Wênchow. Rapids succeed each other every half mile or so for the first 50 miles, and small streams help to swell the river at intervals, but none of them are navigable even for rafts; these salt boats bring down cargoes of paper, bamboo-ware, dried edible bamboo-shoots, &c.

The Yun-hoboundary is entered at Wei-ning-k'ou (60 li)? on the right bank, and Mu-ch'i (90 i) on the left. This district is one of the few in Chekiang which produces iron, an article not mined anywhere in Fukien. Yün-ho city is on the right bank, and not on the left as marked in the map published in the Customs Reports; it is 15 li from the river, and is reached thence by raft only. The port of Yün-ho, very beautifully situated, is called Chüo-ts'un, 135 li from Lung-ch'uan, and 150 li from Ch'uchow by land. The boundary between Yün-ho and Li-shui (Ch'uchow Fu) districts is at Ch'ih-tsi-t'ing, 35 li below Chuo-ts'un. Ten li further down is the embouchure of the Sung-yang river, the only tributary above Ch'uchow, navigable by even one-ton boats; thence it is 60 li to Ch'uchow, and 70 li to Sung-yang city. Sungyang and Sui-ch'ang cities are both 180 li overland from Lung-ch'üan. The mountains become bare, and the country opens out for a while after the Yün-ho district is quitted. The river, which was as clear as crystal down to Chuo-ts'un, is muddied for a certain distance by the Yün-ho creek. I only saw one single specimen of the Zika women walking along the bank,—which was very disappointing, as my chief object in coming to Lung-ch'üan was to find out more about them.

Ten li above Ch'uchow a river, navigable for rafts, and even for boats at the freshet period, joins the main river from Süan-p'ing district city.

ARTICLE V.

A BUDDHIST SHEET-TRACT,

Containing an Apologue of Human Life.*

Translated, with Notes, by Bishop MOULE of Hangchow.

THIS

THIS tract, one of very many circulated as an act of meritorious devotion, is printed in clear woodcut on a sheet of thin white paper about twenty-five inches by eleven.

The upper half presents a symbolical picture in outline, the blank spaces filled with inscriptions in metre.

In the upper corner to the right is Buddha, a nimbus round the head, and throned on clouds.

Immediately below is a group consisting of Buddha, 'The Venerable One,' conversing with king Udâyana who is followed by an attendant. They are observing an elephant standing near a well, its head raised with threatening tusks towards a man, who clings to a wild-vine, pendulous in mid-air. From the well emerge three dragons. Around it are four serpents. They all threaten the man who hangs above them.

The man regards them not, intent on watching bees that flit around him. On the branch from which his vine depends, are a black and a white rat gnawing so as gradually to sever the branch. But the man takes no notice of the rats either.

Inscription below the enthroned Buddha (pentasyllabic).

Kind parents and kinsfolk

Are short lived as a puppet-show:

When King Yen (1) has once called thee,

None of them whatever can be thy substitute.

*Read before the Society 22nd January, 1881. A specimen of the

Tract described accompanies this paper.

(1) Yen, Yama, the Indian Pluto.

Couplets (heptasyllabic) in front of Buddha.

Man's life is inconstant depending on his breath;

Heap a mountain of treasure with might and main, yet empty
wilt thou leave off.

Let the eye watch the ruddy sun sink below the western hill;
(2) Once lose the human form, then a myriad kalpas of
misfortune!

Phrases in long lines partly rhythmical.

Idly as I watched the capture of the fly settled on the paper, I smiled at idiot-man who raises obstructions in his own way. In quiet as I gazed at magpies wrangling for the nest, I sighed to think of (3) Kieh and Chow vainly boasting themselves heroes.

Phrases of six syllables.

If you see through (so as to be undeceived by) the finite body, The worldly entanglements of the myriad conditions cease of themselves!

Awake and enter the unfading condition!

The moon of the heart, a whole disc, alone is brilliant.

Worldly affairs are like chess;

Not to play is the test of true skill.

Human life is as an earthen vessel;

Break it, and at once you see its emptiness.

Couplets (heptasyllabic).

Amidst the show of cloud and vapour appears (4) the true body; Then I am aware that my likeness is that of a felon in the pillory!

Amidst the cries of the birds is heard the original nature (Svabhava. Eitel);

Then know I that sensual knowledge is as spear and dart!

*

Couplets (hectasyllabic).

Hark, in the stilly night, the voice of the bell
(5) Calls to awake the dream within the dream!
Behold in the water the moon's reflection;

And see the body external (6) to the body!

My teacher reads these four lines in the alternate order thus, 1, 3, 2, 4.

(2) Kalpa, (See Eitel's Handbook of Buddhism sub voce) a vast measure of time.

(3) Kieh, of the 18th cent. B. C., Chow, of the 12th, infamous tyrants: See Mayers's Chinese Reader's Manual.

(4) The apotheosis of Buddha (?)

() Query?" the dream within etc-"the man within the material world, or (Professor Cowell) "the real self within the external self; this real self being itself non-existent in the last resort."

() Is this the, spiritual and immortal body "that accompanies us in our transmigrations" (Cowell), or is it Buddha present in this world by reflection?