BUDDHIST LTFE^OF JESUS 335 



been a traveller there should be no allusion in his sayings 

 to his foreign experiences. It is more probable that he 

 worked as a carpenter and met with Buddhists whose 

 doctrines he in part embraced. It is also difficult to suppose 

 that one who had spent much time among the Buddhists 

 should advocate the Jewish law to the extent of saying 

 that ' not one jot or tittle of it should pass away,' &c. 



To the Same 



The Camp, Sunningdale : March 23, 1895. 



I have read the Buddhist Life of Jesus, and am not 

 edified. It is a lame story. The author, a very ignorant 

 young Eussian traveller, was travelling in India, and 

 visited Tibet, where he broke his leg, and was domiciled 

 for some weeks or months in a large Lamasery near Ladak. 

 Having heard of ' The Life ' he asked about it and had 

 it read to him by the Head Lama, or rather read to his 

 interpreter, for he could not speak a word of Tibetan. 

 He took desultory notes, and has pieced them apparently 

 from memory. The History professes to give the life of 

 Jesus as a missionary who travelled throughout the length 

 and breadth of India preaching his Gospel, especially at 

 Juggernath ! He returned to Palestine, where he was put to 

 death with some of the events of the Bible narrative more 

 or less distorted. The Lamas told the author that copies of 

 this narrative are in many Lamaseries in Tibet ; and that 

 is likely enough, as the Monks have little to do but write 

 fables and histories, &c., and their libraries are innumerable 

 and very extensive, and swarm with copies. 



There is nothing impossible in the Indian part of the 

 narrative, but all very unlikely, and to accept it from Mr. 

 Novitesky's (or some such name) version would be absurd. 

 On the other hand, nothing is more probable than that the 

 Monks have written accounts of Jesus' death, brought by 

 their travelling brothers from Syria &c. 



To the Same 



May 10, 1894. 



I should have returned this long ago, but I have been 

 pretty busy, and wanted to think the thing over. It is a 

 matter in which one can proceed only by guess work ; and 



