Part 2 (1/2)
What provedto us, however, was a diary in hans or abbots of the old Lareat detail Turning over the pages of one of the last volumes of this diary, written apparently about two hundred and fifty years earlier, and shortly before the destruction of the -for I can only quote from memory-is the substance- ”In the sureat sandstoret it) found in the desert a man of the people ell beyond the Far Mountains, of whom rumours have reached this La, but beside him were the bodies of two of his companions who had been overwhel He refused to say how he ca us only that he had followed the road known to the ancients before comathered, however, that his brethren hom he fled had committed some crime for which they had been condeht He told us that there was a fine country beyond the hts and earthquakes, which latter, indeed, we often feel here
”The people of that country were, he said, warlike and very nuriculture They had always lived there, though ruled by Khans ere descendants of the Greek king called Alexander, who conquered much country to the south-west of us This may be true, as our records tell us that about two thousand years ago an arh of his being with theer-man told us also that his people worshi+p a priestess called Hes or the Hesea, who is said to reign froreat mountain, apart, and is feared and adored by all, but is not the queen of the country, in the government of which she seldom interferes To her, however, sacrifices are offered, and he who incurs her vengeance dies, so that even the chiefs of that land are afraid of her Still their subjects often fight, for they hate each other
”We answered that he lied when he said that this woman was i is ihed at his tale of her power This ry Indeed he declared that our Buddha was not so strong as this priestess, and that she would show it by being avenged upon us
”After this we gave hi that when he returned we should learn who spoke the truth We do not knohat became of him, and he refused to reveal to us the road to his country, which lies beyond the desert and the Far Mountains We think that perhaps he was an evil spirit sent to frighten us, in which he did not succeed”
Such is a precis of this strange entry, the discovery of which, vague as it was, thrilled us with hope and excite more appeared about the man or his country, but within a little over a year from that date the diary of the abbot came to a sudden end without any indication that unusual events had occured or were expected
Indeed, the last item written in the parchment book mentioned the preparation of certain new lands to be used for the sowing of grain in future seasons, which suggested that the brethren neither feared nor expected disturbance We wondered whether the ood as his word and had brought down the vengeance of that priestess called the Hesea upon the community which sheltered him Also ondered-ah! hoondered-who and what this Heseathis discovery we prayed the abbot, Kou-en, to accoe, asked if he knew anything of the matter He swayed his wise old head, which always reminded me of that of a tortoise, and answered-”A little Very little, and thatwho is ”
We inquired what he could possibly know of this matter, whereon Kou-en replied calmly-”In those days when the faith of the Holy One was still young, I dwelt as a humble brother in this very monastery, which was one of the first built, and I saw the army pass, that is all That,” he added meditatively, ”was in my fiftieth incarnation of this present Round-no, I a of another army-in my seventy-third”[]
[] As students of their lives and literature will be aware, it is common for Buddhist priests to state positively that they re their previous incarnations-ed
Here Leo began a great laugh, but I ed to kick him beneath the table and he turned it into a sneeze This was fortunate, as such ribald s terribly After all, also, as Leo himself had once said, surely ere not the people to mock at the theory of re-incarnation, which, by the way, is the first article of faith a nearly one quarter of the human race, and this not the most foolish quarter
”How can that be-I ask for instruction, learned One-seeing that memory perishes with death?”
”Ah!” he answered, ”Brother Holly, it ain, especially to those who are far advanced upon the Path For instance, until you read this passage I had forgotten all about that ar, andBuddha in front yonder, and watching it go by It was not a very large army, for most of the soldiers had died, or been killed, and it was being pursued by the wild people who lived south of us in those days, so that it was in a great hurry to put the desert between it and theeneral of the army was a swarthy man-I wish that I could remeeneral ca place for his wife and children, also provisions and uides across the desert The abbot of that day told hiainst our law to admit a woman under our roof, to which he answered that if we did not, we should have no roof left, for he would burn the place and kill every one of us with the sword Now, as you know, to be killed by violence means that we must pass sundry incarnations in the for, 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 worshi+p-alas! alas!” and Kou-en beat his breast
”Why alas?” I asked, as unconcernedly as I could, for this story interested otten the arotten that priestess, and she has been a great hindrance tome upon my journey to the Other Side, to the Shore of Salvation I, as a hu her apartment when she entered and threw aside her veil; yes, and perceiving a youngain upon a woman”
”What-as 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 theBrother, ask me not what she was like, nay, I will say nobackward and you draw ht of day Nay, I will confess it that you ht 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 worshi+p her! For first she askedthat the light would come into her heart; then, after I had finished she said-”'So your Path is Renunciation and your Nirvana a ness which some would think it scarce worth while to strive so hard to reach Noill show you a more joyous way and a Goddess more worthy of your worshi+p'
”'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, lookingher ivory breast, she said, 'I ae!'
”My brethren, I knelt, yes, I kissed her foot, and then I fled away shahed, and cried: 'Remember me when you reach Devachan, O servant of the Budda-saint, for though I change, I do not die, and even there I shall be with you who once gave me worshi+p!'
”And it is so, h I obtained absolution for h this, my next incarnation, yet I cannot be rid of her, and for me the Utter Peace is far, far away,” and Kou-en placed his withered hands before his face and sobbed outright
A ridiculous sight, truly, to see a holy Khublighan well on the wrong side of eighty, weeping like a child over a dreained he had once dreao So the reader will say But I, Holly, for reasons of my own, felt deep sympathy with that poor old man, and Leo was also sympathetic We patted him on the back; we assured him that he was the victiht up against him in this or any future existence, since, if sin there were, it o, and so forth When his calm was somewhat restored we tried also to extract further information from him, but with poor results, so far as the priestess was concerned
He said that he did not knohat religion she belonged, and did not care, but thought that itwith the arh it caed to be locked in his cell for eight days to prevent hi, for the abbot of that day had told the brethren This priestess was the real general of the ar or the queen, the latter of whom hated her It was by her will that they pushed on northwards across the desert to some country beyond the mountains, where she desired to establish herself and her worshi+p
We asked if there really was any country beyond the mountains, and Kou-en answered wearily that he believed so Either in this or in a previous life he had heard that people lived there orshi+pped fire Certainly also it was true that about thirty years ago a brother who had clireat peak yonder to spend some days in solitary meditation, returned and reported that he had seen ain the heavens beyond those sah whether this were a vision, or what, he could not say He recalled, however, that about that tireat earthquake
Then the an to afflict Kou-en's innocent old heart, and he crept away la and was seen no ain to us of this matter
But we spoke of it much with hope and wonder, and made up our minds that ould at once ascend this mountain
CHAPTER III
THE BEACON LIGHT
A week later ca this ascent of the , and hard frost set in, which made it possible to walk upon the surface of the snow Learning from the -horned sheep and gae in certain valleys, where they scraped away the snow to find food, we announced that ere going out to hunt The excuse we gave was that ere suffering fro of our religion no scruples about killing gaerous, as the weather e at any moment They told us, however, that on the slopes of this very e natural cave where, if need be, we could take shelter, and to this cave one of theer andri tent from skins, and laden our old yak, now in the best of condition, with food and garht Under the guidance of thehis years, walked very well, we reached the northern slope of the peak before reat cave of which the opening was protected by an over-hanging ledge of rock Evidently this cave was the favourite place of shelter for game at certain seasons of the year, since in it were heaped vast accus, which removed any fear of a lack of fuel
The rest of that short day we spent in setting up our tent in the cave, in front of which we lit a large fire, and in a survey of the slopes of thefor the tracks of wild sheep Indeed, as it happened, on our way back to the cave we ca upon the mosses in a sheltered spot where in summer a streamlet ran Of these ere so fortunate as to kill two, for no sportss As meat would keep for ever in that teht, and dragging the animals down the snow slopes to the cave, we skinned the we supped upon fresh reat luxury, which the ht be his views as to taking life, he liked ether for warrees below zero The old h, but neither Leo nor I slept over ht see fro at the dawn, the weather being still favourable, our companion returned to the monastery, whither we said ould follow him in a day or two
Now at last ere alone, and without wasting an instant began our ascent of the peak It was h, but the deep, frozen snoweasy, so that by nificent Beneath us stretched the desert, and beyond it a broad belt of fantastically shaped, snow-clad ht, to the left, as far as the eye could reach
”They are just as I saw theo,” muttered Leo; ”the saht?” I asked
”Yonder, I think;” and he pointed north by east
”Well, it is not there now,” I answered, ”and this place is cold”
So, since it was dangerous to linger, lest the darkness should overtake us on our return journey, we descended the peak again, reaching the cave about sunset The next four days we spent in the sa we crawled up those wearisoaned down therew heartily tired of the exercise
On the fourth night, instead of co to sleep in the tent Leo sat himself down at the entrance to the cave I asked him why he did this, but he answered impatiently, because he wished it, so I left hie and irritable mood, for the failure of our search oppressed him Moreover, we knew, both of us, that it could not be ht break at any moment, when ascents of the mountain would becoht I akened by Leo shakingto show you”
Reluctantly enough I crept fros and out of the tent To dress there was no need, for we slept in all our garments He led me to the ht was very dark; but far, far away appeared a faint patch of light upon the sky, such as ht be caused by the reflection of a distant fire
”What do youin particular,” I answered, ”itThe moon-no, there is none, dawn-no, it is too northerly, and it does not break for three hours So, a house, or a funeral pyre, but how can there be such things here? I give it up”
”I think it is a reflection, and that if ere on the peak we should see the light which throws it,” said Leo slowly
”Yes, but we are not, and cannot get there in the dark”