66 A Note on Boodhism and the Cave 



aptly emblematises the Neophyte, he who has penetrated but little. 

 Confer on this subject the admirable resume of this portion of 

 Boodhism, given by that consummate and amiable scholar, the 

 late Abel Remusat in his notes on the travels of Foue-Koue-Ki. 

 One might adduce numerous instances of many other animals ful- 

 filling their part in this roll of symbolic representation. Now 

 we can trace with comparative clearness and facility, by the aid 

 of history, an exactly similar process (all but the first step) in the re- 

 ligious system of the antient Egyptians. And it was this first step, 

 the Mystic and the Ideal, which it is more than probable formed 

 a part of those mysteries in which the Egyptian priests initiated 

 Pythagoras and others, but which they were objurated not to reveal. 

 We know but little of Pythagoras and his doctrines, but there are 

 some startling coincidences in some of the outward observances of 

 his schools, and those of the Boodhist of the present day. The be- 

 lief in the Metempsychosis and the consequent unlawfulness of taking 

 animal life ; the renunciation of all worldly riches and enjoyment ; the 

 long period of contemplative silence and probation ; the general 

 pantheistical tendency and stringent moral inculcations of their 

 creed ; the celibate vow, not because women were held in contempt, 

 but because the society of a wife and the rearing of a family awaken 

 passions, and entail cares and solicitudes that are incompatible with 

 deep mental abstraction ; the abstinence from the wearing of woollen 

 apparel ; the sacredness of the yellow color, indeed, if asked to 

 describe in Greek the yellow vestment of the modern Boodhist 

 and Amharitic priest, one would employ the term o ipaiog rplfiwv 

 which expresses so quaintly and yet aptly the sub-flave, or dun-yel- 

 low garment of the follower of Pythagoras, for it is inculcated 

 that the stole of the Boodhist priest, when indued even for the 

 first time, should be threadbare and not new ; all these, and more, 

 are points of similarity that seldom occur in systems of totally 

 different origin. I have already had occasion to remark, in some 

 notes which I was requested to draw up on a Boodhist symbolical 

 coin, in the collection of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, how that 

 many of the figures, and monoglyphs extant on the sculptures 

 of Antient Egypt would be viewed as most powerful and expressive 

 symbols in the eye of a Boodhist, as that paper is, I understand, 



