SUPERSTITION. Ill 



course ; the young, unexpanded mind of the 

 infant did not understand the meaning of it, 

 but stared at us, and then at its parent ; the 

 silence that prevailed corresponded with the 

 solemnity that reigned in this sacred, romantic 

 spot. I could not avoid reflecting at the time, 

 that this infant would be brought to go mecha- 

 nically through the pagan worship, to gaze on 

 the tinsel and gaudiness of the temple and the 

 gilded figure, before its mind had dawned ; it 

 would awake in fetters, and follow implicitly the 

 custom of its forefathers, satisfied with their blind 

 superstition and pagan ignorance. 



I must apologize for thus digressing, and 

 return to the chanting priests in the temple, 

 who, with shaven crowns, and arrayed in the 

 yellow robes of the priests of Buddha, appeared 

 to go through the mummery with devotion. 

 They had the lowering look of bigotry, which 

 constant habit had at last legibly written upon 

 their countenances. The priests were evidently, 

 in characteristic features, a distinct race from 

 the Chinese, and came at the introduction of the 

 Boodha religion into China, from some other 

 parts of Asia, probably the Birmah empire. 



As soon as the mummery had ceased, the 

 priests all flocked out of the temple, adjourned 



