536 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that no Buddhist will take the life of an animal for food, the pig 

 and fowls alone excepted. But for the contingent of Mohammedans 

 in Chinese cities, Europeans would fare badly for beefsteaks and 

 lamb-chops. I never knew a Chinese butcher who was not a Mo- 

 hammedan ; and when Mohammedan butchers buy fatted cattle 

 of pious Buddhist farmers, they have to promise that the cattle 

 shall not be slaughtered. I once asked a fish-dealer why he made 

 a distinction in his line. He said that he never killed fish, but 

 that when taken out of the water they died. I suggested that if 

 he were to reverse this rule and put an ox under water, he too 

 would die without being killed. When, however, the soul of an 

 animal has departed, the carcass is exempt, and finds ready takers 

 among the faithful who are not averse to eating beef. It is from 

 this fact that all animals having died natural deaths are used by 

 the people as food. The only exception to this rule of eating 

 dead animals is in the case of their having belonged to a priest. 

 I once shot a priest's dog, and it was buried with great cere- 

 mony (at my expense), and, when asked why they did not eat it, 

 was told that being a priest's dog it was sacred. That made, of 

 course, a great difference ! 



The beneficial results from this belief are apparent in the kind- 

 ness to all domestic animals. No need for Mr. Bergh's society 

 there. When a farmer harnesses his faithful ox or cow to plow 

 his field, he treats the beast with the utmost consideration, for the 

 reason that, for aught he knows, he has harnessed the soul of his 

 own grandfather ; and that the soul of the beast is watching him, 

 and knows just what he is doing, he does not question. 



Buddhists accept the proposition that one's relative rank' 

 whether as a poor man, or, next thing to that, a pig or a donkey, 

 is entirely due to his actions in a former life. And no matter 

 how humble one's lot may be, he devoutly hopes for promotion 

 in the next inning. One of the most potent fears in the minds of 

 many men is that they may be born next time as a donkey. 

 With us the difficulty is that sometimes men are born donkeys 

 but do not appear to know it. 



The old problem of how long it will take a frog to get out of 

 a well twenty-one feet deep by jumping seven feet every day and 

 then sliding down six feet at night, aptly illustrates the Buddhist's 

 idea of the problem of existence. How many lives or succession 

 of ages must one live in order to get into the final haven, or Nir- 

 vana, whatever that is, is the question. He believes this depends 

 chiefly upon his own conduct, hence the belief has the tendency 

 to restrain the vicious to discipline. How well this motive suc- 

 ceeds is apparent when we consider the unmatched population, 

 both in numbers and in poverty, and then consider the compara- 

 tive immunity from crime. True, the civil law punishes crime 



