220 COMMERCEBETWEEN 



Thefmaii The fmallcft of the two Pagodas is a wooden building, 



ftanding upon pillars, in the centre of the town at the 

 place where the two principal ftreets crofs^ It is a Chi- 

 nefe tower of two ftories, adorned on the outfide with 

 fmall columns, paintings, and little iron bells,. &:g. 



Tiieidoi The firft flory is fquare, the fecond odtangular. In the 

 lower flory is a pid:ure reprefenting the God Tien, which 

 fignifies, according to the explanation of the moft intel- 

 ligent Chinefe, the moft high God, who rules over the 

 thirty-two heavens. The Manfliurs, it is faid, call this 

 idol Abcho ; and the Mongols, Tingheru heaven, or the 

 God of heaven. He is reprefented fitting with his head 

 uncovered, and encircled with a ray* of glory fimilar to 

 that which furrounds the head of our Saviour in the Ro- 

 man catholic paintings ; his hair is long and flowing'; 

 he holds in his right hand a drawn fword, and his left 

 is extended as in the adt of giving a benediction. On one 

 fide of tliis figure two youths, on the other a maiden 

 and a grey-headed old man, are delineated; 



* When Mr. Pallas obtained permiffion of the governor to fee thh 

 temple, the latter affured him that the Jefuits of Pekin and their con- 

 verts adored this idol. From whence he ingenioully conje<ftures, either 

 that the refemblance between this idol, and the reprefentations of our 

 Saviour by the Roman Catholicks, was the occafion of this affertion ; or 

 that the Jefuits, in order to excite the devotion of the converts, have, 

 out of policy, given to the pifture of our Saviour a refemblance to the 

 Tien of the Chinefe. Pallas Reifc, P. III. p. 1 19. 



The 



