282 
WANDERINGS IN CHINA. 
Chap. XVIII. 
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 home on the small 
and solitary island where their remains are now re- 
posing. 
Having made copies of the characters, I went onwards 
down the hill in the direction of a large group of 
temples. At the bottom of the hill, and in front of the 
temples, there is a pretty lake filled with the Nelum- 
bium, which was now in full bloom. As I came near I 
observed a Chinaman fishing in the lake : this rather 
surprised me, as the Buddhists in this part of China do 
not take the life of any animal and never eat animal 
food, — at least such is their profession. The man evi- 
dently knew he was doing wrong, and was hiding behind 
the pillars of a bridge which is here thrown over the 
lake. His occupation, however, was soon put a stop to 
in a most laughable manner. At a little distance on the 
other side of the bridge stood a group of men whose 
long flowing garments and shaved tailless heads denoted 
that they belonged to the Buddhist priesthood. They 
were evidently watching the movements of the angler 
with considerable anxiety and interest. At last one of 
their number, with a bamboo in his hand, left the others 
and moved towards the bridge by a circuitous route so 
as not to be observed by the man who was fishing. 
The priest managed this so cleverly that he was on 
