152 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. IX. 
funds are made up by the subscriptions of the devotees. 
On certain high days, at different periods of the year, 
many thousands of both sexes, but particularly females, 
resort to these temples, clad in their best attire, to pay 
their vows and engage in the other exercises of heathen 
worship. Little stalls are then seen in the temples or 
at the doorways, for the sale of incense, candles, paper 
made up in the form of the ingots of Sycee-silver, and 
other holy things which are considered acceptable offer- 
ings to the gods, and are either consumed in the temples 
or carried home to bring a blessing upon the houses and 
families of those who purchase them. The profits of 
these sales, of course, go to the support of the establish- 
ment. When we consider that these poor deluded people 
sometimes travel a distance of several hundred miles to 
worship in the temples on Poo-to-san and other cele- 
brated places, we cannot but admire their spirit of devo- ^ 
tion. I was once staying in the temple of Tein-tung ' 
when it was visited for three days by devotees from all 
parts of the country. As they lined the roads on their 
way to the temple, clad in the graceful and flowing cos- 
tume of the East, the mind was naturally led back to 
those days of scripture history when Jerusalem was in 
its glory, and the Jews, the chosen people of God, came 
from afar to worship in its temple. 
Although no Christian can look upon the priests and 
devotees of the Buddhist creed without an eye of pity, 
yet he must give them credit for their conduct, since he 
has every reason to believe them sincere, and I am in- 
clined to believe that justice has not been done them in 
this respect. Mr. Gutzlaff, in describing his visit to 
