DOGS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 



hand, whose five fingers became five lions. At the same 

 time a circle of fire surrounded Buddha, the lions, and the 

 infuriated beast. The buffalo, terrified by the lions and held 

 captive by the fire, prostrated itself before Buddha, hung its 

 head in a contrite manner and licked his feet. The buffalo 

 ceased to eat and drink, died, and was reborn a deva in the 

 heaven of Indra." * 



The idolatry practised by the Lamas caused them to 

 animate the lion images standing before their temples just as 

 the feeling for nature in early Indian Buddhist art vivified 

 the Western forms of sculpture introduced from Greece and 

 Rome. As a recent example of the veneration of the Buddhist 

 " true-lion " there may be mentioned an incident which 

 occurred in the case of a pair of Ming lions now standing 

 outside the Peking Chien Men. When removing these in 

 May 1916 from what is now called the Rung Fu, in old days 

 the palace of Prince Wu, east of the Imperial City, great 

 difficulty was found in unseating the second from its pedestal. 

 A Buddhist priest was called in. He offered wine to the 

 spirit on an altar improvised before the idol. An incantation 

 written in red characters on yellow paper was then affixed to 

 the lion's breast. Its eyes were bound with red cloth. The 

 idol then vacated its pedestal without further demur. 



A more recent example is reported from Honan. " At 

 Ucheng every expedient had been used to attract the rain. 

 After processions to the city temple and putting the idol out 

 to the sun a while had failed, the stone lions at the entrance 

 of the temple were sprinkled with water. This failed also 

 to bring the rain. The south gate was kept shut because 

 ' fire is in the South,' thus causing travellers to make a 

 detour of some miles in order to catch their morning train. "f 



* " Buddhism," vol. ii, Dr. L. Wieger. 

 t North China Herald, February 7, 1920. 



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