, of the Peninsula of India beyond the Ganges, of Ceylon, and of several islands of the Indian Archipelago.

Until the great political revolution of 1869-'72, it was also the prevailing creed of Japan. But the new government was more in favor of the Shinto faith. Since the revolution, it has become common to speak of Old Japan and New Japan, the above period being the line of demarcation. The extraordinary change that has been wrought in the entire fabric of the national government, must be kept in mind when the religious systems that previously prevailed are described. Customs and ceremonies which had been observed with singular pertinacity were practically swept away in a night. In 1869 Buddhism was the chief religion. In 1871 the priests were informed that their temples would be closed, and that they must either enter the army as soldiers, or earn their own liv

ing in mechanical occupations. Late in the latter year it was observed that the gorgeous Buddhist temples were going to decay; that few worshippers were seen at the shrines, and few of their priests in the streets, and that the magnificent suits of chambers attached to almost every temple were utilized by the government according to its necessities, many being occupied as barracks, and others as schools.

The modernizing of the ancient empire will be alluded to more fully at the close of this chapter. For the present, the reader's attention is invited to the religious condition of the country previous to the revolution.

As before stated, the chief sects were the followers of Buddha and of Shinto. The former was introduced into Japan from China. To become a disciple of Buddha it was sufficient to declare a belief in him; but the neophyte had to shave his hair, to wear a cloak made of yellow rags, and to study under an older believer. No person could be admitted by a single member; it must be done in a general assembly. This assembly, of which Sakya was the chief, consisted of male and female mendicants, who bound themselves to perpetual chastity and poverty, and of believers who had not adopted any ascetic rule. From among the ascetics, however, were chosen the elders, according to their merit and seniority. The highest rank was that of the aryas, or those who had comprehended the four axioms which are the foundation of the Buddhist doctrine; that is, 1, that there exists pain; 2, that all that is born in this world suffers pain; 3, that it is necessary to liberate ourselves from it; and 4, that knowledge alone offers the means of this deliverance. Transmigration, attaching rewards to good acts and punishments to bad, leads to the notion of expiation, which ought to be effected by the performance of good actions; but the only form which it receives in practice is confession, and this was instituted by Sakya himself.

The worship of Buddhism is extremely simple. The ceremonies consist in offering flowers and perfumes, accompanied with instrumental music, hymns, and prayers. There were no bloody sacrifices, and the worship is, in fact, not addressed