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328 COCHINCHINA. 
a modification of the widely extended doctrine of BucUia, 
appearing, however, from the Uttle we had an opportunity of 
seeing as to the devotional part, more simple and less dis- 
guised ^vitli the njj^steries and machinery of oracular worship 
than that ^vhich is practised popularly in China. From a 
sentiment of gratitude to the benevolent and bountiful spirit, 
the Cochinchinese, like the Jews of old, manifest their piety 
by offering to the image of the protecting deity the firstlings 
of their living flocks and of the fruits of the earth. The first 
ears of rice, the first ripe nut of the areca, the first cup of 
sugar, or whatever the nature of the produce may be, is 
taken to the shrine which contains the sacred image, and is 
there deposited with becoming reverence, as an humble 
acknowledgment of the divine goodness. I was much 
gratified in the opportunity of being present at an offering of 
this nature. Landino; from our boat one serene evenino,. in 
a little cove on the northern shore of Turon bay, I observed 
a person in a long yellowish coloured robe reaching to the 
ground, his head bare and closely shaved, marching with a 
kind of measured ste]) towards a large spreading ti'ee, and 
followed by a few of the peasantry. On arriving at the foot 
of the tree they all halted. Just at the head of the main 
trunk (for it was a species of Ficiis Indica or Banyan tree, 
called Dea in Cochinchina, whose branches take root and 
become stems) I observed a large ca.ge of latticed work, with 
a pair of folding doors, fixed between two boughs, and partly 
hidden by the foliage. Within was a wooden figure of Biidha or 
Fo, of the same corpulent shape and in the usual sitting }X)S- 
ture as he is represented in the temples of China. A little 
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