Cuav.X.] THE TEMPLE AND ITS IDOLS. 71 
again in their turn gave way to those spacious 
buildings which form the principal part of the 
structure of the present day. 
All the temples are crowded with idols, or images 
of their favourite gods, such as the “ three precious 
Buddhas,” “the Queen of Heaven ”— represented as 
sitting on the celebrated lotus or nelumbium — 
“the God of War,” and many other deified kings 
and great men of former days. Many of these 
images are from thirty to forty feet in height, and 
have a very striking appearance when seen arranged 
in these spacious and lofty halls. The priests thems 
selves reside in a range of low buildings, erected at 
right angles with the different temples and courts 
which divide them. Each has a little temple in 
his own house—a family altar crowded with 
small images, where he is often engaged in private 
devotion. 
After inspecting the various temples and the bel- 
fry, which contains a noble bronze bell of large di- 
mensions, our host conducted us back to his house, 
where the dinner was already on the table. The 
priests of the Buddhist religion are not allowed to 
eat animal food at any of their meals. Our dinner 
therefore consisted entirely of vegetables, served up 
in the usual Chinese style, in a number of small 
round basins, the contents of each—soups excepted 
— being cut up into small square bits, to be eaten 
with chopsticks. The Buddhist priests contrive to 
procure a number of vegetables of different kinds, 
which, by a peculiar mode of preparation, are 
