Chap. XX. 



ANCIENT INSCRIPTIONS. 



347 



no Chinaman could read them. I applied to some 

 of the most learned priests in Poo-too, but without 

 success. They could neither read them, nor could 

 they give me the slightest information as to how 

 they came to be placed there. 



The characters looked like those of some northern 

 Indian language. One of the stones was evidently 

 less aged than the other. In this, the unknown cha- 

 racters were placed along the top, and a row of Chi- 

 nese ones below. The latter, when read, appeared to 

 be nothing more than an unmeaning phrase used by 

 the Buddhist priests at the commencement of their 

 worship, " Nae mo o me to fa" What the upper 

 line means, some oriental scholar may possibly be 

 able to say. 



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The second stone was evidently very ancient. 

 There were no Chinese characters upon this. 



How, or when, these stones were placed there, it is 

 difficult to form even a conjecture. Buddhism, we 

 know, was imported from India to China, and it is 

 just possible that under these old stones may lie the 

 remains of some of its earliest preachers. Persecuted, 

 perhaps, by the heathens of the time, they sought a 



