(^HAP. VIIT. 



OlIDEER OF PRIESTS. 



149 



' Journey to the Tea Countries.' In a retired spot 

 amongst some lofty trees on the hill-side near 

 Tein-tung the traveller may see an unmeaning- 

 looking brick building some ten feet high and 

 hollow inside. The dome of this building is blacked 

 with smoke, as if it was not unusual to light fires 

 inside. On inquiry he will find that in this 

 place the bodies of the priests just mentioned are 

 burned after death. A little further on, on the 

 same hill-side, there is a neat-looking temple, not 

 different in external appearance from the numerous 

 structures of this description seen all over these 

 hills, but on going inside several closed white- 

 washed urns are met with, and these contain the 

 ashes of the priests. I never had an opportunity 

 of witnessing the ceremony of burning these 

 bodies; but my old friend the priest with whom 

 I was staying confessed that the sight was any- 

 thing but pleasing. 



The second order of the priesthood — my landlord 

 was one of them — occupy neat little houses ad- 

 joining the large halls, where they generally seem 

 to lead a lazy kind of life, and have only the 

 private devotions of their little temple to attend to ; 

 that is, they are not required to attend the service 

 in the large hall. Their bodies are not burned 

 after death like the former, but are conveyed to 

 the most lovely spots on the sides of the hills — 

 spots on their own little farms which they had 

 selected for themselves during their lifetime. One 

 of this order died during this autumn when T was 



M 2 



