{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_29288/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_29288","id":"gutenberg_29288","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29288","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Category: Travel Writing","Christianity and other religions -- Buddhism","Jesus Christ -- Biography -- Apocryphal and legendary literature"],"text":"E-text prepared by David Edwards, Paul Motsuk, and the Project Gutenberg\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)\n\n\n\nTHE UNKNOWN LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST\n\nThe Original Text of Nicolas Notovitch's 1887 Discovery\n\nby\n\nNICOLAS NOTOVITCH\n\nTranslated by J. H. Connelly and L. Landsberg\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPrinted in the United States of America\n\nNew York: R.F. Fenno. 1890.\n\n\n\n\nTable of Contents\n\n\n_Preface_                                                     vi\n\n_A Journey in Thibet_                                          1\n\n_Ladak_                                                       33\n\n_A Festival in a Gonpa_                                       45\n\n_The Life of Saint Issa_                                      61\n\n_Resum\u00e9_                                                      89\n\n_Explanatory Notes_                                          117\n\n\n\n\nPreface\n\n\nAfter the Turkish War (1877-1878) I made a series of travels in the\nOrient. From the little remarkable Balkan peninsula, I went across the\nCaucasus to Central Asia and Persia, and finally, in 1887, visited\nIndia, an admirable country which had attracted me from my earliest\nchildhood. My purpose in this journey was to study and know, at home,\nthe peoples who inhabit India and their customs, the grand and\nmysterious arch\u00e6ology, and the colossal and majestic nature of their\ncountry. Wandering about without fixed plans, from one place to another,\nI came to mountainous Afghanistan, whence I regained India by way of the\npicturesque passes of Bolan and Guerna\u00ef. Then, going up the Indus to\nRaval Pindi, I ran over the Pendjab--the land of the five rivers;\nvisited the Golden Temple of Amritsa--the tomb of the King of Pendjab,\nRandjid Singh, near Lahore; and turned toward Kachmyr, \"The Valley of\nEternal Bliss.\" Thence I directed my peregrinations as my curiosity\nimpelled me, until I arrived in Ladak, whence I intended returning to\nRussia by way of Karakoroum and Chinese Turkestan.\n\nOne day, while visiting a Buddhist convent on my route, I learned from a\nchief lama, that there existed in the archives of Lhassa, very ancient\nmemoirs relating to the life of Jesus Christ and the occidental nations,\nand that certain great monasteries possessed old copies and translations\nof those chronicles.\n\nAs it was little probable that I should make another journey into this\ncountry, I resolved to put off my return to Europe until a later date,\nand, cost what it might, either find those copies in the great convents\nor go to Lhassa--a journey which is far from being so dangerous and\ndifficult as is generally supposed, involving only such perils as I was\nalready accustomed to, and which would not make me hesitate at\nattempting it.\n\nDuring my sojourn at Leh, capital of Ladak, I visited the great convent\nHimis, situated near the city, the chief lama of which informed me that\ntheir monastic library contained copies of the manuscripts in question.\nIn order that I might not awaken the suspicions of the authorities\nconcerning the object of my visit to the cloister, and to evade\nobstacles which might be opposed to me as a Russian, prosecuting further\nmy journey in Thibet, I gave out upon my return to Leh that I would\ndepart for India, and so left the capital of Ladak. An unfortunate fall,\ncausing the breaking of a leg, furnished me with an absolutely\nunexpected pretext for returning to the monastery, where I received\nsurgical attention. I took advantage of my short sojourn among the lamas\nto obtain the consent of their chief that they should bring to me, from\ntheir library, the manuscripts relating to Jesus Christ, and, assisted\nby my interpreter, who translated for me the Thibetan language,\ntransferred carefully to my notebook what the lama read to me.\n\nNot doubting at all the authenticity of this chronicle, edited with\ngreat exactitude by the Brahminic, and more especially the Buddhistic\nhistorians of India and Nepaul, I desired, upon my return to Europe, to\npublish a translation of it.\n\nTo this end, I addressed myself to several universally known\necclesiastics, asking them to revise my notes and tell me what they\nthought of them.\n\nMgr. Platon, the celebrated metropolitan of Kiew, thought that my\ndiscovery was of great importance. Nevertheless, he sought to dissuade\nme from publishing the memoirs, believing that their publication could\nonly hurt me. \"Why?\" This the venerable prelate refused to tell me more\nexplicitly. Nevertheless, since our conversation took place in Russia,\nwhere the censor would have put his veto upon such a work, I made up my\nmind to wait.\n\nA year later, I found myself in Rome. I showed my manuscript to a\ncardinal very near to the Holy Father, who answered me literally in\nthese words:--\"What good will it do to print this? Nobody will attach to\nit any great importance and you will create a number of enemies. But,\nyou are still very young! If it is a question of money which concerns\nyou, I can ask for you a reward for your notes, a sum which will repay\nyour expenditures and recompense you for your loss of time.\" Of course,\nI refused.\n\nIn Paris I spoke of my project to Cardinal Rotelli, whose acquaintance I\nhad made in Constantinople. He, too, was opposed to having my work\nprinted, under the pretext that it would be premature. \"The church,\" he\nadded, \"suffers already too much from the new current of atheistic\nideas, and you will but give a new food to the calumniators and\ndetractors of the evangelical doctrine. I tell you this in the interest\nof all the Christian churches.\"\n\nThen I went to see M. Jules Simon. He found my matter very interesting\nand advised me to ask the opinion of M. Renan, as to the best way of\npublishing these memoirs. The next day I was seated in the cabinet of\nthe great philosopher. At the close of our conversation, M. Renan\nproposed that I should confide to him the memoirs in question, so that\nhe might make to the Academy a report upon the discovery.\n\nThis proposition, as may be easily understood, was very alluring and\nflattering to my _amour propre_. I, however, took away with me the\nmanuscript, under the pretext of further revising it. I foresaw that if\nI accepted the proposed combination, I would only have the honor of\nhaving found the chronicles, while the illustrious author of the \"Life\nof Jesus\" would have the glory of the publication and the commenting\nupon it. I thought myself sufficiently prepared to publish the\ntranslation of the chronicles, accompanying them with my notes, and,\ntherefore, did not accept the very gracious offer he made to me. But,\nthat I might not wound the susceptibility of the great master, for whom\nI felt a profound respect, I made up my mind to delay publication until\nafter his death, a fatality which could not be far off, if I might judge\nfrom the apparent general weakness of M. Renan. A short time after M.\nRenan's death, I wrote to M. Jules Simon again for his advice. He\nanswered me, that it was my affair to judge of the opportunity for\nmaking the memoirs public.\n\nI therefore put my notes in order and now publish them, reserving the\nright to substantiate the authenticity of these chronicles. In my\ncommentaries I proffer the arguments which must convince us of the\nsincerity and good faith of the Buddhist compilers. I wish to add that\nbefore criticising my communication, the societies of _savans_ can,\nwithout much expense, equip a scientific expedition having for its\nmission the study of those manuscripts in the place where I discovered\nthem, and so may easily verify their historic value.\n\n--_Nicolas Notovitch_\n\n\n\n\nThe Unknown Life of Jesus Christ\n\n\n\n\n_A Journey in Thibet_\n\n\nDuring my sojourn in India, I often had occasion to converse with the\nBuddhists, and the accounts they gave me of Thibet excited my curiosity\nto such an extent that I resolved to make a journey into that still\nalmost unknown country. For this purpose I set out upon a route crossing\nKachmyr (Cashmere), which I had long intended to visit.\n\nOn the 14th of October, 1887, I entered a railway car crowded with\nsoldiers, and went from Lahore to Raval-Pinidi, where I arrived the next\nday, near noon. After resting a little and inspecting the city, to which\nthe permanent garrison gives the aspect of a military camp, I provided\nmyself with the necessaries for a journey, where horses take the place\nof the railway cars. Assisted by my servant, a colored man of\nPondichery, I packed all my baggage, hired a tonga (a two-wheeled\nvehicle which is drawn by two horses), stowed myself upon its back seat,\nand set out upon the picturesque road leading to Kachmyr, an excellent\nhighway, upon which we travelled rapidly. We had to use no little skill\nin making our way through the ranks of a military caravan--its baggage\ncarried upon camels--which was part of a detachment returning from a\ncountry camp to the city. Soon we arrived at the end of the valley of\nPendjab, and climbing up a way with infinite windings, entered the\npasses of the Himalayas. The ascent became more and more steep. Behind\nus spread, like a beautiful panorama, the region we had just traversed,\nwhich seemed to sink farther and farther away from us. As the sun's last\nglances rested upon the tops of the mountains, our tonga came gaily out\nfrom the zigzags which the eye could still trace far down the\nforest-clad slope, and halted at the little city of Mur\u00e9; where the\nfamilies of the English functionaries came to seek shade and\nrefreshment.\n\nOrdinarily, one can go in a tonga from Mur\u00e9 to Srinagar; but at the\napproach of the winter season, when all Europeans desert Kachmyr, the\ntonga service is suspended. I undertook my journey precisely at the time\nwhen the summer life begins to wane, and the Englishmen whom I met upon\nthe road, returning to India, were much astonished to see me, and made\nvain efforts to divine the purpose of my travel to Kachmyr.\n\nAbandoning the tonga, I hired saddle horses--not without considerable\ndifficulty--and evening had arrived when we started to descend from\nMur\u00e9, which is at an altitude of 5,000 feet. This stage of our journey\nhad nothing playful in it. The road was torn in deep ruts by the late\nrains, darkness came upon us and our horses rather guessed than saw\ntheir way. When night had completely set in, a tempestuous rain\nsurprised us in the open country, and, owing to the thick foliage of the\ncentenarian oaks which stood on the sides of our road, we were plunged\nin profound darkness. That we might not lose each other, we had to\ncontinue exchanging calls from time to time. In this impenetrable\nobscurity we divined huge masses of rock almost above our heads, and\nwere conscious of, on our left, a roaring torrent, the water of which\nformed a cascade we could not see. During two hours we waded in the mud\nand the icy rain had chilled my very marrow, when we perceived in the\ndistance a little fire, the sight of which revived our energies. But how\ndeceitful are lights in the mountains! You believe you see the fire\nburning quite near to you and at once it disappears, to reappear again,\nto the right, to the left, above, below you, as if it took pleasure in\nplaying tricks upon the harassed traveller. All the time the road makes\na thousand turns, and winds here and there, and the fire--which is\nimmovable--seems to be in continual motion, the obscurity preventing you\nrealizing that you yourself modify your direction every instant.\n\nI had quite given up all hope of approaching this much-wished-for fire,\nwhen it appeared again, and this time so near that our horses stopped\nbefore it.\n\nI have here to express my sincere thanks to the Englishmen for the\nforesight of which they gave proof in building by the roadsides the\nlittle bengalows--one-story houses for the shelter of travellers. It is\ntrue, one must not demand comfort in this kind of hotel; but this is a\nmatter in which the traveller, broken down by fatigue, is not exacting,\nand he is at the summit of happiness when he finds at his disposal a\nclean and dry room.\n\nThe Hindus, no doubt, did not expect to see a traveller arrive at so\nlate an hour of the night and in this season, for they had taken away\nthe keys of the bengalow, so we had to force an entrance. I threw myself\nupon a bed prepared for me, composed of a pillow and blanket saturated\nwith water, and almost at once fell asleep. At daybreak, after taking\ntea and some conserves, we took up our march again, now bathed in the\nburning rays of the sun. From time to time, we passed villages; the\nfirst in a superb narrow pass, then along the road meandering in the\nbosom of the mountain. We descended eventually to the river Djeloum\n(Jhelum), the waters of which flow gracefully, amid the rocks by which\nits course is obstructed, between rocky walls whose tops in many places\nseem almost to reach the azure skies of the Himalayas, a heaven which\nhere shows itself remarkably pure and serene.\n\nToward noon we arrived at the hamlet called Tongue--situated on the bank\nof the river--which presents an unique array of huts that give the\neffect of boxes, the openings of which form a fa\u00e7ade. Here are sold\ncomestibles and all kinds of merchandise. The place swarms with Hindus,\nwho bear on their foreheads the variously colored marks of their\nrespective castes. Here, too, you see the beautiful people of Kachmyr,\ndressed in their long white shirts and snowy turbans. I hired here, at a\ngood price, a Hindu cabriolet, from a Kachmyrian. This vehicle is so\nconstructed that in order to keep one's seat in it, one must cross his\nlegs in the Turkish fashion. The seat is so small that it will hold, at\nmost, only two persons. The absence of any support for the back makes\nthis mode of transportation very dangerous; nevertheless, I accepted\nthis kind of circular table mounted on two wheels and drawn by a horse,\nas I was anxious to reach, as soon as possible, the end of my journey.\nHardly, however, had I gone five hundred yards on it, when I seriously\nregretted the horse I had forsaken, so much fatigue had I to endure\nkeeping my legs crossed and maintaining my equilibrium. Unfortunately,\nit was already too late.\n\nEvening was falling when I approached the village of Hori. Exhausted by\nfatigue; racked by the incessant jolting; my legs feeling as if invaded\nby millions of ants, I had been completely incapable of enjoying the\npicturesque landscape spread before us as we journeyed along the\nDjeloum, the banks of which are bordered on one side by steep rocks and\non the other by the heavily wooded slopes of the mountains. In Hori I\nencountered a caravan of pilgrims returning from Mecca.\n\nThinking I was a physician and learning my haste to reach Ladak, they\ninvited me to join them, which I promised I would at Srinagar.\n\nI spent an ill night, sitting up in my bed, with a lighted torch in my\nhand, without closing my eyes, in constant fear of the stings and bites\nof the scorpions and centipedes which swarm in the bengalows. I was\nsometimes ashamed of the fear with which those vermin inspired me;\nnevertheless, I could not fall asleep among them. Where, truly, in man,\nis the line that separates courage from cowardice? I will not boast of\nmy bravery, but I am not a coward, yet the insurmountable fear with\nwhich those malevolent little creatures thrilled me, drove sleep from my\neyelids, in spite of my extreme fatigue.\n\nOur horses carried us into a flat valley, encircled by high mountains.\nBathed as I was in the rays of the sun, it did not take me long to fall\nasleep in the saddle. A sudden sense of freshness penetrated and awoke\nme. I saw that we had already begun climbing a mountain path, in the\nmidst of a dense forest, rifts in which occasionally opened to our\nadmiring gaze ravishing vistas, impetuous torrents; distant mountains;\ncloudless heavens; a landscape, far below, of wondrous beauty. All about\nus were the songs of numberless brilliantly plumaged birds. We came out\nof the forest toward noon, descended to a little hamlet on the bank of\nthe river, and after refreshing ourselves with a light, cold collation,\ncontinued our journey. Before starting, I went to a bazaar and tried to\nbuy there a glass of warm milk from a Hindu, who was sitting crouched\nbefore a large cauldron full of boiling milk. How great was my surprise\nwhen he proposed to me that I should take away the whole cauldron, with\nits contents, assuring me that I had polluted the milk it contained! \"I\nonly want a glass of milk and not a kettle of it,\" I said to him.\n\n\"According to our laws,\" the merchant answered me, \"if any one not\nbelonging to our caste has fixed his eyes for a long time upon one of\nour cooking utensils, we have to wash that article thoroughly, and throw\naway the food it contains. You have polluted my milk and no one will\ndrink any more of it, for not only were you not contented with fixing\nyour eyes upon it, but you have even pointed to it with your finger.\"\n\nI had indeed a long time examined his merchandise, to make sure that it\nwas really milk, and had pointed with my finger, to the merchant, from\nwhich side I wished the milk poured out. Full of respect for the laws\nand customs of foreign peoples, I paid, without dispute, a rupee, the\nprice of all the milk, which was poured in the street, though I had\ntaken only one glass of it. This was a lesson which taught me, from now\non, not to fix my eyes upon the food of the Hindus.\n\nThere is no religious belief more muddled by the numbers of ceremonious\nlaws and commentaries prescribing its observances than the Brahminic.\n\nWhile each of the other principal religions has but one inspired book,\none Bible, one Gospel, or one Koran--books from which the Hebrew, the\nChristian and the Musselman draw their creeds--the Brahminical Hindus\npossess such a great number of tomes and commentaries in folio that the\nwisest Brahmin has hardly had the time to peruse one-tenth of them.\nLeaving aside the four books of the Vedas; the Puranas--which are\nwritten in Sanscrit and composed of eighteen volumes--containing 400,000\nstrophes treating of law, rights, theogony, medicine, the creation and\ndestruction of the world, etc.; the vast Shastras, which deal with\nmathematics, grammar, etc.; the Upa-Vedas, Upanishads, Upo-Puranas--which\nare explanatory of the Puranas;--and a number of other commentaries in\nseveral volumes; there still remain twelve vast books, containing the\nlaws of Manu, the grandchild of Brahma--books dealing not only with\ncivil and criminal law, but also the canonical rules--rules which\nimpose upon the faithful such a considerable number of ceremonies that\none is surprised into admiration of the illimitable patience the\nHindus show in observance of the precepts inculcated by Saint Manu.\nManu was incontestably a great legislator and a great thinker, but\nhe has written so much that it has happened to him frequently to\ncontradict himself in the course of a single page. The Brahmins do\nnot take the trouble to notice that, and the poor Hindus, whose\nlabor supports the Brahminic caste, obey servilely their clergy,\nwhose prescriptions enjoin upon them never to touch a man who does not\nbelong to their caste, and also absolutely prohibit a stranger from\nfixing his attention upon anything belonging to a Hindu. Keeping himself\nto the strict letter of this law, the Hindu imagines that his food is\npolluted when it receives a little protracted notice from the stranger.\n\nAnd yet, Brahminism has been, even at the beginning of its second birth,\na purely monotheistic religion, recognizing only one infinite and\nindivisible God. As it came to pass in all times and in religions, the\nclergy took advantage of the privileged situation which places them\nabove the ignorant multitude, and early manufactured various exterior\nforms of cult and certain laws, thinking they could better, in this way,\ninfluence and control the masses. Things changed soon, so far that the\nprinciple of monotheism, of which the Vedas have given such a clear\nconception, became confounded with, or, as it were, supplanted by an\nabsurd and limitless series of gods and goddesses, half-gods, genii and\ndevils, which were represented by idols, of infinite variety but all\nequally horrible looking. The people, once glorious as their religion\nwas once great and pure, now slip by degrees into complete idiocy.\nHardly does their day suffice for the accomplishment of all the\nprescriptions of their canons. It must be said positively that the\nHindus only exist to support their principal caste, the Brahmins, who\nhave taken into their hands the temporal power which once was possessed\nby independent sovereigns of the people. While governing India, the\nEnglishman does not interfere with this phase of the public life, and so\nthe Brahmins profit by maintaining the people's hope of a better future.\n\nThe sun passed behind the summit of a mountain, and the darkness of\nnight in one moment overspread the magnificent landscape we were\ntraversing. Soon the narrow valley of the Djeloum fell asleep. Our road\nwinding along ledges of steep rocks, was instantly hidden from our\nsight; mountains and trees were confounded together in one dark mass,\nand the stars glittered in the celestial vault. We had to dismount and\nfeel our way along the mountain side, for fear of becoming the prey of\nthe abyss which yawned at our feet. At a late hour of the night we\ntraversed a bridge and ascended a steep elevation leading to the\nbengalow Ouri, which at this height seems to enjoy complete isolation.\nThe next day we traversed a charming region, always going along the\nriver--at a turn of which we saw the ruins of a Sikh fortress, that\nseemed to remember sadly its glorious past. In a little valley, nestled\namid the mountains, we found a bengalow which seemed to welcome us. In\nits proximity were encamped a cavalry regiment of the Maharajah of\nKachmyr.\n\nWhen the officers learned that I was a Russian, they invited me to share\ntheir repast. There I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of\nCol. Brown, who was the first to compile a dictionary of the\nAfghan-pouchton language.\n\nAs I was anxious to reach, as soon as possible, the city of Srinagar, I,\nwith little delay, continued my journey through the picturesque region\nlying at the foot of the mountains, after having, for a long time,\nfollowed the course of the river. Here, before our eyes, weary of the\nmonotonous desolation of the preceding landscapes, was unfolded a\ncharming view of a well-peopled valley, with many two-story houses\nsurrounded by gardens and cultivated fields. A little farther on begins\nthe celebrated valley of Kachmyr, situated behind a range of high rocks\nwhich I crossed toward evening. What a superb panorama revealed itself\nbefore my eyes, when I found myself at the last rock which separates the\nvalley of Kachmyr from the mountainous country I had traversed. A\nravishing tableau truly enchanted my sight. This valley, the limits of\nwhich are lost in the horizon, and is throughout well populated, is\nenshrined amid the high Himalayan mountains. At the rising and the\nsetting of the sun, the zone of eternal snows seems a silver ring, which\nlike a girdle surrounds this rich and delightful plateau, furrowed by\nnumerous rivers and traversed by excellent roads, gardens, hills, a\nlake, the islands in which are occupied by constructions of pretentious\nstyle, all these cause the traveller to feel as if he had entered\nanother world. It seems to him as though he had to go but a little\nfarther on and there must find the Paradise of which his governess had\ntold him so often in his childhood.\n\nThe veil of night slowly covered the valley, merging mountains, gardens\nand lake in one dark amplitude, pierced here and there by distant fires,\nresembling stars. I descended into the valley, directing myself toward\nthe Djeloum, which has broken its way through a narrow gorge in the\nmountains, to unite itself with the waters of the river Ind. According\nto the legend, the valley was once an inland sea; a passage opened\nthrough the rocks environing it, and drained the waters away, leaving\nnothing more of its former character than the lake, the Djeloum and\nminor water-courses. The banks of the river are now lined with\nboat-houses, long and narrow, which the proprietors, with their\nfamilies, inhabit the whole year.\n\nFrom here Srinagar can be reached in one day's travel on horseback; but\nwith a boat the journey requires a day and a half. I chose the latter\nmode of conveyance, and having selected a boat and bargained with its\nproprietor for its hire, took my seat in the bow, upon a carpet,\nsheltered by a sort of penthouse roof. The boat left the shore at\nmidnight, bearing us rapidly toward Srinagar. At the stern of the bark,\na Hindu prepared my tea. I went to sleep, happy in knowing my voyage was\nto be accomplished. The hot caress of the sun's rays penetrating my\nlittle roof awakened me, and what I experienced delighted me beyond all\nexpression. Entirely green banks; the distant outlines of mountain tops\ncovered with snow; pretty villages which from time to time showed\nthemselves at the mountain's foot; the crystalline sheet of water; pure\nand peculiarly agreeable air, which I breathed with exhilaration; the\nmusical carols of an infinity of birds; a sky of extraordinary purity;\nbehind me the plash of water stirred by the round-ended paddle which was\nwielded with ease by a superb woman (with marvellous eyes and a\ncomplexion browned by the sun), who wore an air of stately indifference:\nall these things together seemed to plunge me into an ecstasy, and I\nforgot entirely the reason for my presence on the river. In that moment\nI had not even a desire to reach the end of my voyage--and yet, how many\nprivations remained for me to undergo, and dangers to encounter! I felt\nmyself here so well content!\n\nThe boat glided rapidly and the landscape continued to unfold new\nbeauties before my eyes, losing itself in ever new combinations with the\nhorizon, which merged into the mountains we were passing, to become one\nwith them. Then a new panorama would display itself, seeming to expand\nand flow out from the sides of the mountains, becoming more and more\ngrand.... The day was almost spent and I was not yet weary of\ncontemplating this magnificent nature, the view of which reawakened the\nsouvenirs of childhood and youth. How beautiful were those days forever\ngone!\n\nThe more nearly one approaches Srinagar, the more numerous become the\nvillages embowered in the verdure. At the approach of our boat, some of\ntheir inhabitants came running to see us; the men in their turbans, the\nwomen in their small bonnets, both alike dressed in white gowns reaching\nto the ground, the children in a state of nudity which reminded one of\nthe costumes of our first parents.\n\nWhen entering the city one sees a range of barks and floating houses in\nwhich entire families reside. The tops of the far-off, snow-covered\nmountains were caressed by the last rays of the setting sun, when we\nglided between the wooden houses of Srinagar, which closely line both\nbanks of the river. Life seems to cease here at sunset; the thousands of\nmany colored open boats (dunga) and palanquin-covered barks (bangla)\nwere fastened along the beach; men and women gathered near the river, in\nthe primitive costumes of Adam and Eve, going through their evening\nablutions without feeling any embarrassment or prudery before each\nother, since they performed a religious rite, the importance of which is\ngreater for them than all human prejudices.\n\nOn the 20^th of October I awoke in a neat room, from which I had a gay\nview upon the river that was now inundated with the rays of the sun of\nKachmyr. As it is not my purpose to describe here my experiences in\ndetail, I refrain from enumerating the lovely valleys, the paradise of\nlakes, the enchanting islands, those historic places, mysterious\npagodas, and coquettish villages which seem lost in vast gardens; on all\nsides of which rise the majestic tops of the giants of the Himalaya,\nshrouded as far as the eye can see in eternal snow. I shall only note\nthe preparations I made in view of my journey toward Thibet. I spent six\ndays at Srinagar, making long excursions into the enchanting\nsurroundings of the city, examining the numerous ruins which testify to\nthe ancient prosperity of this region, and studying the strange customs\nof the country.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nKachmyr, as well as the other provinces attached to it, Baltistan,\nLadak, etc., are vassals of England. They formerly formed part of the\npossessions of Randjid Sing, the Lion of the Pendjab. At his death, the\nEnglish troops occupied Lahore, the capital of the Pendjab, separated\nKachmyr from the rest of the empire and ceded it, under color of\nhereditary right, and for the sum of 160,000,000 francs, to Goulab-Sing,\none of the familiars of the late sovereign, conferring on him besides\nthe title of Maharadja. At the epoch of my journey, the actual Maharadja\nwas Pertab-Sing, the grandchild of Goulab, whose residence is Jamoo, on\nthe southern slope of the Himalaya.\n\nThe celebrated \"happy valley\" of Kachmyr (eighty-five miles long by\ntwenty-five miles wide) enjoyed glory and prosperity only under the\nGrand Mogul, whose court loved to taste here the sweetness of country\nlife, in the still existent pavilions on the little island of the lake.\nMost of the Maharadjas of Hindustan used formerly to spend here the\nsummer months, and to take part in the magnificent festivals given by\nthe Grand Mogul; but times have greatly changed since, and the happy\nvalley is today no more than a beggar retreat. Aquatic plants and scum\nhave covered the clear waters of the lake; the wild juniper has\nsmothered all the vegetation of the islands; the palaces and pavilions\nretain only the souvenir of their past grandeur; earth and grass cover\nthe buildings which are now falling in ruins. The surrounding mountains\nand their eternally white tops seem to be absorbed in a sullen sadness,\nand to nourish the hope of a better time for the disclosure of their\nimmortal beauties. The once spiritual, beautiful and cleanly inhabitants\nhave grown animalistic and stupid; they have become dirty and lazy; and\nthe whip now governs them, instead of the sword.\n\nThe people of Kachmyr have so often been subject to invasions and\npillages and have had so many masters, that they have now become\nindifferent to every thing. They pass their time near the banks of the\nrivers, gossiping about their neighbors; or are engaged in the\npainstaking work of making their celebrated shawls; or in the execution\nof filagree gold or silver work. The Kachmyr women are of a melancholy\ntemperament, and an inconceivable sadness is spread upon their features.\nEverywhere reigns misery and uncleanness. The beautiful men and superb\nwomen of Kachmyr are dirty and in rags. The costume of the two sexes\nconsists, winter and summer alike, of a long shirt, or gown, made of\nthick material and with puffed sleeves. They wear this shirt until it is\ncompletely worn out, and never is it washed, so that the white turban of\nthe men looks like dazzling snow near their dirty shirts, which are\ncovered all over with spittle and grease stains.\n\nThe traveller feels himself permeated with sadness at seeing the\ncontrast between the rich and opulent nature surrounding them, and this\npeople dressed in rags.\n\nThe capital of the country, Srinagar (City of the Sun), or, to call it\nby the name which is given to it here after the country, Kachmyr, is\nsituated on the shore of the Djeloum, along which it stretches out\ntoward the south to a distance of five kilometres and is not more than\ntwo kilometres in breadth.\n\nIts two-story houses, inhabited by a population of 100,000 inhabitants,\nare built of wood and border both river banks. Everybody lives on the\nriver, the shores of which are united by ten bridges. Terraces lead from\nthe houses to the Djeloum, where all day long people perform their\nceremonial ablutions, bathe and wash their culinary utensils, which\nconsist of a few copper pots. Part of the inhabitants practice the\nMusselman religion; two-thirds are Brahminic; and there are but few\nBuddhists to be found among them.\n\nIt was time to make other preparations for travel before plunging into\nthe unknown. Having purchased different kinds of conserves, wine and\nother things indispensable on a journey through a country so little\npeopled as is Thibet, I packed all my baggage in boxes; hired six\ncarriers and an interpreter, bought a horse for my own use, and fixed my\ndeparture for the 27^th of October. To cheer up my journey, I took from\na good Frenchman, M. Peicheau, the wine cultivator of the Maharadja, a\nbig dog, Pamir, who had already traversed the road with my friends,\nBonvallot, Capus and Pepin, the well-known explorers. As I wished to\nshorten my journey by two days, I ordered my carriers to leave at dawn\nfrom the other side of the lake, which I crossed in a boat, and joined\nthem and my horse at the foot of the mountain chain which separates the\nvalley of Srinagar from the Sind gorge.\n\nI shall never forget the tortures which we had to undergo in climbing\nalmost on all fours to a mountain top, three thousand feet high. The\ncarriers were out of breath; every moment I feared to see one tumble\ndown the declivity with his burden, and I felt pained at seeing my poor\ndog, Pamir, panting and with his tongue hanging out, make two or three\nsteps and fall to the ground exhausted. Forgetting my own fatigue, I\ncaressed and encouraged the poor animal, who, as if understanding me,\ngot up to make another two or three steps and fall anew to the ground.\n\nThe night had come when we reached the crest; we threw ourselves\ngreedily upon the snow to quench our thirst; and after a short rest,\nstarted to descend through a very thick pine forest, hastening to gain\nthe village of Ha\u00efena, at the foot of the defile, fearing the attacks of\nbeasts of prey in the darkness.\n\nA level and good road leads from Srinagar to Ha\u00efena, going straight\nnorthward over Ganderbal, where I repaired by a more direct route across\na pass three thousand feet high, which shortened for me both time and\ndistance.\n\nMy first step in the unknown was marked by an incident which made all of\nus pass an ugly quarter of an hour. The defile of the Sind, sixty miles\nlong, is especially noteworthy for the inhospitable hosts it contains.\nAmong others it abounds in panthers, tigers, leopards, black bears,\nwolves and jackals. As though by a special misfortune, the snow had\ncovered with its white carpet the heights of the chain, compelling those\nformidable, carnivorous beasts to descend a little lower for shelter in\ntheir dens. We descended in silence, amid the darkness, a narrow path\nthat wound through the centennary firs and birches, and the calm of the\nnight was only broken by the crackling sound of our steps. Suddenly,\nquite near to us, a terrible howling awoke the echoes of the woods. Our\nsmall troop stopped. \"A panther!\" exclaimed, in a low and frightened\nvoice, my servant. The small caravan of a dozen men stood motionless, as\nthough riveted to the spot. Then it occurred to me that at the moment of\nstarting on our ascent, when already feeling fatigued, I had entrusted\nmy revolver to one of the carriers, and my Winchester rifle to another.\nNow I felt bitter regret for having parted with my arms, and asked in a\nlow voice where the man was to whom I had given the rifle. The howls\nbecame more and more violent, and filled the echoes of the woods, when\nsuddenly a dull sound was heard, like the fall of some body. A minute\nlater we heard the noise of a struggle and a cry of agony which mingled\nwith the fierce roars of the starved animal.\n\n\"Saa\u00efb, take the gun,\" I heard some one near by. I seized feverishly the\nrifle, but, vain trouble, one could not see two steps before oneself. A\nnew cry, followed by a smothered howling, indicated to me vaguely the\nplace of the struggle, toward which I crawled, divided between the\nardent desire to \"kill a panther\" and a horrible fear of being eaten\nalive. No one dared to move; only after five minutes it occurred to one\nof the carriers to light a match. I then remembered the fear which\nfeline animals exhibit at the presence of fire, and ordered my men to\ngather two or three handfuls of brush, which I set on fire. We then saw,\nabout ten steps from us, one of our carriers stretched out on the\nground, with his limbs frightfully lacerated by the claws of a huge\npanther. The beast still lay upon him defiantly, holding a piece of\nflesh in its mouth. At its side, gaped a box of wine broken open by its\nfall when the carrier was torn down. Hardly did I make a movement to\nbring the rifle to my shoulder, when the panther raised itself, and\nturned toward us while dropping part of its horrible meal. One moment,\nit appeared about to spring upon me, then it suddenly wheeled, and\nrending the air with a howl, enough to freeze one's blood, jumped into\nthe midst of the thicket and disappeared.\n\nMy coolies, whom an odious fear had all the time kept prostrated on the\nground, recovered little by little from their fright. Keeping in\nreadiness a few packages of dry grass and matches, we hastened to reach\nthe village Ha\u00efena, leaving behind the remains of the unfortunate Hindu,\nwhose fate we feared sharing.\n\nAn hour later we had left the forest and entered the plain. I ordered my\ntent erected under a very leafy plane tree, and had a great fire made\nbefore it, with a pile of wood, which was the only protection we could\nemploy against the ferocious beasts whose howls continued to reach us\nfrom all directions. In the forest my dog had pressed himself against\nme, with his tail between his legs; but once under the tent, he suddenly\nrecovered his watchfulness, and barked incessantly the whole night,\nbeing very careful, however, not to step outside. I spent a terrible\nnight, rifle in hand, listening to the concert of those diabolical\nhowlings, the echoes of which seemed to shake the defile. Some panthers\napproached our bivouac to answer the barking of Pamir, but dared not\nattack us.\n\nI had left Srinagar at the head of eleven carriers, four of whom had to\ncarry so many boxes of wine, four others bore my travelling effects; one\nmy weapons, another various utensils, and finally a last, who went\nerrands or on reconnaissance. His name was \"Chicari,\" which means \"he\nwho accompanies the hunter and gathers the prey.\" I discharged him in\nthe morning on account of his cowardice and his profound ignorance of\nthe country, and only retained four carriers. It was but slowly that I\nadvanced toward the village of Gounde.\n\nHow beautiful is nature in the Sind pass, and how much is it beloved by\nthe hunters! Besides the great fallow deer, you meet there the hind, the\nstag, the mountain sheep and an immense variety of birds, among which I\nwant to mention above all the golden pheasant, and others of red or\nsnow-white plumage, very large partridges and immense eagles.\n\nThe villages situated along the Sind do not shine by their dimensions.\nThey contain, for the greatest part, not more than ten to twenty huts of\nan extremely miserable appearance. Their inhabitants are clad in rags.\nTheir cattle belongs to a very small race.\n\nI crossed the river at Sambal, and stopped near the village Gounde,\nwhere I procured relay horses. In some villages they refused to hire\nhorses to me; I then threatened them with my whip, which at once\ninspired respect and obedience; my money accomplished the same end; it\ninspired a servile obedience--not willingness--to obey my least orders.\n\nStick and gold are the true sovereigns in the Orient; without them the\nVery Grand Mogul would not have had any preponderance.\n\nNight began to descend, and I was in a hurry to cross the defile which\nseparates the villages Gogangan and Sonamarg. The road is in very bad\ncondition, and the mountains are infested by beasts of prey which in the\nnight descend into the very villages to seek their prey. The country is\ndelightful and very fertile; nevertheless, but few colonists venture to\nsettle here, on account of the neighborhood of the panthers, which come\nto the dooryards to seize domestic animals.\n\nAt the very exit of the defile, near the village of Tchokodar, or\nThajwas, the half obscurity prevailing only permitted me to distinguish\ntwo dark masses crossing the road. They were two big bears followed by a\nyoung one. I was alone with my servant (the caravan having loitered\nbehind), so I did not like to attack them with only one rifle; but the\nlong excursions which I had made on the mountain had strongly developed\nin me the sense of the hunter. To jump from my horse, shoot, and,\nwithout even verifying the result, change quickly the cartridge, was the\naffair of a second. One bear was about to jump on me, a second shot\nmade it run away and disappear. Holding in my hand my loaded gun, I\napproached with circumspection, the one at which I had aimed, and found\nit laying on its flank, dead, with the little cub beside it. Another\nshot killed the little one, after which I went to work to take off the\ntwo superb jet-black skins.\n\nThis incident made us lose two hours, and night had completely set in\nwhen I erected my tent near Tchokodar, which I left at sunrise to gain\nBaltal, by following the course of the Sind river. At this place the\nravishing landscape of the \"golden prairie\" terminates abruptly with a\nvillage of the same name (Sona, gold, and Marg, prairie). The abrupt\nacclivity of Zodgi-La, which we next surmounted, attains an elevation of\n11,500 feet, on the other side of which the whole country assumes a\nsevere and inhospitable character. My hunting adventures closed before\nreaching Baltal. From there I met on the road only wild goats. In order\nto hunt, I would have had to leave the grand route and to penetrate into\nthe heart of the mountains full of mysteries. I had neither the\ninclination nor the time to do so, and, therefore, continued quietly my\njourney toward Ladak.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHow violent the contrast I felt when passing from the laughing nature\nand beautiful population of Kachmyr to the arid and forbidding rocks and\nthe beardless and ugly inhabitants of Ladak!\n\nThe country into which I penetrated is situated at an altitude of 11,000\nto 12,000 feet. Only at Karghil the level descends to 8,000 feet.\n\nThe acclivity of Zodgi-La is very rough; one must climb up an almost\nperpendicular rocky wall. In certain places the road winds along upon\nrock ledges of only a metre in width, below which the sight drops into\nunfathomable abysses. May the Lord preserve the traveller from a fall!\nAt one place, the way is upon long beams introduced into holes made in\nthe rock, like a bridge, and covered up with earth. Brr!--At the thought\nthat a little stone might get loose and roll down the slope of the\nmountain, or that a too strong oscillation of the beams could\nprecipitate the whole structure into the abyss, and with it him who had\nventured upon the perilous path, one feels like fainting more than once\nduring this hazardous passage.\n\nAfter crossing the glaciers we stopped in a valley and prepared to spend\nthe night near a hut, a dismal place surrounded by eternal ice and snow.\n\nFrom Baltal the distances are determined by means of daks, _i.e._,\npostal stations for mail service. They are low huts, about seven\nkilometres distant from each other. A man is permanently established in\neach of these huts. The postal service between Kachmyr and Thibet is yet\ncarried on in a very primitive form. The letters are enclosed in a\nleather bag, which is handed to the care of a carrier. The latter runs\nrapidly over the seven kilometres assigned to him, carrying on his back\na basket which holds several of these bags, which he delivers to another\ncarrier, who, in his turn, accomplishes his task in an identical manner.\nNeither rain nor snow can arrest these carriers. In this way the mail\nservice is carried on between Kachmyr and Thibet, and _vice versa_ once\na week. For each course the letter carrier is paid six annas (twenty\ncents); the same wages as is paid to the carriers of merchandise. This\nsum I also paid to every one of my servants for carrying a ten times\nheavier load.\n\nIt makes one's heart ache to see the pale and tired-looking figures of\nthese carriers; but what is to be done? It is the custom of the country.\nThe tea is brought from China by a similar system of transportation,\nwhich is rapid and inexpensive.\n\nIn the village of Montaiyan, I found again the Yarkandien caravan of\npilgrims, whom I had promised to accompany on their journey. They\nrecognized me from a distance, and asked me to examine one of their men,\nwho had fallen sick. I found him writhing in the agonies of an intense\nfever. Shaking my hands as a sign of despair, I pointed to the heavens\nand gave them to understand that human will and science were now\nuseless, and that God alone could save him. These people journeyed by\nsmall stages only; I, therefore, left them and arrived in the evening at\nDrass, situated at the bottom of a valley near a river of the same name.\nNear Drass, a little fort of ancient construction, but freshly painted,\nstands aloof, under the guard of three Sikhs of the Maharadja's army.\n\nAt Drass, my domicile was the post-house, which is a station--and the\nonly one--of an unique telegraph line from Srinagar to the interior of\nthe Himalayas. From that time on, I no more had my tent put up each\nevening, but stopped in the caravansarais; places which, though made\nrepulsive by their dirt, are kept warm by the enormous piles of wood\nburned in their fireplaces.\n\nFrom Drass to Karghil the landscape is unpleasing and monotonous, if one\nexcepts the marvellous effects of the rising and setting sun and the\nbeautiful moonlight. Apart from these the road is wearisome and\nabounding with dangers. Karghil is the principal place of the district,\nwhere the governor of the country resides. Its site is quite\npicturesque. Two water courses, the Souron and the Wakkha, roll their\nnoisy and turbulent waters among rocks and sunken snags of uprooted\ntrees, escaping from their respective defiles in the rocks, to join in\nforming here the river Souron, upon the banks of which stands Karghil. A\nlittle fort, garrisoned by two or three Sikhs, shows its outlines at the\njunction of the streams. Provided with a horse, I continued my journey\nat break of day, entering now the province of Ladak, or Little Thibet. I\ntraversed a ricketty bridge, composed--like all the bridges of\nKachmyr--of two long beams, the ends of which were supported upon the\nbanks and the floor made of a layer of fagots and sticks, which imparted\nto the traveller, at least the illusion of a suspension bridge. Soon\nafterward I climbed slowly up on a little plateau, which crosses the way\nat a distance of two kilometres, to descend into the narrow valley of\nWakkha. Here there are several villages, among which, on the left shore,\nis the very picturesque one called Paskium.\n\nHere my feet trod Buddhist ground. The inhabitants are of a very simple\nand mild disposition, seemingly ignorant of \"quarreling.\" Women are very\nrare among them. Those of them whom I encountered were distinguished\nfrom the women I had hitherto seen in India or Kachmyr, by the air of\ngaiety and prosperity apparent in their countenances. How could it be\notherwise, since each woman in this country has, on an average, three to\nfive husbands, and possesses them in the most legitimate way in the\nworld. Polyandry flourishes here. However large a family may be, there\nis but one woman in it. If the family does not contain already more than\ntwo husbands, a bachelor may share its advantages, for a consideration.\nThe days sacred to each one of those husbands are determined in advance,\nand all acquit themselves of their respective duties and respect each\nothers' rights. The men generally seem feeble, with bent backs, and do\nnot live to old age. During my travels in Ladak, I only encountered one\nman so old that his hair was white.\n\nFrom Karghil to the centre of Ladak, the road had a more cheerful aspect\nthan that I had traversed before reaching Karghil, its prospect being\nbrightened by a number of little hamlets, but trees and verdure were,\nunfortunately, rare.\n\nTwenty miles from Karghil, at the end of the defile formed by the rapid\ncurrent of the Wakkha, is a little village called Chargol, in the\ncentre of which stand three chapels, decorated with lively colors\n(_t'horthenes_, to give them the name they bear in Thibet). Below, near\nthe river, are masses of rocks, in the form of long and large walls,\nupon which are thrown, in apparent disorder, flat stones of different\ncolors and sizes. Upon these stones are engraved all sorts of prayers,\nin Ourd, Sanscrit and Thibetan, and one can even find among them\ninscriptions in Arabic characters. Without the knowledge of my carriers,\nI succeeded in taking away a few of these stones, which are now in the\npalace of the Trocadero.\n\nAlong the way, from Chargol, one finds frequently oblong mounds,\nartificial constructions. After sunrise, with fresh horses, I resumed my\njourney and stopped near the _gonpa_ (monastery) of Moulbek, which seems\nglued on the flank of an isolated rock. Below is the hamlet of Wakkha,\nand not far from there is to be seen another rock, of very strange form,\nwhich seems to have been placed where it stands by human hands. In one\nside of it is cut a Buddha several metres in height. Upon it are several\ncylinders, the turning of which serves for prayers. They are a sort of\nwooden barrel, draped with yellow or white fabrics, and are attached to\nvertically planted stakes. It requires only the least wind to make them\nturn. The person who puts up one of these cylinders no longer feels it\nobligatory upon him to say his prayers, for all that devout believers\ncan ask of God is written upon the cylinders. Seen from a distance this\nwhite painted monastery, standing sharply out from the gray background\nof the rocks, with all these whirling, petticoated wheels, produce a\nstrange effect in this dead country. I left my horses in the hamlet of\nWakkha, and, followed by my servant, walked toward the convent, which is\nreached by a narrow stairway cut in the rock. At the top, I was received\nby a very fat lama, with a scanty, straggling beard under his chin--a\ncommon characteristic of the Thibetan people--who was very ugly, but\nvery cordial. His costume consisted of a yellow robe and a sort of big\nnightcap, with projecting flaps above the ears, of the same color. He\nheld in his hand a copper prayer-machine which, from time to time, he\nshook with his left hand, without at all permitting that exercise to\ninterfere with his conversation. It was his eternal prayer, which he\nthus communicated to the wind, so that by this element it should be\nborne to Heaven. We traversed a suite of low chambers, upon the walls of\nwhich were images of Buddha, of all sizes and made of all kinds of\nmaterials, all alike covered by a thick layer of dust. Finally we\nreached an open terrace, from which the eyes, taking in the surrounding\nregion, rested upon an inhospitable country, strewn with grayish rocks\nand traversed by only a single road, which on both sides lost itself in\nthe horizon.\n\nWhen we were seated, they brought us beer, made with hops, called here\n_Tchang_ and brewed in the cloister. It has a tendency to rapidly\nproduce _embonpoint_ upon the monks, which is regarded as a sign of the\nparticular favor of Heaven.\n\nThey spoke here the Thibetan language. The origin of this language is\nfull of obscurity. One thing is certain, that a king of Thibet, a\ncontemporary of Mohammed, undertook the creation of an universal\nlanguage for all the disciples of Buddha. To this end he had simplified\nthe Sanscrit grammar, composed an alphabet containing an infinite number\nof signs, and thus laid the foundations of a language the pronunciation\nof which is one of the easiest and the writing the most complicated.\nIndeed, in order to represent a sound one must employ not less than\neight characters. All the modern literature of Thibet is written in this\nlanguage. The pure Thibetan is only spoken in Ladak and Oriental Thibet.\nIn all other parts of the country are employed dialects formed by the\nmixture of this mother language with different idioms taken from the\nneighboring peoples of the various regions round about. In the ordinary\nlife of the Thibetan, there exists always two languages, one of which is\nabsolutely incomprehensible to the women, while the other is spoken by\nthe entire nation; but only in the convents can be found the Thibetan\nlanguage in all its purity and integrity.\n\nThe lamas much prefer the visits of Europeans to those of Musselmen, and\nwhen I asked the one who received me why this was so, he answered me:\n\"Musselmen have no point of contact at all with our religion. Only\ncomparatively recently, in their victorious campaign, they have\nconverted, by force, part of the Buddhists to Islam. It requires of us\ngreat efforts to bring back those Musselmen, descendants of Buddhists,\ninto the path of the true God. As regards the Europeans, it is quite a\ndifferent affair. Not only do they profess the essential principles of\nmonotheism, but they are, in a sense, adorers of Buddha, with almost the\nsame rites as the lamas who inhabit Thibet. The only fault of the\nChristians is that after having adopted the great doctrines of Buddha,\nthey have completely separated themselves from him, and have created for\nthemselves a different Dalai-Lama. Our Dalai-Lama is the only one who\nhas received the divine gift of seeing, face to face, the majesty of\nBuddha, and is empowered to serve as an intermediary between earth and\nheaven.\"\n\n\"Which Dalai-Lama of the Christians do you refer to?\" I asked him; \"we\nhave one, the Son of God, to whom we address directly our fervent\nprayers, and to him alone we recur to intercede with our One and\nIndivisible God.\"\n\n\"It is not him of whom it is a question, Sahib,\" he replied. \"We, too,\nrespect him, whom we reverence as son of the One and Indivisible God,\nbut we do not see in him the Only Son, but the excellent being who was\nchosen among all. Buddha, indeed, has incarnated himself, with his\ndivine nature, in the person of the sacred Issa, who, without employing\nfire or iron, has gone forth to propagate our true and great religion\namong all the world. Him whom I meant was your terrestrial Dalai-Lama;\nhe to whom you have given the title of 'Father of the Church.' That is a\ngreat sin. May he be brought back, with the flock, who are now in a bad\nroad,\" piously added the lama, giving another twirl to his\nprayer-machine.\n\nI understood now that he alluded to the Pope. \"You have told me that a\nson of Buddha, Issa, the elect among all, had spread your religion on\nthe Earth. Who is he?\" I asked.\n\nAt this question the lama's eyes opened wide; he looked at me with\nastonishment and pronounced some words I could not catch, murmuring in\nan unintelligible way. \"Issa,\" he finally replied, \"is a great prophet,\none of the first after the twenty-two Buddhas. He is greater than any\none of all the Dalai-Lamas, for he constitutes part of the spirituality\nof our Lord. It is he who has instructed you; he who brought back into\nthe bosom of God the frivolous and wicked souls; he who made you worthy\nof the beneficence of the Creator, who has ordained that each being\nshould know good and evil. His name and his acts have been chronicled in\nour sacred writings, and when reading how his great life passed away in\nthe midst of an erring people, we weep for the horrible sin of the\nheathen who murdered him, after subjecting him to torture.\"\n\nI was struck by this recital of the lama. The prophet Issa--his tortures\nand death--our Christian Dalai-Lama--the Buddhist recognizing\nChristianity--all these made me think more and more of Jesus Christ. I\nasked my interpreter not to lose a single word of what the lama told me.\n\n\"Where can those writings be found, and who compiled them?\" I asked the\nmonk.\n\n\"The principal scrolls--which were written in India and Nepaul, at\ndifferent epochs, as the events happened--are in Lhassa; several\nthousands in number. In some great convents are to be found copies,\nwhich the lamas, during their sojourn in Lhassa, have made, at various\ntimes, and have then given to their cloisters as souvenirs of the period\nthey spent with the Dalai-Lama.\"\n\n\"But you, yourselves; do you not possess copies of the scrolls bearing\nupon the prophet Issa?\"\n\n\"We have not. Our convent is insignificant, and since its foundation our\nsuccessive lamas have had only a few hundred manuscripts in their\nlibrary. The great cloisters have several thousands of them; but they\nare sacred things which will not, anywhere, be shown to you.\"\n\nWe spoke together a few minutes longer, after which I went home, all the\nwhile thinking of the lama's statements. Issa, a prophet of the\nBuddhists! But, how could this be? Of Jewish origin, he lived in\nPalestine and in Egypt; and the Gospels do not contain one word, not\neven the least allusion, to the part which Buddhism should have played\nin the education of Jesus.\n\nI made up my mind to visit all the convents of Thibet, in the hope of\ngathering fuller information upon the prophet Issa, and perhaps copies\nof the chronicles bearing upon this subject.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe traversed the Namykala Pass, at 30,000 feet of altitude, whence we\ndescended into the valley of the River Salinoumah. Turning southward, we\ngained Karbou, leaving behind us, on the opposite bank, numerous\nvillages, among other, Chagdoom, which is at the top of a rock, an\nextremely imposing sight. Its houses are white and have a sort of\nfestive look, with their two and three stories. This, by the way, is a\ncommon peculiarity of all the villages of Ladak. The eye of the\nEuropean, travelling in Kachmyr, would soon lose sight of all\narchitecture to which he had been accustomed. In Ladak, on the contrary,\nhe would be agreeably surprised at seeing the little two and three-story\nhouses, reminders to him of those in European provinces. Near the city\nof Karbou, upon two perpendicular rocks, one sees the ruins of a little\ntown or village. A tempest and an earthquake are said to have shaken\ndown its walls, the solidity of which seems to have been exceptional.\n\nThe next day I traversed the Fotu-La Pass, at an altitude of 13,500\nfeet. At its summit stands a little _t'horthene_ (chapel). Thence,\nfollowing the dry bed of a stream, I descended to the hamlet of\nLamayure, the sudden appearance of which is a surprise to the traveller.\nA convent, which seems grafted on the side of the rock, or held there in\nsome miraculous way, dominates the village. Stairs are unknown in this\ncloister. In order to pass from one story of it to another, ropes are\nused. Communication with the world outside is through a labyrinth of\npassages in the rock. Under the windows of the convent--which make one\nthink of birds' nests on the face of a cliff---is a little inn, the\nrooms of which are little inviting. Hardly had I stretched myself on the\ncarpet in one of them, when the monks, dressed in their yellow robes,\nfilled the apartment, bothered me with questions as to whence I came,\nthe purpose of my coming, where I was going, and so on, finally inviting\nme to come and see them.\n\nIn spite of my fatigue I accepted their invitation and set out with\nthem, to climb up the excavated passages in the rock, which were\nencumbered with an infinity of prayer cylinders and wheels, which I\ncould not but touch and set turning as I brushed past them. They are\nplaced there that they may be so turned, saving to the passers-by the\ntime they might otherwise lose in saying their prayers--as if their\naffairs were so absorbing, and their time so precious, that they could\nnot find leisure to pray. Many pious Buddhists use for this purpose an\napparatus arranged to be turned by the current of a stream. I have seen\na long row of cylinders, provided with their prayer formulas, placed\nalong a river bank, in such a way that the water kept them constantly in\nmotion, this ingenious device freeing the proprietors from any further\nobligation to say prayers themselves.\n\nI sat down on a bench in the hall, where semi-obscurity reigned. The\nwalls were garnished with little statues of Buddha, books and\nprayer-wheels. The loquacious lamas began explaining to me the\nsignificance of each object.\n\n\"And those books?\" I asked them; \"they, no doubt, have reference to\nreligion.\"\n\n\"Yes, sir. These are a few religious volumes which deal with the primary\nand principal rites of the life common to all. We possess several parts\nof the words of Buddha consecrated to the Great and Indivisible Divine\nBeing, and to all that issue from his hands.\"\n\n\"Is there not, among those books, some account of the prophet Issa?\"\n\n\"No, sir,\" answered the monk. \"We only possess a few principal treatises\nrelating to the observance of the religious rites. As for the\nbiographies of our saints, they are collected in Lhassa. There are even\ngreat cloisters which have not had the time to procure them. Before\ncoming to this gonpa, I was for several years in a great convent on the\nother side of Ladak, and have seen there thousands of books, and scrolls\ncopied out of various books by the lamas of the monastery.\"\n\nBy some further interrogation I learned that the convent in question was\nnear Leh, but my persistent inquiries had the effect of exciting the\nsuspicions of the lamas. They showed me the way out with evident\npleasure, and regaining my room, I fell asleep--after a light\nlunch--leaving orders with my Hindu to inform himself in a skillful way,\nfrom some of the younger lamas of the convent, about the monastery in\nwhich their chief had lived before coming to Lamayure.\n\nIn the morning, when we set forth on our journey, the Hindu told me that\nhe could get nothing from the lamas, who were very reticent. I will not\nstop to describe the life of the monks in those convents, for it is the\nsame in all the cloisters of Ladak. I have seen the celebrated monastery\nof Leh--of which I shall have to speak later on--and learned there the\nstrange existences the monks and religious people lead, which is\neverywhere the same. In Lamayure commences a declivity which, through a\nsteep, narrow and sombre gorge, extends toward India.\n\nWithout having the least idea of the dangers which the descent\npresented, I sent my carriers in advance and started on a route, rather\npleasant at the outset, which passes between the brown clay hills, but\nsoon it produced upon me the most depressing effect, as though I was\ntraversing a gloomy subterranean passage. Then the road came out on the\nflank of the mountain, above a terrible abyss. If a rider had met me, we\ncould not possibly have passed each other, the way was so narrow. All\ndescription would fail to convey a sense of the grandeur and wild beauty\nof this ca\u00f1on, the summit of the walls of which seemed to reach the sky.\nAt some points it became so narrow that from my saddle I could, with my\ncane, touch the opposite rock. At other places, death might be fancied\nlooking up expectantly, from the abyss, at the traveller. It was too\nlate to dismount. In entering alone this gorge, I had not the faintest\nidea that I would have occasion to regret my foolish imprudence. I had\nnot realized its character. It was simply an enormous crevasse, rent by\nsome Titanic throe of nature, some tremendous earthquake, which had\nsplit the granite mountain. In its bottom I could just distinguish a\nhardly perceptible white thread, an impetuous torrent, the dull roar of\nwhich filled the defile with mysterious and impressive sounds.\n\nFar overhead extended, narrow and sinuously, a blue ribbon, the only\nglimpse of the celestial world that the frowning granite walls permitted\nto be seen. It was a thrilling pleasure, this majestic view of nature.\nAt the same time, its rugged severity, the vastness of its proportions,\nthe deathly silence only invaded by the ominous murmur from the depths\nbeneath, all together filled me with an unconquerable depression. I had\nabout eight miles in which to experience these sensations, at once sweet\nand painful. Then, turning to the right, our little caravan reached a\nsmall valley, almost surrounded by precipitous granite rocks, which\nmirrored themselves in the Indus. On the bank of the river stands the\nlittle fortress Khalsi, a celebrated fortification dating from the epoch\nof the Musselman invasion, by which runs the wild road from Kachmyr to\nThibet.\n\nWe crossed the Indus on an almost suspended bridge which led directly to\nthe door of the fortress, thus impossible of evasion. Rapidly we\ntraversed the valley, then the village of Khalsi, for I was anxious to\nspend the night in the hamlet of Snowely, which is placed upon terraces\ndescending to the Indus. The two following days I travelled tranquilly\nand without any difficulties to overcome, along the shore of the Indus,\nin a picturesque country--which brought me to Leh, the capital of Ladak.\n\nWhile traversing the little valley of Saspoula, at a distance of several\nkilometres from the village of the same name, I found \"_t'horthenes_\"\nand two cloisters, above one of which floated the French flag. Later on,\nI learned that a French engineer had presented the flag to the monks,\nwho displayed it simply as a decoration of their building.\n\nI passed the night at Saspoula and certainly did not forget to visit the\ncloisters, seeing there for the tenth time the omnipresent dust-covered\nimages of Buddha; the flags and banners heaped in a corner; ugly masks\non the floor; books and papyrus rolls heaped together without order or\ncare, and the inevitable abundance of prayer-wheels. The lamas\ndemonstrated a particular pleasure in exhibiting these things, doing it\nwith the air of shopmen displaying their goods, with very little care\nfor the degree of interest the traveller may take in them. \"We must show\neverything, in the hope that the sight alone of these sacred objects\nwill force the traveller to believe in the divine grandeur of the human\nsoul.\"\n\nRespecting the prophet Issa, they gave me the same account I already\nhad, and I learned, what I had known before, that the books which could\ninstruct me about him were at Lhassa, and that only the great\nmonasteries possessed some copies. I did not think any more of passing\nKara-koroum, but only of finding the history of the prophet Issa, which\nwould, perhaps, bring to light the entire life of the best of men, and\ncomplete the rather vague information which the Gospels afford us about\nhim.\n\nNot far from Leh, and at the entrance of the valley of the same name,\nour road passed near an isolated rock, on the top of which were\nconstructed a fort--with two towers and without garrison--and a little\nconvent named Pitak. A mountain, 10,500 feet high, protects the entrance\nto Thibet. There the road makes a sudden turn toward the north, in the\ndirection of Leh, six miles from Pitak and a thousand feet higher.\nImmense granite mountains tower above Leh, to a height of 18,000 or\n19,000 feet, their crests covered with eternal snow. The city itself,\nsurrounded by a girdle of stunted aspen trees, rises upon successive\nterraces, which are dominated by an old fort and the palaces of the\nancient sovereigns of Ladak. Toward evening I made my entrance into Leh,\nand stopped at a bengalow constructed especially for Europeans, whom the\nroad from India brings here in the hunting season.\n\n\n\n\nLadak\n\n\nLadak formerly was part of Great Thibet. The powerful invading forces\nfrom the north which traversed the country to conquer Kachmyr, and the\nwars of which Ladak was the theatre, not only reduced it to misery, but\neventually subtracted it from the political domination of Lhassa, and\nmade it the prey of one conqueror after another. The Musselmen, who\nseized Kachmyr and Ladak at a remote epoch, converted by force the poor\ninhabitants of old Thibet to the faith of Islam. The political existence\nof Ladak ended with the annexation of this country to Kachmyr by the\ns\u00ebiks, which, however, permitted the Ladakians to return to their\nancient beliefs. Two-thirds of the inhabitants took advantage of this\nopportunity to rebuild their gonpas and take up their past life anew.\nOnly the Baltistans remained Musselman sch\u00fcttes--a sect to which the\nconquerors of the country had belonged. They, however, have only\nconserved a vague shadow of Islamism, the character of which manifests\nitself in their ceremonials and in the polygamy which they practice.\nSome lamas affirmed to me that they did not despair of one day bringing\nthem back to the faith of their ancestors.\n\nFrom the religious point of view Ladak is a dependency of Lhassa, the\ncapital of Thibet and the place of residence of the Dalai-Lama. In\nLhassa are located the principal Khoutoukhtes, or Supreme Lamas, and the\nChogzots, or administrators. Politically, it is under the authority of\nthe Maharadja of Kachmyr, who is represented there by a governor.\n\nThe inhabitants of Ladak belong to the Chinese-Touranian race, and are\ndivided into Ladakians and Tchampas. The former lead a sedentary\nexistence, building villages of two-story houses along the narrow\nvalleys, are cleanly in their habits, and cultivators of the soil. They\nare excessively ugly; thin, with stooping figures and small heads set\ndeep between their shoulders; their cheek bones salient, foreheads\nnarrow, eyes black and brilliant, as are those of all the Mongol race;\nnoses flat, mouths large and thin-lipped; and from their small chins,\nvery thinly garnished by a few hairs, deep wrinkles extend upward\nfurrowing their hollow cheeks. To all this, add a close-shaven head with\nonly a little bristling fringe of hair, and you will have the general\ntype, not alone of Ladak, but of entire Thibet.\n\nThe women are also of small stature, and have exceedingly prominent\ncheek bones, but seem to be of much more robust constitution. A healthy\nred tinges their cheeks and sympathetic smiles linger upon their lips.\nThey have good dispositions, joyous inclinations, and are fond of\nlaughing.\n\nThe severity of the climate and rudeness of the country, do not permit\nto the Ladakians much latitude in quality and colors of costume. They\nwear gowns of simple gray linen and coarse dull-hued clothing of their\nown manufacture. The pantaloons of the men only descend to their knees.\nPeople in good circumstances wear, in addition to the ordinary dress,\nthe \"choga,\" a sort of overcoat which is draped on the back when not\nwrapped around the figure. In winter they wear fur caps, with big ear\nflaps, and in summer cover their heads with a sort of cloth hood, the\ntop of which dangles on one side, like a Phrygian cap. Their shoes are\nmade of felt and covered with leather. A whole arsenal of little things\nhangs down from their belts, among which you will find a needle case, a\nknife, a pen and inkstand, a tobacco pouch, a pipe, and a diminutive\nspecimen of the omnipresent prayer-cylinder.\n\nThe Thibetan men are generally so lazy, that if a braid of hair happens\nto become loose, it is not tressed up again for three months, and when\nonce a shirt is put on the body, it is not again taken off until it\nfalls to pieces. Their overcoats are always unclean, and, on the back,\none may contemplate a long oily stripe imprinted by the braid of hair,\nwhich is carefully greased every day. They wash themselves once a year,\nbut even then do not do so voluntarily, but because compelled by law.\nThey emit such a terrible stench that one avoids, as much as possible,\nbeing near them.\n\nThe Thibetan women, on the contrary, are very fond of cleanliness and\norder. They wash themselves daily and as often as may be needful. Short\nand clean chemises hide their dazzling white necks. The Thibetan woman\nthrows on her round shoulders a red jacket, the flaps of which are\ncovered by tight pantaloons of green or red cloth, made in such a manner\nas to puff up and so protect the legs against the cold. She wears\nembroidered red half boots, trimmed and lined with fur. A large cloth\npetticoat with numerous folds completes her home toilet. Her hair is\narranged in thin braids, to which, by means of pins, a large piece of\nfloating cloth is attached,--which reminds one of the headdress so\ncommon in Italy. Underneath this sort of veil are suspended a variety of\nvarious colored pebbles, coins and pieces of metal. The ears are covered\nby flaps made of cloth or fur. A furred sheepskin covers the back, poor\nwomen contenting themselves with a simple plain skin of the animal,\nwhile wealthy ladies wear veritable cloaks, lined with red cloth and\nadorned with gold fringes.\n\nThe Ladak woman, whether walking in the streets or visiting her\nneighbors, always carries upon her back a conical basket, the smaller\nend of which is toward the ground. They fill it with the dung of horses\nor cows, which constitute the combustible of the country. Every woman\nhas money of her own, and spends it for jewelry. Generally she\npurchases, at a small expense, large pieces of turquoise, which are\nadded to the _bizarre_ ornaments of her headdress. I have seen pieces so\nworn which weighed nearly five pounds. The Ladak woman occupies a social\nposition for which she is envied by all women of the Orient. She is free\nand respected. With the exception of some rural work, she passes the\ngreatest part of her time in visiting. It must, however, be added that\nwomen's gossip is here a perfectly unknown thing.\n\nThe settled population of Ladak is engaged in agriculture, but they own\nso little land (the share of each may amount to about eight acres) that\nthe revenue drawn from it is insufficient to provide them with the\nbarest necessities and does not permit them to pay taxes. Manual\noccupations are generally despised. Artisans and musicians form the\nlowest class of society. The name by which they are designated is Bem,\nand people are very careful not to contract any alliance with them. The\nhours of leisure left by rural work are spent in hunting the wild sheep\nof Thibet, the skins of which are highly valued in India. The poorest,\n_i.e._, those who have not the means to purchase arms for hunting, hire\nthemselves as coolies. This is also an occupation of women, who are\nvery capable of enduring arduous toil. They are healthier than their\nhusbands, whose laziness goes so far that, careless of cold or heat,\nthey are capable of spending a whole night in the open air on a bed of\nstones rather than take the trouble to go to bed.\n\nPolyandry (which I shall treat later more fully) causes the formation of\nvery large families, who, in common, cultivate their jointly possessed\nlands, with the assistance of yaks, zos and zomos (oxen and cows). A\nmember of a family cannot detach himself from it, and when he dies, his\nshare reverts to the survivors in common.\n\nThey sow but little wheat and the grain is very small, owing to the\nseverity of the climate. They also harvest barley, which they pulverize\nbefore selling. When work in the field is ended, all male inhabitants go\nto gather on the mountain a wild herb called \"enoriota,\" and large thorn\nbushes or \"dama,\" which are used as fuel, since combustibles are scarce\nin Ladak. You see there neither trees nor gardens, and only\nexceptionally thin clumps of willows and poplars grow on the shores of\nthe rivers. Near the villages are also found some aspen trees; but, on\naccount of the unfertility of the ground, arboriculture is unknown and\ngardening is little successful.\n\nThe absence of wood is especially noticeable in the buildings, which are\nmade of sun-dried bricks, or, more frequently, of stones of medium size\nwhich are agglomerated with a kind of mortar composed of clay and\nchopped straw. The houses of the settled inhabitants are two stories\nhigh, their fronts whitewashed, and their window-sashes painted with\nlively colors. The flat roof forms a terrace which is decorated with\nwild flowers, and here, during good weather, the inhabitants spend much\nof their time contemplating nature, or turning their prayer-wheels.\nEvery dwelling-house is composed of many rooms; among them always one\nof superior size, the walls of which are decorated with superb\nfur-skins, and which is reserved for visitors. In the other rooms are\nbeds and other furniture. Rich people possess, moreover, a special room\nfilled with all kinds of idols, and set apart as a place of worship.\n\nLife here is very regular. They eat anything attainable, without much\nchoice; the principal nourishment of the Ladak people, however, being\nexceedingly simple. Their breakfast consists of a piece of rye bread. At\ndinner, they serve on the table a bowl with meal into which lukewarm\nwater is stirred with little rods until the mixture assumes the\nconsistency of thick paste. From this, small portions are scooped out\nand eaten with milk. In the evening, bread and tea are served. Meat is a\nsuperfluous luxury. Only the hunters introduce some variety in their\nalimentation, by eating the meat of wild sheep, eagles or pheasants,\nwhich are very common in this country.\n\nDuring the day, on every excuse and opportunity, they drink \"tchang,\" a\nkind of pale, unfermented beer.\n\nIf it happens that a Ladakian, mounted on a pony (such privileged people\nare very rare), goes to seek work in the surrounding country, he\nprovides himself with a small stock of meal; when dinner time comes, he\ndescends to a river or spring, mixes with water, in a wooden cup that he\nalways has with him, some of the meal, swallows the simple refreshment\nand washes it down with water.\n\nThe Tchampas, or nomads, who constitute the other part of Ladak's\npopulation, are rougher, and much poorer than the settled population.\nThey are, for the most part, hunters, who completely neglect\nagriculture. Although they profess the Buddhistic religion, they never\nfrequent the cloisters unless in want of meal, which they obtain in\nexchange for their venison. They mostly camp in tents on the summits of\nthe mountains, where the cold is very great. While the properly called\nLadakians are peaceable, very desirous of learning, of an incarnated\nlaziness, and are never known to tell untruth; the Tchampas, on the\ncontrary, are very irascible, extremely lively, great liars and profess\na great disdain for the convents.\n\nAmong them lives the small population of Khombas, wanderers from the\nvicinity of Lhassa, who lead the miserable existence of a troupe of\nbegging gipsies on the highways. Incapable of any work whatever,\nspeaking a language not spoken in the country where they beg for their\nsubsistence, they are the objects of general contempt, and are only\ntolerated out of pity for their deplorable condition, when hunger drives\ntheir mendicant bands to seek alms in the villages.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPolyandry, which is universally prevalent here, of course interested my\ncuriosity. This institution is, by the way, not the outcome of Buddha's\ndoctrines. Polyandry existed long before the advent of Buddha. It\nassumed considerable proportions in India, where it constituted one of\nthe most effective means for checking the growth of a population which\ntends to constant increase, an economic danger which is even yet\ncombatted by the abominable custom of killing newborn female children,\nwhich causes terrible ravages in the child-life of India. The efforts\nmade by the English in their enactments against the suppression of the\nfuture mothers have proved futile and fruitless. Manu himself\nestablished polyandry as a law, and Buddhist preachers, who had\nrenounced Brahminism and preached the use of opium, imported this custom\ninto Ceylon, Thibet, Corea, and the country of the Moguls. For a long\ntime suppressed in China, polyandry, which flourishes in Thibet and\nCeylon, is also met with among the Kalmonks, between Todas in Southern\nIndia, and Nairs on the coast of Malabar. Traces of this strange\nconstitution of the family are also to be found with the Tasmanians and\nthe Irquois Indians in North America.\n\nPolyandry, by the way, has even flourished in Europe, if we may believe\nC\u00e6sar, who, in his _De Bello Gallico_, book V., page 17, writes:\n\"_Uxores habent deni duodenique inter se communes, et maxime fratres cum\nfratribus et parentes cum liberis._\"\n\nIn view of all this it is impossible to hold any religion responsible\nfor the existence of the institution of polyandry. In Thibet it can be\nexplained by motives of an economical nature; the small quantity of\narable land falling to the share of each inhabitant. In order to support\nthe 1,500,000 inhabitants distributed in Thibet, upon a surface of\n1,200,000 square kilometres, the Buddhists were forced to adopt\npolyandry. Moreover, each family is bound to enter one of its members in\na religious order. The firstborn is consecrated to a gonpa, which is\ninevitably found upon an elevation, at the entrance of every village.\nAs soon as the child attains the age of eighteen years, he is entrusted\nto the caravans which pass Lhassa, where he remains from eight to\nfifteen years as a novice, in one of the gonpas which are near the city.\nThere he learns to read and write, is taught the religious rites and\nstudies the sacred parchments written in the Pali language--which\nformerly used to be the language of the country of Maguada, where,\naccording to tradition, Buddha was born.\n\nThe oldest brother remaining in a family chooses a wife, who becomes\ncommon to his brothers. The choice of the bride and the nuptial\nceremonies are most rudimentary. When a wife and her husband have\ndecided upon the marriage of a son, the brother who possesses the right\nof choice, pays a visit to a neighboring family in which there is a\nmarriageable daughter.\n\nThe first and second visits are spent in more or less indifferent\nconversations, blended with frequent libations of tchang, and on the\nthird visit only does the young man declare his intention to take a\nwife. Upon this the girl is formally introduced to him. She is generally\nnot unknown to the wooer, as, in Ladak, women never veil their faces.\n\nA girl cannot be married without her consent. When the young man is\naccepted, he takes his bride to his house, and she becomes his wife and\nalso the wife of all his brothers. A family which has an only son sends\nhim to a woman who has no more than two or three husbands, and he offers\nhimself to her as a fourth husband. Such an offer is seldom declined,\nand the young man settles in the new family.\n\nThe newly married remain with the parents of the husbands, until the\nyoung wife bears her first child. The day after that event, the\ngrandparents of the infant make over the bulk of their fortune to the\nnew family, and, abandoning the old home to them, seek other shelter.\n\nSometimes marriages are contracted between youth who have not reached a\nmarriageable age, but in such event, the married couple are made to live\napart, until they have attained and even passed the age required. An\nunmarried girl who becomes _enceinte_, far from being exposed to the\nscorn of every one, is shown the highest respect; for she is\ndemonstrated fruitful, and men eagerly seek her in marriage. A wife has\nthe unquestioned right of having an unlimited number of husbands and\nlovers. If she likes a young man, she takes him home, announces that he\nhas been chosen by her as a \"jingtuh\" (a lover), and endows him with all\nthe personal rights of a husband, which situation is accepted by her\ntemporarily supplanted husbands with a certain philosophic pleasure,\nwhich is the more pronounced if their wife has proved sterile during the\nthree first years of her marriage.\n\nThey certainly have here not even a vague idea of jealousy. The\nThibetan's blood is too cold to know love, which, for him, would be\nalmost an anachronism; if indeed he were not conscious that the\nsentiment of the entire community would be against him, as a flagrant\nviolator of popular usage and established rights, in restraining the\nfreedom of the women. The selfish enjoyment of love would be, in their\neyes, an unjustifiable luxury.\n\nIn case of a husband's absence, his place may be offered to a bachelor\nor a widower. The latter are here in the minority, since the wife\ngenerally survives her feeble husbands. Sometimes a Buddhist traveller,\nwhom his affairs bring to the village, is chosen for this office. A\nhusband who travels, or seeks for work in the neighboring country, at\nevery stop takes advantage of his co-religionists' hospitality, who\noffer him their own wives. The husbands of a sterile woman exert\nthemselves to find opportunities for hospitality, which may happily\neventuate in a change in her condition, that they may be made happy\nfathers.\n\nThe wife enjoys the general esteem, is ever of a cheerful disposition,\ntakes part in everything that is going on, goes and comes without any\nrestriction, anywhere and everywhere she pleases, with the exception of\nthe principal prayer-room of the monastery, entrance into which is\nformally prohibited to her.\n\nChildren know only their mother, and do not feel the least affection for\ntheir fathers, for the simple reason that they have so many. Without\napproving polyandry, I could not well blame Thibet for this institution,\nsince without it, the population would prodigiously increase. Famine and\nmisery would fall upon the whole nation, with all the sinister\n_sequell\u00e6_ of murder and theft, crimes so far absolutely unknown in the\nwhole country.\n\n\n\n\n_A Festival in a Gonpa_\n\n\nLeh, the capital of Ladak, is a little town of 5,000 inhabitants, who\nlive in white, two-story houses, upon two or three streets, principally.\nIn its centre is the square of the bazaar, where the merchants of India,\nChina, Turkestan, Kachmyr and Thibet, come to exchange their products\nfor the Thibetan gold. Here the natives provide themselves with cloths\nfor themselves and their monks, and various objects of real necessity.\n\nAn old uninhabited palace rises upon a hill which dominates the town.\nFronting the central square is a vast building, two stories in height,\nthe residence of the governor of Ladak, the Vizier Souradjbal--a very\namiable and universally popular Pendjaban, who has received in London\nthe degree of Doctor of Philosophy.\n\nTo entertain me, during my sojourn in Leh, the governor arranged, on the\nbazaar square, a game of polo--the national sport of the Thibetans,\nwhich the English have adopted and introduced into Europe. In the\nevening, after the game, the people executed dances and played games\nbefore the governor's residence. Large bonfires illuminated the scene,\nlighting up the throng of inhabitants, who formed a great circle about\nthe performers. The latter, in considerable numbers, disguised as\nanimals, devils and sorcerers, jumped and contorted themselves in\nrhythmic dances timed to the measure of the monotonous and unpleasing\nmusic made by two long trumpets and a drum.\n\nThe infernal racket and shouting of the crowd wearied me. The\nperformance ended with some graceful dances by Thibetan women, who spun\nupon their heels, swaying to and fro, and, in passing before the\nspectators in the windows of the residence, greeted us by the clashing\ntogether of the copper and ivory bracelets on their crossed wrists.\n\nThe next day, at an early hour, I repaired to the great Himis convent,\nwhich, a little distance from Leh, is elevated upon the top of a great\nrock, on a picturesque site, commanding the valley of the Indies. It is\none of the principal monasteries of the country, and is maintained by\nthe gifts of the people and the subsidies it receives from Lhassa. On\nthe road leading to it, beyond the bridge crossing the Indus, and in the\nvicinity of the villages lining the way, one finds heaps of stones\nbearing engraved inscriptions, such as have already been described, and\n_t'horthenes_. At these places, our guides were very careful to turn to\nthe right. I wished to turn my horse to the left, but the Ladakians made\nhim go back and led him by his halter to the right, explaining to me\nthat such was their established usage. I found it impossible to learn\nthe origin or reason of this custom.\n\nAbove the gonpa rises a battlemented tower, visible from a great\ndistance. We climbed, on foot, to the level on which the edifice stands\nand found ourselves confronted by a large door, painted in brilliant\ncolors, the portal of a vast two-story building enclosing a court paved\nwith little pebbles. To the right, in one of the angles of the court, is\nanother huge painted door, adorned with big copper rings. It is the\nentrance to the principal temple, which is decorated with paintings of\nthe principal gods, and contains a great statue of Buddha and a\nmultitude of sacred statuettes. To the left, upon a verandah, was placed\nan immense prayer-cylinder. All the lamas of the convent, with their\nchief, stood about it, when we entered the court. Below the verandah\nwere musicians, holding long trumpets and drums.\n\nAt the right of the court were a number of doors, leading to the rooms\nof the lamas; all decorated with sacred paintings and provided with\nlittle prayer-barrels fancifully surmounted by black and white tridents,\nfrom the points of which floated ribbons bearing inscriptions--doubtless\nprayers. In the centre of the court were raised two tall masts, from the\ntops of which dangled tails of yaks, and long paper streamers floated,\ncovered with religious inscriptions. All along the walls were numerous\nprayer-barrels, adorned with ribbons.\n\nA profound silence reigned among the many spectators present. All\nawaited anxiously the commencement of a religious \"mystery,\" which was\nabout to be presented. We took up a position near the verandah. Almost\nimmediately, the musicians drew from their long trumpets soft and\nmonotonous tones, marking the time by measured beats upon an odd-looking\ndrum, broad and shallow, upreared upon a stick planted in the ground. At\nthe first sounds of the strange music, in which joined the voices of the\nlamas in a melancholy chant, the doors along the wall opened\nsimultaneously, giving entrance to about twenty masked persons,\ndisguised as animals, birds, devils and imaginary monsters. On their\nbreasts they bore representations of fantastic dragons, demons and\nskulls, embroidered with Chinese silk of various colors. From the\nconical hats they wore, depended to their breasts long multicolored\nribbons, covered with inscriptions. Their masks were white\ndeath's-heads. Slowly they marched about the masts, stretching out their\narms from time to time and flourishing with their left hands\nspoon-shaped objects, the bowl portions of which were said to be\nfragments of human crania, with ribbons attached, having affixed to\ntheir ends human hair, which, I was assured, had been taken from scalped\nenemies. Their promenade, in gradually narrowing circles about the\nmasts, soon became merely a confused jostling of each other; when the\nrolling of the drum grew more accentuated, the performers for an instant\nstopped, then started again, swinging above their heads yellow sticks,\nribbon-decked, which with their right hands they brandished in menacing\nattitudes.\n\nAfter making a salute to the chief lama, they approached the door\nleading to the temple, which at this instant opened, and from it another\nband came forth, whose heads were covered by copper masks. Their dresses\nwere of rich materials, embroidered in various bright colors. In one\nhand each of them carried a small tambourine and with the other he\nagitated a little bell. From the rim of each tambourine depended a\nmetallic ball, so placed that the least movement of the hand brought it\nin contact with the resonant tympanum, which caused a strange,\ncontinuous undercurrent of pulsating sound. There new performers circled\nseveral times about the court, marking the time of their dancing steps\nby measured thumpings of the tambourines. At the completion of each\nturn, they made a deafening noise with their instruments. Finally, they\nran to the temple door and ranged themselves upon the steps before it.\n\nFor a moment, there was silence. Then we saw emerge from the temple a\nthird band of performers. Their enormous masks represented different\ndeities, and each bore upon its forehead \"the third eye.\" At their head\nmarched Thlogan-Poudma-Jungnas (literally \"he who was born in the lotus\nflower\"). Another richly dressed mask marched beside him, carrying a\nyellow parasol covered with symbolic designs. His suite was composed of\ngods, in magnificent costumes; Dorje-Trolong and Sangspa-Kourpo (_i.e._,\nBrahma himself), and others. These masks, as a lama sitting near me\nexplained to us, represented six classes of beings subject to the\nmetamorphoses; the gods, the demigods, men, animals, spirits and demons.\n\nOn each side of these personages, who advanced gravely, marched other\nmasks, costumed in silks of brilliant hues and wearing on their heads\ngolden crowns, fashioned with six lotus-like flowers on each, surmounted\nby a tall dart in the centre. Each of these masks carried a drum.\n\nThese disguises made three turns about the masts, to the sound of a\nnoisy and incoherent music, and then seated themselves on the ground,\naround Thlogan-Pondma-Jungnas, a god with three eyes, who gravely\nintroduced two fingers into his mouth and emitted a shrill whistle. At\nthis signal, young men dressed in warrior costumes--with ribbon-decked\nbells dangling about their legs--came with measured steps from the\ntemple. Their heads were covered by enormous green masks, from which\nfloated triangular red flags, and they, too, carried tambourines. Making\na diabolical din, they whirled and danced about the gods seated on the\nground. Two big fellows accompanying them, who were dressed in tight\nclown costumes, executed all kinds of grotesque contortions and\nacrobatic feats, by which they won plaudits and shouts of laughter from\nthe spectators.\n\nAnother group of disguises--of which the principal features were red\nmitres and yellow pantaloons--came out of the temple, with bells and\ntambourines in their hands, and seated themselves opposite the gods, as\nrepresentatives of the highest powers next to divinity. Lastly there\nentered upon the scene a lot of red and brown masks, with a \"third eye\"\npainted on their breasts. With those who had preceded them, they formed\ntwo long lines of dancers, who to the thrumming of their many\ntambourines, the measured music of the trumpets and drums, and the\njingling of a myriad of bells, performed a dance, approaching and\nreceding from each other, whirling in circles, forming by twos in a\ncolumn and breaking from that formation to make new combinations,\npausing occasionally to make reverent obeisance before the gods.\n\nAfter a time this spectacular excitement--the noisy monotony of which\nbegan to weary me--calmed down a little; gods, demigods, kings, men and\nspirits got up, and followed by all the other maskers, directed\nthemselves toward the temple door, whence issued at once, meeting them,\na lot of men admirably disguised as skeletons. All those sorties were\ncalculated and prearranged, and every one of them had its particular\nsignificance. The _cort\u00e8ge_ of dancers gave way to the skeletons, who\nadvanced with measured steps, in silence, to the masts, where they\nstopped and made a concerted clicking with pieces of wood hanging at\ntheir sides, simulating perfectly the rattling of dry bones and gnashing\nof teeth. Twice they went in a circle around the masts, marching in time\nto low taps on the drums, and then joined in a lugubrious religious\nchant. Having once more made the concerted rattling of their artificial\nbones and jaws, they executed some contortions painful to witness and\ntogether stopped.\n\nThen they seized upon an image of the Enemy of Man--made of some sort of\nbrittle paste--which had been placed at the foot of one of the masts.\nThis they broke in pieces and scattered, and the oldest men among the\nspectators, rising from their places, picked up the fragments which\nthey handed to the skeletons--an action supposed to signify that they\nwould soon be ready to join the bony crew in the cemetery.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe chief lama, approaching me, tendered an invitation to accompany him\nto the principal terrace and partake of the festal \"tchang\"; which I\naccepted with pleasure, for my head was dizzy from the long spectacle.\n\nWe crossed the court and climbed a staircase--obstructed with\nprayer-wheels, as usual--passed two rooms where there were many images\nof gods, and came out upon the terrace, where I seated myself upon a\nbench opposite the venerable lama, whose eyes sparkled with spirit.\n\nThree lamas brought pitchers of tchang, which they poured into small\ncopper cups, that were offered first to the chief lama, then to me and\nmy servants.\n\n\"Did you enjoy our little festival?\" the lama asked me.\n\n\"I found it very enjoyable and am still impressed by the spectacle I\nhave witnessed. But, to tell the truth, I never suspected for a moment\nthat Buddhism, in these religious ceremonies, could display such a\nvisible, not to say noisy, exterior form.\"\n\n\"There is no religion, the ceremonies of which are not surrounded with\nmore theatrical forms,\" the lama answered. \"This is a ritualistic phase\nwhich does not by any means violate the fundamental principles of\nBuddhism. It is a practical means for maintaining in the ignorant mass\nobedience to and love for the one Creator, just as a child is beguiled\nby toys to do the will of its parents. The ignorant mass is the child of\nThe Father.\"\n\n\"But what is the meaning,\" I said to him, \"of all those masks, costumes,\nbells, dances, and, generally, of this entire performance, which seems\nto be executed after a prescribed programme?\"\n\n\"We have many similar festivals in the year,\" answered the lama, \"and we\narrange particular ones to represent 'mysteries,' susceptible of\npantomimic presentation, in which each actor is allowed considerable\nlatitude of action, in the movements and jests he likes, conforming,\nnevertheless, to the circumstances and to the leading idea. Our\nmysteries are simply pantomimes calculated to show the veneration\noffered to the gods, which veneration sustains and cheers the soul of\nman, who is prone to anxious contemplation of inevitable death and the\nlife to come. The actors receive the dresses from the cloister and they\nplay according to general indications, which leave them much liberty of\nindividual action. The general effect produced is, no doubt, very\nbeautiful, but it is a matter for the spectators themselves to divine\nthe signification of one or another action. You, too, have recourse\nsometimes to similar devices, which, however, do not in the least\nviolate the principle of monotheism.\"\n\n\"Pardon me,\" I remarked, \"but this multitude of idols with which your\ngonpas abound, is a flagrant violation of that principle.\"\n\n\"As I have told you,\" replied the lama to my interruption, \"man will\nalways be in childhood. He sees and feels the grandeur of nature and\nunderstands everything presented to his senses, but he neither sees nor\ndivines the Great Soul which created and animates all things. Man has\nalways sought for tangible things. It was not possible for him to\nbelieve long in that which escaped his material senses. He has racked\nhis brain for any means for contemplating the Creator; has endeavored to\nenter into direct relations with him who has done him so much good, and\nalso, as he erroneously believes, so much evil. For this reason he began\nto adore every phase of nature from which he received benefits. We see a\nstriking example of this in the ancient Egyptians, who adored animals,\ntrees, stones, the winds and the rain. Other peoples, who were more\nsunk in ignorance, seeing that the results of the wind were not always\nbeneficent, and that the rain did not inevitably bring good harvests,\nand that the animals were not willingly subservient to man, began to\nseek for direct intermediaries between themselves and the great\nmysterious and unfathomable power of the Creator. Therefore they made\nfor themselves idols, which they regarded as indifferent to things\nconcerning them, but to whose interposition in their behalf, they might\nalways recur. From remotest antiquity to our own days, man was ever\ninclined only to tangible realities.\n\n\"While seeking a route to lead their feet to the Creator, the Assyrians\nturned their eyes toward the stars, which they contemplated without the\npower of attaining them. The Guebers have conserved the same belief to\nour days. In their nullity and spiritual blindness, men are incapable of\nconceiving the invisible spiritual bond which unites them to the great\nDivinity, and this explains why they have always sought for palpable\nthings, which were in the domain of the senses, and by doing which they\nminimized the divine principle. Nevertheless, they have dared to\nattribute to their visible and man-made images a divine and eternal\nexistence. We can see the same fact in Brahminism, where man, given to\nhis inclination for exterior forms, has created, little by little, and\nnot all at once, an army of gods and demigods. The Israelites may be\nsaid to have demonstrated, in the most flagrant way, the love of man for\neverything which is concrete. In spite of a series of striking miracles\naccomplished by the great Creator, who is the same for all the peoples,\nthe Jewish people could not help making a god of metal in the very\nminute when their prophet Mossa spoke to them of the Creator! Buddhism\nhas passed through the same modifications. Our great reformer,\nSakya-Muni, inspired by the Supreme Judge, understood truly the one and\nindivisible Brahma, and forbade his disciples attempting to manufacture\nimages in imaginary semblance of him. He had openly broken from the\npolytheistic Brahmins, and appreciated the purity, oneness and\nimmortality of Brahma. The success he achieved by his teachings in\nmaking disciples among the people, brought upon him persecution by the\nBrahmins, who, in the creation of new gods, had found a source of\npersonal revenue, and who, contrary to the law of God, treated the\npeople in a despotic manner. Our first sacred teachers, to whom we give\nthe name of buddhas--which means, learned men or saints--because the\ngreat Creator has incarnated in them, settled in different countries of\nthe globe. As their teachings attacked especially the tyranny of the\nBrahmins and the misuse they made of the idea of God--of which they\nindeed made a veritable business--almost all the Buddhistic converts,\nthey who followed the doctrines of those great teachers, were among the\ncommon people of China and India. Among those teachers, particular\nreverence is felt for the Buddha, Sakya-Muni, known in China also under\nthe name of F\u00f4, who lived three thousand years ago, and whose teachings\nbrought all China back into the path of the true God; and the Buddha,\nGautama, who lived two thousand five hundred years ago, and converted\nalmost half the Hindus to the knowledge of the impersonal, indivisible\nand only God, besides whom there is none.\n\n\"Buddhism is divided into many sects which, by the way, differ only in\ncertain religious ceremonies, the basis of the doctrine being everywhere\nthe same. The Thibetan Buddhists, who are called 'lamaists,' separated\nthemselves from the F\u00f4-ists fifteen hundred years ago. Until that time\nwe had formed part of the worshippers of the Buddha, F\u00f4-Sakya-Muni, who\nwas the first to collect all the laws compiled by the various buddhas\npreceding him, when the great schism took place in the bosom of\nBrahmanism. Later on, a Khoutoukhte-Mongol translated into Chinese the\nbooks of the great Buddha, for which the Emperor of China rewarded him\nby bestowing upon him the title of 'Go-Chi--'Preceptor of the King!'\nAfter his death, this title was given to the Dalai-Lama of Thibet. Since\nthat epoch, all the titularies of this position have borne the title of\nGo-Chi. Our religion is called the Lamaic one--from the word 'lama,'\nsuperior. It admits of two classes of monks, the red and the yellow. The\nformer may marry, and they recognize the authority of the Bantsine, who\nresides in Techow Loumba, and is chief of the civil administration in\nThibet. We, the yellow lamas, have taken the vow of celibacy, and our\ndirect chief is the Dalai-Lama. This is the difference which separates\nthe two religious orders, the respective rituals of which are\nidentical.\"\n\n\"Do all perform mysteries similar to that which I have just witnessed?\"\n\n\"Yes; with a few exceptions. Formerly these festivals were celebrated\nwith very solemn pomp, but since the conquest of Ladak our convents have\nbeen, more than once, pillaged and our wealth taken away. Now we content\nourselves with simple garments and bronze utensils, while in Thibet you\nsee but golden robes and gold utensils.\"\n\n\"In a visit which I recently made to a gonpa, one of the lamas told me\nof a prophet, or, as you call him, a buddha, by the name of Issa. Could\nyou not tell me anything about him?\" I asked my interlocutor, seizing\nthis favorable moment to start the subject which interested me so\ngreatly.\n\n\"The name Issa is very much respected among the Buddhists,\" he replied,\n\"but he is only known by the chief lamas, who have read the scrolls\nrelating to his life. There have existed an infinite number of buddhas\nlike Issa, and the 84,000 scrolls existing are filled brim full of\ndetails concerning each one of them. But very few persons have read the\none-hundredth part of those memoirs. In conformity with established\ncustom, every disciple or lama who visits Lhassa makes a gift of one or\nseveral copies, from the scrolls there, to the convent to which he\nbelongs. Our gonpa, among others, possesses already a great number,\nwhich I read in my leisure hours. Among them are the memoirs of the life\nand acts of the Buddha Issa, who preached the same doctrine in India and\namong the sons of Israel, and who was put to death by the Pagans, whose\ndescendants, later on, adopted the beliefs he spread,--and those beliefs\nare yours.\n\n\"The great Buddha, the soul of the Universe, is the incarnation of\nBrahma. He, almost always, remains immobile, containing in himself all\nthings, being in himself the origin of all and his breath vivifying the\nworld. He has left man to the control of his own forces, but, at certain\nepochs, lays aside his inaction and puts on a human form that he may, as\ntheir teacher and guide, rescue his creatures from impending\ndestruction. In the course of his terrestrial existence in the\nsimilitude of man, Buddha creates a new world in the hearts of erring\nmen; then he leaves the earth, to become once more an invisible being\nand resume his condition of perfect bliss. Three thousand years ago,\nBuddha incarnated in the celebrated Prince Sakya-Muni, reaffirming and\npropagating the doctrines taught by him in his twenty preceding\nincarnations. Twenty-five hundred years ago, the Great Soul of the World\nincarnated anew in Gautama, laying the foundation of a new world in\nBurmah, Siam and different islands. Soon afterward, Buddhism began to\npenetrate China, through the persevering efforts of the sages, who\ndevoted themselves to the propagation of the sacred doctrine, and under\nMing-Ti, of the Honi dynasty, nearly 2,050 years ago, the teachings of\nSakya-Muni were adopted by the people of that country. Simultaneously\nwith the appearance of Buddhism in China, the same doctrines began to\nspread among the Israelites. It is about 2,000 years ago that the\nperfect Being, awaking once more for a short time from his inaction,\nincarnated in the newborn child of a poor family. It was his will that\nthis little child should enlighten the unhappy upon the life of the\nworld to come and bring erring men back into the path of truth; showing\nto them, by his own example, the way they could best return to the\nprimitive morality and purity of our race. When this sacred child\nattained a certain age, he was brought to India, where, until he\nattained to manhood, he studied the laws of the great Buddha, who dwells\neternally in heaven.\"\n\n\"In what language are written the principal scrolls bearing upon the\nlife of Issa?\" I asked, rising from my seat, for I saw that my\ninteresting interlocutor evidenced fatigue, and had just given a twirl\nto his prayer-wheel, as if to hint the closing of the conversation.\n\n\"The original scrolls brought from India to Nepaul, and from Nepaul to\nThibet, relating to the life of Issa, are written in the Pali language\nand are actually in Lhassa; but a copy in our language--I mean the\nThibetan--is in this convent.\"\n\n\"How is Issa looked upon in Thibet? Has he the repute of a saint?\"\n\n\"The people are not even aware that he ever existed. Only the principal\nlamas, who know of him through having studied the scrolls in which his\nlife is related, are familiar with his name; but, as his doctrine does\nnot constitute a canonical part of Buddhism, and the worshippers of Issa\ndo not recognize the authority of the Dalai-Lama, the prophet Issa--with\nmany others like him--is not recognized in Thibet as one of the\nprincipal saints.\"\n\n\"Would you commit a sin in reciting your copy of the life of Issa to a\nstranger?\" I asked him.\n\n\"That which belongs to God,\" he answered me, \"belongs also to man. Our\nduty requires us to cheerfully devote ourselves to the propagation of\nHis doctrine. Only, I do not, at present, know where that manuscript is.\nIf you ever visit our gonpa again, I shall take pleasure in showing it\nto you.\"\n\nAt this moment two monks entered, and uttered to the chief lama a few\nwords unintelligible to me.\n\n\"I am called to the sacrifices. Will you kindly excuse me?\" said he to\nme, and with a salute, turned to the door and disappeared.\n\nI could do no better than withdraw and lie down in the chamber which was\nassigned to me and where I spent the night.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn the evening of the next day I was again in Leh--thinking of how to\nget back to the convent. Two days later I sent, by a messenger, to the\nchief lama, as presents, a watch, an alarm clock, and a thermometer. At\nthe same time I sent the message that before leaving Ladak I would\nprobably return to the convent, in the hope that he would permit me to\nsee the manuscript which had been the subject of our conversation. It\nwas now my purpose to gain Kachmyr and return from there, some time\nlater, to Himis. But fate made a different decision for me.\n\nIn passing a mountain, on a height of which is perched the gonpa of\nPiatak, my horse made a false step, throwing me to the ground so\nviolently that my right leg was broken below the knee.\n\nIt was impossible to continue my journey, I was not inclined to return\nto Leh; and seeking the hospitality of the gonpa of Piatak was not, from\nthe appearance of the cloister, an enticing prospect. My best recourse\nwould be to return to Himis, then only about half a day's journey\ndistant, and I ordered my servants to transport me there. They bandaged\nmy broken leg--an operation which caused me great pain--and lifted me\ninto the saddle. One carrier walked by my side, supporting the weight of\nthe injured member, while another led my horse. At a late hour of the\nevening we reached the door of the convent of Himis.\n\nWhen informed of my accident, the kind monks came out to receive me and,\nwith a wealth of extraordinary precautions of tenderness, I was carried\ninside, and, in one of their best rooms, installed upon an improvised\nbed, consisting of a mountain of soft fabrics, with the\nnaturally-to-be-expected prayer-cylinder beside me. All this was done\nfor me under the personal supervision of their chief lama, who, with\naffectionate sympathy, pressed the hand I gave him in expression of my\nthanks for his kindness.\n\nIn the morning, I myself bound around the injured limb little oblong\npieces of wood, held by cords, to serve as splints. Then I remained\nperfectly quiescent and nature was not slow in her reparative work.\nWithin two days my condition was so far improved that I could, had it\nbeen necessary, have left the gonpa and directed myself slowly toward\nIndia in search of a surgeon to complete my cure.\n\nWhile a boy kept in motion the prayer-barrel near my bed, the venerable\nlama who ruled the convent entertained me with many interesting stories.\nFrequently he took from their box the alarm clock and the watch, that I\nmight illustrate to him the process of winding them and explain to him\ntheir uses. At length, yielding to my ardent insistence, he brought me\ntwo big books, the large leaves of which were of paper yellow with age,\nand from them read to me the biography of Issa, which I carefully\ntranscribed in my travelling notebook according to the translation made\nby the interpreter. This curious document is compiled under the form of\nisolated verses, which, as placed, very often had no apparent connection\nwith, or relation to each other.\n\nOn the third day, my condition was so far improved as to permit the\nprosecution of my journey. Having bound up my leg as well as possible, I\nreturned, across Kachmyr, to India; a slow journey, of twenty days,\nfilled with intolerable pain. Thanks, however, to a litter, which a\nFrench gentleman, M. Peicheau, had kindly sent to me (my gratitude for\nwhich I take this occasion to express), and to an ukase of the Grand\nVizier of the Maharajah of Kachmyr, ordering the local authorities to\nprovide me with carriers, I reached Srinagar, and left almost\nimmediately, being anxious to gain India before the first snows fell.\n\nIn Mur\u00e9 I encountered another Frenchman, Count Andr\u00e9 de Saint Phall, who\nwas making a journey of recreation across Hindostan. During the whole\ncourse, which we made together, to Bombay, the young count demonstrated\na touching solicitude for me, and sympathy for the excruciating pain I\nsuffered from my broken leg and the fever induced by its torture. I\ncherish for him sincere gratitude, and shall never forget the friendly\ncare which I received upon my arrival in Bombay from the Marquis de\nMor\u00e9s, the Vicomte de Breteul, M. Monod, of the Comptoir d'Escompte, M.\nMo\u00ebt, acting consul, and all the members of the very sympathetic French\ncolony there.\n\nDuring a long time I revolved in my mind the purpose of publishing the\nmemoirs of the life of Jesus Christ found by me in Himis, of which I\nhave spoken, but other interests absorbed my attention and delayed it.\nOnly now, after having passed long nights of wakefulness in the\ncoordination of my notes and grouping the verses conformably to the\nmarch of the recital, imparting to the work, as a whole, a character of\nunity, I resolve to let this curious chronicle see the light.\n\n\n\n\n_The Life of Saint Issa_\n\n\n\"Best of the Sons of Men.\"\n\n\nI.\n\n1. The earth trembled and the heavens wept, because of the great crime\ncommitted in the land of Israel.\n\n2. For there was tortured and murdered the great and just Issa, in whom\nwas manifest the soul of the Universe;\n\n3. Which had incarnated in a simple mortal, to benefit men and destroy\nthe evil spirit in them;\n\n4. To lead back to peace, love and happiness, man, degraded by his sins,\nand recall him to the one and indivisible Creator whose mercy is\ninfinite.\n\n5. The merchants coming from Israel have given the following account of\nwhat has occurred:\n\n\nII.\n\n1. The people of Israel--who inhabit a fertile country producing two\nharvests a year and affording pasture for large herds of cattle--by\ntheir sins brought down upon themselves the anger of the Lord;\n\n2. Who inflicted upon them terrible chastisements, taking from them\ntheir land, their cattle and their wealth. They were carried away into\nslavery by the rich and mighty Pharaohs who then ruled the land of\nEgypt.\n\n3. The Israelites were, by the Pharaohs, treated worse than beasts,\ncondemned to hard labor and put in irons; their bodies were covered with\nwounds and sores; they were not permitted to live under a roof, and were\nstarved to death;\n\n4. That they might be maintained in a state of continual terror and\ndeprived of all human resemblance;\n\n5. And in this great calamity, the Israelites, remembering their\nCelestial Protector, implored his forgiveness and mercy.\n\n6. At that period reigned in Egypt an illustrious Pharaoh, who was\nrenowned for his many victories, immense riches, and the gigantic\npalaces he had erected by the labor of his slaves.\n\n7. This Pharaoh had two sons, the younger of whom, named Mossa, had\nacquired much knowledge from the sages of Israel.\n\n8. And Mossa was beloved by all in Egypt for his kindness of heart and\nthe pity he showed to all sufferers.\n\n9. When Mossa saw that the Israelites, in spite of their many\nsufferings, had not forsaken their God, and refused to worship the gods\nof Egypt, created by the hands of man.\n\n10. He also put his faith in their invisible God, who did not suffer\nthem to betray Him, despite their ever growing weakness.\n\n11. And the teachers among Israel animated Mossa in his zeal, and prayed\nof him that he would intercede with his father, Pharaoh, in favor of\ntheir co-religionists.\n\n12. Prince Mossa went before his father, begging him to lighten the\nburden of the unhappy people; Pharaoh, however, became incensed with\nrage, and ordered that they should be tormented more than before.\n\n13. And it came to pass that Egypt was visited by a great calamity. The\nplague decimated young and old, the healthy and the sick; and Pharaoh\nbeheld in this the resentment of his own gods against him.\n\n14. But Prince Mossa said to his father that it was the God of his\nslaves who thus interposed on behalf of his wretched people, and avenged\nthem upon the Egyptians.\n\n15. Thereupon, Pharaoh commanded Mossa, his son, to gather all the\nIsraelite slaves, and lead them away, and found, at a great distance\nfrom the capital, another city where he should rule over them.\n\n16. Then Mossa made known to the Hebrew slaves that he had obtained\ntheir freedom in the name of his and their God, the God of Israel; and\nwith them he left the city and departed from the land of Egypt.\n\n17. He led them back to the land which, because of their many sins, had\nbeen taken from them. There he gave them laws and admonished them to\npray always to God, the indivisible Creator, whose kindness is infinite.\n\n18. After Prince Mossa's death, the Israelites observed rigorously his\nlaws; and God rewarded them for the ills to which they had been\nsubjected in Egypt.\n\n19. Their kingdom became one of the most powerful on earth; their kings\nmade themselves renowned for their treasures, and peace reigned in\nIsrael.\n\n\nIII.\n\n1. The glory of Israel's wealth spread over the whole earth, and the\nsurrounding nations became envious.\n\n2. But the Most High himself led the victorious arms of the Hebrews, and\nthe Pagans did not dare to attack them.\n\n3. Unfortunately, man is prone to err, and the fidelity of the\nIsraelites to their God was not of long duration.\n\n4. Little by little they forgot the favors he had bestowed upon them;\nrarely invoked his name, and sought rather protection by the magicians\nand sorcerers.\n\n5. The kings and the chiefs among the people substituted their own laws\nfor those given by Mossa; the temple of God and the observances of their\nancient faith were neglected; the people addicted themselves to sensual\ngratifications and lost their original purity.\n\n6. Many centuries had elapsed since their exodus from Egypt, when God\nbethought himself of again inflicting chastisement upon them.\n\n7. Strangers invaded Israel, devastated the land, destroyed the\nvillages, and carried their inhabitants away into captivity.\n\n8. At last came the Pagans from over the sea, from the land of Romeles.\nThese made themselves masters of the Hebrews, and placed over them their\narmy chiefs, who governed in the name of C\u00e6sar.\n\n9. They defiled the temples, forced the inhabitants to cease the worship\nof the indivisible God, and compelled them to sacrifice to the heathen\ngods.\n\n10. They made common soldiers of those who had been men of rank; the\nwomen became their prey, and the common people, reduced to slavery, were\ncarried away by thousands over the sea.\n\n11. The children were slain, and soon, in the whole land, there was\nnaught heard but weeping and lamentation.\n\n12. In this extreme distress, the Israelites once more remembered their\ngreat God, implored his mercy and prayed for his forgiveness. Our\nFather, in his inexhaustible clemency, heard their prayer.\n\n\nIV.\n\n1. At that time the moment had come for the compassionate Judge to\nreincarnate in a human form;\n\n2. And the eternal Spirit, resting in a state of complete inaction and\nsupreme bliss, awakened and separated from the eternal Being, for an\nundetermined period,\n\n3. So that, in human form, He might teach man to identify himself with\nthe Divinity and attain to eternal felicity;\n\n4. And to show, by His example, how man can attain moral purity and free\nhis soul from the domination of the physical senses, so that it may\nachieve the perfection necessary for it to enter the Kingdom of Heaven,\nwhich is immutable and where bliss eternal reigns.\n\n5. Soon after, a marvellous child was born in the land of Israel. God\nhimself spoke, through the mouth of this child, of the miseries of the\nbody and the grandeur of the soul.\n\n6. The parents of the infant were poor people, who belonged to a family\nnoted for great piety; who forgot the greatness of their ancestors in\ncelebrating the name of the Creator and giving thanks to Him for the\ntrials which He had sent upon them.\n\n7. To reward them for adhering to the path of truth, God blessed the\nfirstborn of this family; chose him for His elect, and sent him to\nsustain the fallen and comfort the afflicted.\n\n8. The divine child, to whom the name Issa was given, commenced in his\ntender years to talk of the only and indivisible God, exhorting the\nstrayed souls to repent and purify themselves from the sins of which\nthey had become guilty.\n\n9. People came from all parts to hear him, and marvelled at the\ndiscourses which came from his infantile mouth; and all Israel agreed\nthat the Spirit of the Eternal dwelt in this child.\n\n10. When Issa was thirteen years old, the age at which an Israelite is\nexpected to marry,\n\n11. The modest house of his industrious parents became a meeting place\nof the rich and illustrious, who were anxious to have as a son-in-law\nthe young Issa, who was already celebrated for the edifying discourses\nhe made in the name of the All-Powerful.\n\n12. Then Issa secretly absented himself from his father's house; left\nJerusalem, and, in a train of merchants, journeyed toward the Sindh,\n\n13. With the object of perfecting himself in the knowledge of the word\nof God and the study of the laws of the great Buddhas.\n\n\nV.\n\n1. In his fourteenth year, young Issa, the Blessed One, came this side\nof the Sindh and settled among the Aryas, in the country beloved by God.\n\n2. Fame spread the name of the marvellous youth along the northern\nSindh, and when he came through the country of the five streams and\nRadjipoutan, the devotees of the god Dja\u00efne asked him to stay among\nthem.\n\n3. But he left the deluded worshippers of Dja\u00efne and went to\nDjagguernat, in the country of Orsis, where repose the mortal remains\nof Vyassa-Krishna, and where the white priests of Brahma welcomed him\njoyfully.\n\n4. They taught him to read and to understand the Vedas, to cure physical\nills by means of prayers, to teach and to expound the sacred Scriptures,\nto drive out evil desires from man and make him again in the likeness of\nGod.\n\n5. He spent six years in Djagguernat, in Radjagriha, in Benares, and in\nother holy cities. The common people loved Issa, for he lived in peace\nwith the Vaisyas and the Sudras, to whom he taught the Holy Scriptures.\n\n6. But the Brahmins and the Kshatnyas told him that they were forbidden\nby the great Para-Brahma to come near to those who were created from his\nbelly and his feet;[1]\n\n7. That the Vaisyas might only hear the recital of the Vedas, and this\nonly on the festal days, and\n\n8. That the Sudras were not only forbidden to attend the reading of the\nVedas, but even to look on them; for they were condemned to perpetual\nservitude, as slaves of the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas and even the\nVaisyas.\n\n9. \"Death alone can enfranchise them from their servitude,\" has said\nPara-Brahma. \"Leave them, therefore, and come to adore with us the gods,\nwhom you will make angry if you disobey them.\"\n\n10. But Issa, disregarding their words, remained with the Sudras,\npreaching against the Brahmins and the Kshatriyas.\n\n11. He declaimed strongly against man's arrogating to himself the\nauthority to deprive his fellow-beings of their human and spiritual\nrights. \"Verily,\" he said, \"God has made no difference between his\nchildren, who are all alike dear to Him.\"\n\n12. Issa denied the divine inspiration of the Vedas and the Puranas,\nfor, as he taught his followers,--\"One law has been given to man to\nguide him in his actions:\n\n13. \"Fear the Lord, thy God; bend thy knees only before Him and bring to\nHim only the offerings which come from thy earnings.\"\n\n14. Issa denied the Trimurti and the incarnation of Para-Brahma in\nVishnu, Siva, and other gods; \"for,\" said he:\n\n15. \"The eternal Judge, the eternal Spirit, constitutes the only and\nindivisible soul of the universe, and it is this soul alone which\ncreates, contains and vivifies all.\n\n16. \"He alone has willed and created. He alone has existed from\neternity, and His existence will be without end; there is no one like\nunto Him either in the heavens or on the earth.\n\n17. \"The great Creator has divided His power with no other being; far\nless with inanimate objects, as you have been taught to believe, for He\nalone is omnipotent and all-sufficient.\n\n18. \"He willed, and the world was. By one divine thought, He reunited\nthe waters and separated them from the dry land of the globe. He is the\ncause of the mysterious life of man, into whom He has breathed part of\nHis divine Being.\n\n19. \"And He has put under subjection to man, the lands, the waters, the\nbeasts and everything which He created, and which He himself preserves\nin immutable order, allotting to each its proper duration.\n\n20. \"The anger of God will soon break forth upon man; for he has\nforgotten his Creator; he has filled His temples with abominations; and\nhe adores a multitude of creatures which God has subordinated to him;\n\n21. \"And to gain favor with images of stone and metal, he sacrifices\nhuman beings in whom dwells part of the Spirit of the Most High;\n\n22. \"And he humiliates those who work in the sweat of their brows, to\ngain favor in the eyes of the idler who sitteth at a sumptuous table.\n\n23. \"Those who deprive their brothers of divine happiness will\nthemselves be deprived of it; and the Brahmins and the Kshatriyas shall\nbecome the Sudras of the Sudras, with whom the Eternal will stay\nforever.\n\n24. \"In the day of judgment the Sudras and the Vaisyas will be forgiven\nfor that they knew not the light, while God will let loose his wrath\nupon those who arrogated his authority.\"\n\n25. The Vaisyas and the Sudras were filled with great admiration, and\nasked Issa how they should pray, in order not to lose their hold upon\neternal life.\n\n26. \"Pray not to idols, for they cannot hear you; hearken not to the\nVedas where the truth is altered; be humble and humiliate not your\nfellow man.\n\n27. \"Help the poor, support the weak, do evil to none; covet not that\nwhich ye have not and which belongs to others.\"\n\n\nVI.\n\n1. The white priests and the warriors,[2] who had learned of Issa's\ndiscourse to the Sudras, resolved upon his death, and sent their\nservants to find the young teacher and slay him.\n\n2. But Issa, warned by the Sudras of his danger, left by night\nDjagguernat, gained the mountain, and settled in the country of the\nGautamides, where the great Buddha Sakya-Muni came to the world, among a\npeople who worshipped the only and sublime Brahma.\n\n3. When the just Issa had acquired the Pali language, he applied himself\nto the study of the sacred scrolls of the Sutras.\n\n4. After six years of study, Issa, whom the Buddha had elected to spread\nhis holy word, could perfectly expound the sacred scrolls.\n\n5. He then left Nepaul and the Himalaya mountains, descended into the\nvalley of Radjipoutan and directed his steps toward the West,\neverywhere preaching to the people the supreme perfection attainable by\nman;\n\n6. And the good he must do to his fellow men, which is the sure means of\nspeedy union with the eternal Spirit. \"He who has recovered his\nprimitive purity,\" said Issa, \"shall die with his transgressions\nforgiven and have the right to contemplate the majesty of God.\"\n\n7. When the divine Issa traversed the territories of the Pagans, he\ntaught that the adoration of visible gods was contrary to natural law.\n\n8. \"For to man,\" said he, \"it has not been given to see the image of\nGod, and it behooves him not to make for himself a multitude of\ndivinities in the imagined likeness of the Eternal.\n\n9. \"Moreover, it is against human conscience to have less regard for the\ngreatness of divine purity, than for animals or works of stone or metal\nmade by the hands of man.\n\n10. \"The eternal Lawgiver is One; there are no other Gods than He; He\nhas parted the world with none, nor had He any counsellor.\n\n11. \"Even as a father shows kindness toward his children, so will God\njudge men after death, in conformity with His merciful laws. He will\nnever humiliate his child by casting his soul for chastisement into the\nbody of a beast.\n\n12. \"The heavenly laws,\" said the Creator, through the mouth of Issa,\n\"are opposed to the immolation of human sacrifices to a statue or an\nanimal; for I, the God, have sacrificed to man all the animals and all\nthat the world contains.\n\n13. \"Everything has been sacrificed to man, who is directly and\nintimately united to me, his Father; therefore, shall the man be\nseverely judged and punished, by my law, who causes the sacrifice of my\nchildren.\n\n14. \"Man is naught before the eternal Judge; as the animal is before\nman.\n\n15. \"Therefore, I say unto you, leave your idols and perform not\nceremonies which separate you from your Father and bind you to the\npriests, from whom heaven has turned away.\n\n16. \"For it is they who have led you away from the true God, and by\nsuperstitions and cruelty perverted the spirit and made you blind to the\nknowledge of the truth.\"\n\n\nVII.\n\n1. The words of Issa spread among the Pagans, through whose country he\npassed, and the inhabitants abandoned their idols.\n\n2. Seeing which, the priests demanded of him who thus glorified the name\nof the true God, that he should, in the presence of the people, prove\nthe charges he made against them, and demonstrate the vanity of their\nidols.\n\n3. And Issa answered them: \"If your idols, or the animals you worship,\nreally possess the supernatural powers you claim, let them strike me\nwith a thunderbolt before you!\"\n\n4. \"Why dost not thou perform a miracle,\" replied the priests, \"and let\nthy God confound ours, if He is greater than they?\"\n\n5. But Issa said: \"The miracles of our God have been wrought from the\nfirst day when the universe was created; and are performed every day and\nevery moment; whoso sees them not is deprived of one of the most\nbeautiful gifts of life.\n\n6. \"And it is not on inanimate objects of stone, metal or wood that He\nwill let His anger fall, but on the men who worship them, and who,\ntherefore, for their salvation, must destroy the idols they have made.\n\n7. \"Even as a stone and a grain of sand, which are naught before man,\nawait patiently their use by Him.\n\n8. \"In like manner, man, who is naught before God, must await in\nresignation His pleasure for a manifestation of His favor.\n\n9. \"But woe to you! ye adversaries of men, if it is not the favor you\nawait, but rather the wrath of the Most High; woe to you, if you demand\nthat He attest His power by a miracle!\n\n10. \"For it is not the idols which He will destroy in His wrath, but\nthose by whom they were created; their hearts will be the prey of an\neternal fire and their flesh shall be given to the beasts of prey.\n\n11. \"God will drive away the contaminated animals from His flocks; but\nwill take to Himself those who strayed because they knew not the\nheavenly part within them.\"\n\n12. When the Pagans saw that the power of their priests was naught, they\nput faith in the words of Issa. Fearing the anger of the true God, they\nbroke their idols to pieces and caused their priests to flee from among\nthem.\n\n13. Issa furthermore taught the Pagans that they should not endeavor to\nsee the eternal Spirit with their eyes; but to perceive Him with their\nhearts, and make themselves worthy of His favors by the purity of their\nsouls.\n\n14. \"Not only,\" he said to them, \"must ye refrain from offering human\nsacrifices, but ye may not lay on the altar any creature to which life\nhas been given, for all things created are for man.\n\n15. \"Withhold not from your neighbor his just due, for this would be\nlike stealing from him what he had earned in the sweat of his brow.\n\n16. \"Deceive none, that ye may not yourselves be deceived; seek to\njustify yourselves before the last judgment, for then it will be too\nlate.\n\n17. \"Be not given to debauchery, for it is a violation of the law of\nGod.\n\n18. \"That you may attain to supreme bliss ye must not only purify\nyourselves, but must also guide others into the path that will enable\nthem to regain their primitive innocence.\"\n\n\nVIII.\n\n1. The countries round about were filled with the renown of Issa's\npreachings, and when he came unto Persia, the priests grew afraid and\nforbade the people hearing him;\n\n2. Nevertheless, the villages received him with joy, and the people\nhearkened intently to his words, which, being seen by the priests,\ncaused them to order that he should be arrested and brought before their\nHigh Priest, who asked him:\n\n3. \"Of what new God dost thou speak? Knowest thou not, unfortunate man\nthat thou art! that Saint Zoroaster is the only Just One, to whom alone\nwas vouchsafed the honor of receiving revelations from the Most High;\n\n4. \"By whose command the angels compiled His Word in laws for the\ngovernance of His people, which were given to Zoroaster in Paradise?\n\n5. \"Who, then, art thou, who darest to utter blasphemies against our God\nand sow doubt in the hearts of believers?\"\n\n6. And Issa said to them: \"I preach no new God, but our celestial\nFather, who has existed before the beginning and will exist until after\nthe end.\n\n7. \"Of Him I have spoken to the people, who--even as innocent\nchildren--are incapable of comprehending God by their own intelligence,\nor fathoming the sublimity of the divine Spirit;\n\n8. \"But, as the newborn child in the night recognizes the mother's\nbreast, so your people, held in the darkness of error by your pernicious\ndoctrines and religious ceremonies, have recognized instinctively their\nFather, in the Father whose prophet I am.\n\n9. \"The eternal Being says to your people, by my mouth, 'Ye shall not\nadore the sun, for it is but a part of the universe which I have created\nfor man;\n\n10. \"It rises to warm you during your work; it sets to accord to you the\nrest that I have ordained.\n\n11. \"To me only ye owe all that ye possess, all that surrounds you and\nthat is above and below you.'\"\n\n12. \"But,\" said the priests, \"how could the people live according to\nyour rules if they had no teachers?\"\n\n13. Whereupon Issa answered: \"So long as they had no priests, they were\ngoverned by the natural law and conserved the simplicity of their souls;\n\n14. \"Their souls were in God and to commune with the Father they had not\nto have recourse to the intermediation of idols, or animals, or fire, as\ntaught by you.\n\n15. \"Ye pretend that man must adore the sun, and the Genii of Good and\nEvil. But I say unto you that your doctrine is pernicious. The sun does\nnot act spontaneously, but by the will of the invisible Creator, who has\ngiven to it being.\"\n\n16. \"Who, then, has caused that this star lights the day, warms man at\nhis work and vivifies the seeds sown in the ground?\"\n\n17. \"The eternal Spirit is the soul of everything animate, and you\ncommit a great sin in dividing Him into the Spirit of Evil and the\nSpirit of Good, for there is no God other than the God of Good.\n\n18. \"And He, like to the father of a family, does only good to His\nchildren, to whom He forgives their transgressions if they repent of\nthem.\n\n19. \"And the Spirit of Evil dwells upon earth, in the hearts of those\nwho turn the children of God away from the right path.\n\n20. \"Therefore, I say unto you; Fear the day of judgment, for God will\ninflict a terrible chastisement upon all those who have led His\nchildren astray and beguiled them with superstitions and errors;\n\n21. \"Upon those who have blinded them who saw; who have brought\ncontagion to the well; who have taught the worship of those things which\nGod made to be subject to man, or to aid him in his works.\n\n22. \"Your doctrine is the fruit of your error in seeking to bring near\nto you the God of Truth, by creating for yourselves false gods.\"\n\n23. When the Magi heard these words, they feared to themselves do him\nharm, but at night, when the whole city slept, they brought him outside\nthe walls and left him on the highway, in the hope that he would not\nfail to become the prey of wild beasts.\n\n24. But, protected by the Lord our God, Saint Issa continued on his way,\nwithout accident.\n\n\nIX.\n\n1. Issa--whom the Creator had selected to recall to the worship of the\ntrue God, men sunk in sin--was twenty-nine years old when he arrived in\nthe land of Israel.\n\n2. Since the departure therefrom of Issa, the Pagans had caused the\nIsraelites to endure more atrocious sufferings than before, and they\nwere filled with despair.\n\n3. Many among them had begun to neglect the laws of their God and those\nof Mossa, in the hope of winning the favor of their brutal conquerors.\n\n4. But Issa, notwithstanding their unhappy condition, exhorted his\ncountrymen not to despair, because the day of their redemption from the\nyoke of sin was near, and he himself, by his example, confirmed their\nfaith in the God of their fathers.\n\n5. \"Children, yield not yourselves to despair,\" said the celestial\nFather to them, through the mouth of Issa, \"for I have heard your\nlamentations, and your cries have reached my ears.\n\n6. \"Weep not, oh, my beloved sons! for your griefs have touched the\nheart of your Father and He has forgiven you, as He forgave your\nancestors.\n\n7. \"Forsake not your families to plunge into debauchery; stain not the\nnobility of your souls; adore not idols which cannot but remain deaf to\nyour supplications.\n\n8. \"Fill my temple with your hope and your patience, and do not adjure\nthe religion of your forefathers, for I have guided them and bestowed\nupon them of my beneficence.\n\n9. \"Lift up those who are fallen; feed the hungry and help the sick,\nthat ye may be altogether pure and just in the day of the last judgment\nwhich I prepare for you.\"\n\n10. The Israelites came in multitudes to listen to Issa's words; and\nthey asked him where they should thank their Heavenly Father, since\ntheir enemies had demolished their temples and robbed them of their\nsacred vessels.\n\n11. Issa told them that God cared not for temples erected by human\nhands, but that human hearts were the true temples of God.\n\n12. \"Enter into your temple, into your heart; illuminate it with good\nthoughts, with patience and the unshakeable faith which you owe to your\nFather.\n\n13. \"And your sacred vessels! they are your hands and your eyes. Look to\ndo that which is agreeable to God, for in doing good to your fellow men,\nyou perform a ceremony that embellishes the temple wherein abideth Him\nwho has created you.\n\n14. \"For God has created you in His own image, innocent, with pure\nsouls, and hearts filled with kindness and not made for the planning of\nevil, but to be the sanctuaries of love and justice.\n\n15. \"Therefore, I say unto you, soil not your hearts with evil, for in\nthem the eternal Being abides.\n\n16. \"When ye do works of devotion and love, let them be with full\nhearts, and see that the motives of your actions be not hopes of gain or\nself-interest;\n\n17. \"For actions, so impelled, will not bring you nearer to salvation,\nbut lead to a state of moral degradation wherein theft, lying and murder\npass for generous deeds.\"\n\n\nX.\n\n1. Issa went from one city to another, strengthening by the word of God\nthe courage of the Israelites, who were near to succumbing under their\nweight of woe, and thousands of the people followed him to hear his\nteachings.\n\n2. But the chiefs of the cities were afraid of him and they informed the\nprincipal governor, residing in Jerusalem, that a man called Issa had\narrived in the country, who by his sermons had arrayed the people\nagainst the authorities, and that multitudes, listening assiduously to\nhim, neglected their labor; and, they added, he said that in a short\ntime they would be free of their invader rulers.\n\n3. Then Pilate, the Governor of Jerusalem, gave orders that they should\nlay hold of the preacher Issa and bring him before the judges. In order,\nhowever, not to excite the anger of the populace, Pilate directed that\nhe should be judged by the priests and scribes, the Hebrew elders, in\ntheir temple.\n\n4. Meanwhile, Issa, continuing his preaching, arrived at Jerusalem, and\nthe people, who already knew his fame, having learned of his coming,\nwent out to meet him.\n\n5. They greeted him respectfully and opened to him the doors of their\ntemple, to hear from his mouth what he had said in other cities of\nIsrael.\n\n6. And Issa said to them: \"The human race perishes, because of the lack\nof faith; for the darkness and the tempest have caused the flock to go\nastray and they have lost their shepherds.\n\n7. \"But the tempests do not rage forever and the darkness will not hide\nthe light eternally; soon the sky will become serene, the celestial\nlight will again overspread the earth, and the strayed flock will\nreunite around their shepherd.\n\n8. \"Wander not in the darkness, seeking the way, lest ye fall into the\nditch; but gather together, sustain one another, put your faith in your\nGod and wait for the first glimmer of light to reappear.\n\n9. \"He who sustains his neighbor, sustains himself; and he who protects\nhis family, protects all his people and his country.\n\n10. \"For, be assured that the day is near when you will be delivered\nfrom the darkness; you will be reunited into one family and your enemy\nwill tremble with fear, he who is ignorant of the favor of the great\nGod.\"\n\n11. The priests and the elders who heard him, filled with admiration for\nhis language, asked him if it was true that he had sought to raise the\npeople against the authorities of the country, as had been reported to\nthe governor Pilate.\n\n12. \"Can one raise against estrayed men, to whom darkness has hidden\ntheir road and their door?\" answered Issa. \"I have but forewarned the\nunhappy, as I do here in this temple, that they should no longer advance\non the dark road, for an abyss opens before their feet.\n\n13. \"The power of this earth is not of long duration and is subject to\nnumberless changes. It would be of no avail for a man to rise in\nrevolution against it, for one phase of it always succeeds another, and\nit is thus that it will go on until the extinction of human life.\n\n14. \"But do you not see that the powerful, and the rich, sow among the\nchildren of Israel a spirit of rebellion against the eternal power of\nHeaven?\"\n\n15. Then the elders asked him: \"Who art thou, and from what country hast\nthou come to us? We have not formerly heard thee spoken of and do not\neven know thy name!\"\n\n16. \"I am an Israelite,\" answered Issa; \"and on the day of my birth have\nseen the walls of Jerusalem, and have heard the sobs of my brothers\nreduced to slavery, and the lamentations of my sisters carried away by\nthe Pagans;\n\n17. \"And my soul was afflicted when I saw that my brethren had forgotten\nthe true God. When a child I left my father's house to go and settle\namong other people.\n\n18. \"But, having heard it said that my brethren suffered even greater\nmiseries now, I have come back to the land of my fathers, to recall my\nbrethren to the faith of their ancestors, which teaches us patience upon\nearth in order to attain the perfect and supreme bliss above.\"\n\n19. Then the wise old men put to him again this question: \"We are told\nthat thou disownest the laws of Mossa, and that thou teachest the people\nto forsake the temple of God?\"\n\n20. Whereupon Issa: \"One does not demolish that which has been given by\nour Heavenly Father, and which has been destroyed by sinners. I have but\nenjoined the people to purify the heart of all stains, for it is the\nveritable temple of God.\n\n21. \"As regards the laws of Mossa, I have endeavored to reestablish them\nin the hearts of men; and I say unto you that ye ignore their true\nmeaning, for it is not vengeance but pardon which they teach. Their\nsense has been perverted.\"\n\n\nXI.\n\n1. When the priests and the elders heard Issa, they decided among\nthemselves not to give judgment against him, for he had done no harm to\nany one, and, presenting themselves before Pilate--who was made Governor\nof Jerusalem by the Pagan king of the country of Romeles--they spake to\nhim thus:\n\n2. \"We have seen the man whom thou chargest with inciting our people to\nrevolt; we have heard his discourses and know that he is our countryman;\n\n3. \"But the chiefs of the cities have made to you false reports, for he\nis a just man, who teaches the people the word of God. After\ninterrogating him, we have allowed him to go in peace.\"\n\n4. The governor thereupon became very angry, and sent his disguised\nspies to keep watch upon Issa and report to the authorities the least\nword he addressed to the people.\n\n5. In the meantime, the holy Issa continued to visit the neighboring\ncities and preach the true way of the Lord, enjoining the Hebrews'\npatience and promising them speedy deliverance.\n\n6. And all the time great numbers of the people followed him wherever he\nwent, and many did not leave him at all, but attached themselves to him\nand served him.\n\n7. And Issa said: \"Put not your faith in miracles performed by the hands\nof men, for He who rules nature is alone capable of doing supernatural\nthings, while man is impotent to arrest the wrath of the winds or cause\nthe rain to fall.\n\n8. \"One miracle, however, is within the power of man to accomplish. It\nis, when his heart is filled with sincere faith, he resolves to root out\nfrom his mind all evil promptings and desires, and when, in order to\nattain this end, he ceases to walk the path of iniquity.\n\n9. \"All the things done without God are only gross errors, illusions and\nseductions, serving but to show how much the heart of the doer is full\nof presumption, falsehood and impurity.\n\n10. \"Put not your faith in oracles. God alone knows the future. He who\nhas recourse to the diviners soils the temple of his heart and shows his\nlack of faith in his Creator.\n\n11. \"Belief in the diviners and their miracles destroys the innate\nsimplicity of man and his childlike purity. An infernal power takes hold\nof him who so errs, and forces him to commit various sins and give\nhimself to the worship of idols.\n\n12. \"But the Lord our God, to whom none can be equalled, is one\nomnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent; He alone possesses all wisdom\nand all light.\n\n13. \"To Him ye must address yourselves, to be comforted in your\nafflictions, aided in your works, healed in your sickness and whoso asks\nof Him, shall not ask in vain.\n\n14. \"The secrets of nature are in the hands of God, for the whole world,\nbefore it was made manifest, existed in the bosom of the divine thought,\nand has become material and visible by the will of the Most High.\n\n15. \"When ye pray to him, become again like little children, for ye know\nneither the past, nor the present, nor the future, and God is the Lord\nof Time.\"\n\n\nXII.\n\n1. \"Just man,\" said to him the disguised spies of the Governor of\nJerusalem, \"tell us if we must continue to do the will of C\u00e6sar, or\nexpect our near deliverance?\"\n\n2. And Issa, who recognized the questioners as the apostate spies sent\nto follow him, replied to them: \"I have not told you that you would be\ndelivered from C\u00e6sar; it is the soul sunk in error which will gain its\ndeliverance.\n\n3. \"There cannot be a family without a head, and there cannot be order\nin a people without a C\u00e6sar, whom ye should implicitly obey, as he will\nbe held to answer for his acts before the Supreme Tribunal.\"\n\n4. \"Does C\u00e6sar possess a divine right?\" the spies asked him again; \"and\nis he the best of mortals?\"\n\n5. \"There is no one 'the best' among human beings; but there are many\nbad, who--even as the sick need physicians--require the care of those\nchosen for that mission, in which must be used the means given by the\nsacred law of our Heavenly Father;\n\n6. \"Mercy and justice are the high prerogatives of C\u00e6sar, and his name\nwill be illustrious if he exercises them.\n\n7. \"But he who acts otherwise, who transcends the limits of power he has\nover those under his rule, and even goes so far as to put their lives in\ndanger, offends the great Judge and derogates from his own dignity in\nthe eyes of men.\"\n\n8. Upon this, an old woman who had approached the group, to better hear\nIssa, was pushed aside by one of the disguised men, who placed himself\nbefore her.\n\n9. Then said Issa: \"It is not good for a son to push away his mother,\nthat he may occupy the place which belongs to her. Whoso doth not\nrespect his mother--the most sacred being after his God--is unworthy of\nthe name of son.\n\n10. \"Hearken to what I say to you: Respect woman; for in her we see the\nmother of the universe, and all the truth of divine creation is to come\nthrough her.\n\n11. \"She is the fount of everything good and beautiful, as she is also\nthe germ of life and death. Upon her man depends in all his existence,\nfor she is his moral and natural support in his labors.\n\n12. \"In pain and suffering she brings you forth; in the sweat of her\nbrow she watches over your growth, and until her death you cause her\ngreatest anxieties. Bless her and adore her, for she is your only friend\nand support on earth.\n\n13. \"Respect her; defend her. In so doing you will gain for yourself her\nlove; you will find favor before God, and for her sake many sins will be\nremitted to you.\n\n14. \"Love your wives and respect them, for they will be the mothers of\ntomorrow and later the grandmothers of a whole nation.\n\n15. \"Be submissive to the wife; her love ennobles man, softens his\nhardened heart, tames the wild beast in him and changes it to a lamb.\n\n16. \"Wife and mother are the priceless treasures which God has given to\nyou. They are the most beautiful ornaments of the universe, and from\nthem will be born all who will inhabit the world.\n\n17. \"Even as the Lord of Hosts separated the light from the darkness,\nand the dry land from the waters, so does woman possess the divine gift\nof calling forth out of man's evil nature all the good that is in him.\n\n18. \"Therefore I say unto you, after God, to woman must belong your best\nthoughts, for she is the divine temple where you will most easily obtain\nperfect happiness.\n\n19. \"Draw from this temple your moral force. There you will forget your\nsorrows and your failures, and recover the love necessary to aid your\nfellow men.\n\n20. \"Suffer her not to be humiliated, for by humiliating her you\nhumiliate yourselves, and lose the sentiment of love, without which\nnothing can exist here on earth.\n\n21. \"Protect your wife, that she may protect you--you and all your\nhousehold. All that you do for your mothers, your wives, for a widow,\nor for any other woman in distress, you will do for your God.\"\n\n\nXIII.\n\n1. Thus Saint Issa taught the people of Israel for three years, in every\ncity and every village, on the highways and in the fields, and all he\nsaid came to pass.\n\n2. All this time the disguised spies of the governor Pilate observed him\nclosely, but heard nothing to sustain the accusations formerly made\nagainst Issa by the chiefs of the cities.\n\n3. But Saint Issa's growing popularity did not allow Pilate to rest. He\nfeared that Issa would be instrumental in bringing about a revolution\nculminating in his elevation to the sovereignty, and, therefore, ordered\nthe spies to make charges against him.\n\n4. Then soldiers were sent to arrest him, and they cast him into a\nsubterranean dungeon, where he was subjected to all kinds of tortures,\nto compel him to accuse himself, so that he might be put to death.\n\n5. The Saint, thinking only of the perfect bliss of his brethren,\nendured all those torments with resignation to the will of the Creator.\n\n6. The servants of Pilate continued to torture him, and he was reduced\nto a state of extreme weakness; but God was with him and did not permit\nhim to die at their hands.\n\n7. When the principal priests and wise elders learned of the sufferings\nwhich their Saint endured, they went to Pilate, begging him to liberate\nIssa, so that he might attend the great festival which was near at hand.\n\n8. But this the governor refused. Then they asked him that Issa should\nbe brought before the elders' council, so that he might be condemned,\nor acquitted, before the festival, and to this Pilate agreed.\n\n9. On the following day the governor assembled the principal chiefs,\npriests, elders and judges, for the purpose of judging Issa.\n\n10. The Saint was brought from his prison. They made him sit before the\ngovernor, between two robbers, who were to be judged at the same time\nwith Issa, so as to show the people he was not the only one to be\ncondemned.\n\n11. And Pilate, addressing himself to Issa, said, \"Is it true, Oh! Man;\nthat thou incitest the populace against the authorities, with the\npurpose of thyself becoming King of Israel?\"\n\n12. Issa replied, \"One does not become king by one's own purpose\nthereto. They have told you an untruth when you were informed that I was\ninciting the people to revolution. I have only preached of the King of\nHeaven, and it was Him whom I told the people to worship.\n\n13. \"For the sons of Israel have lost their original innocence and\nunless they return to worship the true God they will be sacrificed and\ntheir temple will fall in ruins.\n\n14. \"The worldly power upholds order in the land; I told them not to\nforget this. I said to them, 'Live in conformity with your situation and\nrefrain from disturbing public order;' and, at the same time, I exhorted\nthem to remember that disorder reigned in their own hearts and spirits.\n\n15. \"Therefore, the King of Heaven has punished them, and has destroyed\ntheir nationality and taken from them their national kings, 'but,' I\nadded, 'if you will be resigned to your fate, as a reward the Kingdom of\nHeaven will be yours.'\"\n\n16. At this moment the witnesses were introduced; one of whom deposed\nthus: \"Thou hast said to the people that in comparison with the power of\nthe king who would soon liberate the Israelites from the yoke of the\nheathen, the worldly authorities amounted to nothing.\"\n\n17. \"Blessings upon thee!\" said Issa. \"For thou hast spoken the truth!\nThe King of Heaven is greater and more powerful than the laws of man and\nHis kingdom surpasses the kingdoms of this earth.\n\n18. \"And the time is not far off, when Israel, obedient to the will of\nGod, will throw off its yoke of sin; for it has been written that a\nforerunner would appear to announce the deliverance of the people, and\nthat he would reunite them in one family.\"\n\n19. Thereupon the governor said to the judges: \"Have you heard this? The\nIsraelite Issa acknowledges the crime of which he is accused. Judge him,\nthen, according to your laws and pass upon him condemnation to death.\"\n\n20. \"We cannot condemn him,\" replied the priests and the ancients. \"As\nthou hast heard, he spoke of the King of Heaven, and he has preached\nnothing which constitutes insubordination against the law.\"\n\n21. Thereupon the governor called a witness who had been bribed by his\nmaster, Pilate, to betray Issa, and this man said to Issa: \"Is it not\ntrue that thou hast represented thyself as a King of Israel, when thou\ndidst say that He who reigns in Heaven sent thee to prepare His people?\"\n\n22. But Issa blessed the man and answered: \"Thou wilt find mercy, for\nwhat thou hast said did not come out from thine own heart.\" Then,\nturning to the governor he said: \"Why dost thou lower thy dignity and\nteach thy inferiors to tell falsehood, when, without doing so, it is in\nthy power to condemn an innocent man?\"\n\n23. When Pilate heard his words, he became greatly enraged and ordered\nthat Issa be condemned to death, and that the two robbers should be\ndeclared guiltless.\n\n24. The judges, after consulting among themselves, said to Pilate: \"We\ncannot consent to take this great sin upon us,--to condemn an innocent\nman and liberate malefactors. It would be against our laws.\n\n25. \"Act thyself, then, as thou seest fit.\" Thereupon the priests and\nelders walked out, and washed their hands in a sacred vessel, and said:\n\"We are innocent of the blood of this righteous man.\"\n\n\nXIV.\n\n1. By order of the governor, the soldiers seized Issa and the two\nrobbers, and led them to the place of execution, where they were nailed\nupon the crosses erected for them.\n\n2. All day long the bodies of Issa and the two robbers hung upon the\ncrosses, bleeding, guarded by the soldiers. The people stood all around\nand the relatives of the executed prayed and wept.\n\n3. When the sun went down, Issa's tortures ended. He lost consciousness\nand his soul disengaged itself from the body, to reunite with God.\n\n4. Thus ended the terrestrial existence of the reflection of the eternal\nSpirit under the form of a man who had saved hardened sinners and\ncomforted the afflicted.\n\n5. Meanwhile, Pilate was afraid for what he had done, and ordered the\nbody of the Saint to be given to his relatives, who put it in a tomb\nnear to the place of execution. Great numbers of persons came to visit\nthe tomb, and the air was filled with their wailings and lamentations.\n\n6. Three days later, the governor sent his soldiers to remove Issa's\nbody and bury it in some other place, for he feared a rebellion among\nthe people.\n\n7. The next day, when the people came to the tomb, they found it open\nand empty, the body of Issa being gone. Thereupon, the rumor spread that\nthe Supreme Judge had sent His angels from Heaven, to remove the mortal\nremains of the saint in whom part of the divine Spirit had lived on\nearth.\n\n8. When Pilate learned of this rumor, he grew angry and prohibited,\nunder penalty of death, the naming of Issa, or praying for him to the\nLord.\n\n9. But the people, nevertheless, continued to weep over Issa's death and\nto glorify their master; wherefore, many were carried into captivity,\nsubjected to torture and put to death.\n\n10. And the disciples of Saint Issa departed from the land of Israel and\nwent in all directions, to the heathen, preaching that they should\nabandon their gross errors, think of the salvation of their souls and\nearn the perfect bliss which awaits human beings in the immaterial\nworld, full of glory, where the great Creator abides in all his\nimmaculate and perfect majesty.\n\n11. The heathen, their kings, and their warriors, listened to the\npreachers, abandoned their erroneous beliefs and forsook their priests\nand their idols, to celebrate the praises of the most wise Creator of\nthe Universe, the King of Kings, whose heart is filled with infinite\nmercy.\n\n\n\n\n_Resum\u00e9_\n\n\nIn reading the account of the life of Issa (Jesus Christ), one is\nstruck, on the one hand by the resemblance of certain principal passages\nto accounts in the Old and New Testaments; and, on the other, by the not\nless remarkable contradictions which occasionally occur between the\nBuddhistic version and Hebraic and Christian records.\n\nTo explain this, it is necessary to remember the epochs when the facts\nwere consigned to writing.\n\nWe have been taught, from our childhood, that the Pentateuch was written\nby Moses himself, but the careful researches of modern scholars have\ndemonstrated conclusively, that at the time of Moses, and even much\nlater, there existed in the country bathed by the Mediterranean, no\nother writing than the hieroglyphics in Egypt and the cuniform\ninscriptions, found nowadays in the excavations of Babylon. We know,\nhowever, that the alphabet and parchment were known in China and India\nlong before Moses.\n\nLet me cite a few proofs of this statement. We learn from the sacred\nbooks of \"the religion of the wise\" that the alphabet was invented in\nChina in 2800 by Fou-si, who was the first emperor of China to embrace\nthis religion, the ritual and exterior forms of which he himself\narranged. Yao, the fourth of the Chinese emperors, who is said to have\nbelonged to this faith, published moral and civil laws, and, in 2228,\ncompiled a penal code. The fifth emperor, Soune, proclaimed in the year\nof his accession to the throne that \"the religion of the wise\" should\nthenceforth be the recognized religion of the State, and, in 2282,\ncompiled new penal laws. His laws, modified by the Emperor\nVou-vange,--founder of the dynasty of the Tcheou in 1122,--are those in\nexistence today, and known under the name of \"Changements.\"\n\nWe also know that the doctrine of the Buddha F\u00f4, whose true name was\nSakya-Muni was written upon parchment. F\u00f4ism began to spread in China\nabout 260 years before Jesus Christ. In 206, an emperor of the Tsine\ndynasty, who was anxious to learn Buddhism, sent to India for a Buddhist\nby the name of Silifan, and the Emperor Ming-Ti, of the Hagne dynasty,\nsent, a year before Christ's birth, to India for the sacred books\nwritten by the Buddha Sakya-Muni--the founder of the Buddhistic\ndoctrine, who lived about 1200 before Christ.\n\nThe doctrine of the Buddha Gauthama or Gothama, who lived 600 years\nbefore Jesus Christ, was written in the Pali language upon parchment. At\nthat epoch there existed already in India about 84,000 Buddhistic\nmanuscripts, the compilation of which required a considerable number of\nyears.\n\nAt the time when the Chinese and the Hindus possessed already a very\nrich written literature, the less fortunate or more ignorant peoples who\nhad no alphabet, transmitted their histories from mouth to mouth, and\nfrom generation to generation. Owing to the unreliability of human\nmemory, historical facts, embellished by Oriental imagination, soon\ndegenerated into fabulous legends, which, in the course of time, were\ncollected, and by the unknown compilers entitled \"The Five Books of\nMoses.\" As these legends ascribe to the Hebrew legislator extraordinary\ndivine powers which enabled him to perform miracles in the presence of\nPharaoh, the claim that he was an Israelite may as well have been\nlegendary rather than historical.\n\nThe Hindu chroniclers, on the contrary, owing to their knowledge of an\nalphabet, were enabled to commit carefully to writing, not mere legends,\nbut the recitals of recently occurred facts within their own knowledge,\nor the accounts brought to them by merchants who came from foreign\ncountries.\n\nIt must be remembered, in this connection, that--in antiquity as in our\nown days--the whole public life of the Orient was concentrated in the\nbazaars. There the news of foreign events was brought by the\nmerchant-caravans and sought by the dervishes, who found, in their\nrecitals in the temples and public places, a means of subsistence. When\nthe merchants returned home from a journey, they generally related fully\nduring the first days after their arrival, all they had seen or heard\nabroad. Such have been the customs of the Orient, from time immemorial,\nand are today.\n\nThe commerce of India with Egypt and, later, with Europe, was carried on\nby way of Jerusalem, where, as far back as the time of King Solomon, the\nHindu caravans brought precious metals and other materials for the\nconstruction of the temple. From Europe, merchandise was brought to\nJerusalem by sea, and there unloaded in a port, which is now occupied by\nthe city of Jaffa. The chronicles in question were compiled before,\nduring and after the time of Jesus Christ.\n\nDuring his sojourn in India, in the quality of a simple student come to\nlearn the Brahminical and Buddhistic laws, no special attention whatever\nwas paid to his life. When, however, a little later, the first accounts\nof the events in Israel reached India, the chroniclers, after committing\nto writing that which they were told about the prophet, Issa,--_viz._,\nthat he had for his following a whole people, weary of the yoke of their\nmasters, and that he was crucified by order of Pilate, remembered that\nthis same Issa had only recently sojourned in their midst, and that, an\nIsraelite by birth, he had come to study among them, after which he had\nreturned to his country. They conceived a lively interest for the man\nwho had grown so rapidly under their eyes, and began to investigate his\nbirth, his past and all the details concerning his existence.\n\nThe two manuscripts, from which the lama of the convent Himis read to me\nall that had a bearing upon Jesus, are compilations from divers copies\nwritten in the Thibetan language, translations of scrolls belonging to\nthe library of Lhassa and brought, about two hundred years after Christ,\nfrom India, Nepaul and Maghada, to a convent on Mount Marbour, near the\ncity of Lhassa, now the residence of the Dalai-Lama.\n\nThese scrolls were written in Pali, which certain lamas study even now,\nso as to be able to translate it into the Thibetan.\n\nThe chroniclers were Buddhists belonging to the sect of the Buddha\nGothama.\n\nThe details concerning Jesus, given in the chronicles, are disconnected\nand mingled with accounts of other contemporaneous events to which they\nbear no relation.\n\nThe manuscripts relate to us, first of all,--according to the accounts\ngiven by merchants arriving from Judea in the same year when the death\nof Jesus occurred--that a just man by the name of Issa, an Israelite,\nin spite of his being acquitted twice by the judges as being a man of\nGod, was nevertheless put to death by the order of the Pagan governor,\nPilate, who feared that he might take advantage of his great popularity\nto reestablish the kingdom of Israel and expel from the country its\nconquerors.\n\nThen follow rather incoherent communications regarding the preachings of\nJesus among the Guebers and other heathens. They seem to have been\nwritten during the first years following the death of Jesus, in whose\ncareer a lively and growing interest is shown.\n\nOne of these accounts, communicated by a merchant, refers to the origin\nof Jesus and his family; another tells of the expulsion of his partisans\nand the persecutions they had to suffer.\n\nOnly at the end of the second volume is found the first categorical\naffirmation of the chronicler. He says there that Issa was a man blessed\nby God and the best of all; that it was he in whom the great Brahma had\nelected to incarnate when, at a period fixed by destiny, his spirit was\nrequired to, for a time, separate from the Supreme Being.\n\nAfter telling that Issa descended from poor Israelite parents, the\nchronicler makes a little digression, for the purpose of explaining,\naccording to ancient accounts, who were those sons of Israel.\n\nI have arranged all the fragments concerning the life of Issa in\nchronological order and have taken pains to impress upon them the\ncharacter of unity, in which they were absolutely lacking.\n\nI leave it to the _savans_, the philosophers and the theologians to\nsearch into the causes for the contradictions which may be found between\nthe \"Life of Issa\" which I lay before the public and the accounts of the\nGospels. But I trust that everybody will agree with me in assuming that\nthe version which I present to the public, one compiled three or four\nyears after the death of Jesus, from the accounts of eyewitnesses and\ncontemporaries, has much more probability of being in conformity with\ntruth than the accounts of the Gospels, the composition of which was\neffected at different epochs and at periods much posterior to the\noccurrence of the events.\n\nBefore speaking of the life of Jesus, I must say a few words on the\nhistory of Moses, who, according to the so-far most accredited legend,\nwas an Israelite. In this respect the legend is contradicted by the\nBuddhists. We learn from the outset that Moses was an Egyptian prince,\nthe son of a Pharaoh, and that he only was taught by learned Israelites.\nI believe that if this important point is carefully examined, it must be\nadmitted that the Buddhist author may be right.\n\nIt is not my intent to argue against the Biblical legend concerning the\norigin of Moses, but I think everyone reading it must share my\nconviction that Moses could not have been a simple Israelite. His\neducation was rather that of a king's son, and it is difficult to\nbelieve that a child introduced by chance into the palace should have\nbeen made an equal with the son of the sovereign. The rigor with which\nthe Egyptians treated their slaves by no means attests the mildness of\ntheir character. A foundling certainly would not have been made the\ncompanion of the sons of a Pharaoh, but would be placed among his\nservants. Add to this the caste spirit so strictly observed in ancient\nEgypt, a most salient point, which is certainly calculated to raise\ndoubts as to the truth of the Scriptural story.\n\nAnd it is difficult to suppose that Moses had not received a complete\neducation. How otherwise could his great legislative work, his broad\nviews, his high administrative qualities be satisfactorily explained?\n\nAnd now comes another question: Why should he, a prince, have attached\nhimself to the Israelites? The answer seems to me very simple. It is\nknown that in ancient, as well as in modern times, discussions were\noften raised as to which of two brothers should succeed to the father's\nthrone. Why not admit this hypothesis, _viz._, that Mossa, or Moses,\nhaving an elder brother whose existence forbade him to think of\noccupying the throne of Egypt, contemplated founding a distinct kingdom.\n\nIt might very well be that, in view of this end, he tried to attach\nhimself to the Israelites, whose firmness of faith as well as physical\nstrength he had occasion to admire. We know, indeed, that the Israelites\nof Egypt had no resemblance whatever to their descendants as regards\nphysical constitution. The granite blocks which were handled by them in\nbuilding the palaces and pyramids are still in place to testify to this\nfact. In the same way I explain to myself the history of the miracles\nwhich he is said to have performed before Pharaoh.\n\nAlthough there are no definite arguments for denying the miracles which\nMoses might have performed in the name of God before Pharaoh, I think it\nis not difficult to realize that the Buddhistic statement sounds more\nprobable than the Scriptural gloss. The pestilence, the smallpox or the\ncholera must, indeed, have caused enormous ravages among the dense\npopulation of Egypt, at an epoch when there existed yet but very\nrudimentary ideas about hygiene and where, consequently, such diseases\nmust have rapidly assumed frightful virulence.\n\nIn view of Pharaoh's fright at the disasters which befell Egypt, Moses'\nkeen wit might well have suggested to him to explain the strange and\nterrifying occurrences, to his father, by the intervention of the God of\nIsrael in behalf of his chosen people.\n\nMoses was here afforded an excellent opportunity to deliver the\nIsraelites from their slavery and have them pass under his own\ndomination.\n\nIn obedience to Pharaoh's will--according to the Buddhistic\nversion--Moses led the Israelites outside the walls of the city; but,\ninstead of building a new city within reach of the capital, as he was\nordered, he left with them the Egyptian territory. Pharaoh's indignation\non learning of this infringement of his commands by Moses, can easily be\nimagined. And so he gave the order to his soldiers to pursue the\nfugitives. The geographical disposition of the region suggests at once\nthat Moses during his flight must have moved by the side of the\nmountains and entered Arabia by the way over the Isthmus which is now\ncut by the Suez Canal.\n\nPharaoh, on the contrary, pursued, with his troops, a straight line to\nthe Red Sea; then, in order to overtake the Israelites, who had already\ngained the opposite shore, he sought to take advantage of the ebb of the\nsea in the Gulf, which is formed by the coast and the Isthmus, and\ncaused his soldiers to wade through the ford. But the length of the\npassage proved much greater than he had expected; so that the flood tide\nset in when the Egyptian host was halfway across, and, of the army thus\noverwhelmed by the returning waves, none escaped death.\n\nThis fact, so simple in itself, has in the course of the centuries been\ntransformed by the Israelites into a religious legend, they seeing in it\na divine intervention in their behalf and a punishment which their God\ninflicted on their persecutors. There is, moreover, reason to believe\nthat Moses himself saw the occurrence in this light. This, however, is a\nthesis which I shall try to develop in a forthcoming work.\n\nThe Buddhistic chronicle then describes the grandeur and the downfall of\nthe kingdom of Israel, and its conquest by the foreign nations who\nreduced the inhabitants to slavery.\n\nThe calamities which befell the Israelites, and the afflictions that\nthenceforth embittered their days were, according to the chronicler,\nmore than sufficient reasons that God, pitying his people and desirous\nof coming to their aid, should descend on earth in the person of a\nprophet, in order to lead them back to the path of righteousness.\n\nThus the state of things in that epoch justified the belief that the\ncoming of Jesus was signalized, imminent, necessary.\n\nThis explains why the Buddhistic traditions could maintain that the\neternal Spirit separated from the eternal Being and incarnated in the\nchild of a pious and once illustrious family.\n\nDoubtless the Buddhists, in common with the Evangelists, meant to convey\nby this that the child belonged to the royal house of David; but the\ntext in the Gospels, according to which \"the child was born from the\nHoly Spirit,\" admits of two interpretations, while according to Buddha's\ndoctrine, which is more in conformity with the laws of nature, the\nspirit has but incarnated in a child already born, whom God blessed and\nchose for the accomplishment of His mission on earth.\n\nThe birth of Jesus is followed by a long gap in the traditions of the\nEvangelists, who either from ignorance or neglect, fail to tell us\nanything definite about his childhood, youth or education. They commence\nthe history of Jesus with his first sermon, _i.e._, at the epoch, when\nthirty years of age, he returns to his country.\n\nAll the Evangelists tell us concerning the infancy of Jesus is marked by\nthe lack of precision: \"And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit,\nfilled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him,\" says one of the\nsacred authors (Luke 2, 40), and another: \"And the child grew, and waxed\nstrong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing\nunto Israel.\" (Luke 1, 80.)\n\nAs the Evangelists compiled their writings a long time after the death\nof Jesus, it is presumable that they committed to writing only those\naccounts of the principal events in the life of Jesus which happened to\ncome to their knowledge.\n\nThe Buddhists, on the contrary, who compiled their chronicles soon after\nthe Passion occurred, and were able to collect the surest information\nabout everything that interested them, give us a complete and very\ndetailed description of the life of Jesus.\n\nIn those unhappy times, when the struggle for existence seems to have\ndestroyed all thought of God, the people of Israel suffered the double\noppression of the ambitious Herod and the despotic and avaricious\nRomans. Then, as now, the Hebrews put all their hopes in Providence,\nwhom they expected, would send them an inspired man, who should deliver\nthem from all their physical and moral afflictions. The time passed,\nhowever, and no one took the initiative in a revolt against the tyranny\nof the rulers.\n\nIn that era of hope and despair, the people of Israel completely forgot\nthat there lived among them a poor Israelite who was a direct descendant\nfrom their King David. This poor man married a young girl who gave birth\nto a miraculous child.\n\nThe Hebrews, true to their traditions of devotion and respect for the\nrace of their kings, upon learning of this event went in great numbers\nto congratulate the happy father and see the child. It is evident that\nHerod was informed of this occurrence. He feared that this infant, once\ngrown to manhood, might avail himself of his prospective popularity to\nreconquer the throne of his ancestors. He sent out his men to seize the\nchild, which the Israelites endeavored to hide from the wrath of the\nking, who then ordered the abominable massacre of the children, hoping\nthat Jesus would perish in this vast human hecatomb. But Joseph's family\nhad warning of the impending danger, and took refuge in Egypt.\n\nA short time afterward, they returned to their native country. The child\nhad grown during those journeyings, in which his life was more than\nonce exposed to danger. Formerly, as now, the Oriental Israelites\ncommenced the instruction of their children at the age of five or six\nyears. Compelled to constantly hide him from the murderous King Herod,\nthe parents of Jesus could not allow their son to go out, and he, no\ndoubt, spent all his time in studying the sacred Scriptures, so that his\nknowledge was sufficiently beyond what would naturally have been\nexpected of a boy of his age to greatly astonish the elders of Israel.\nHe had in his thirteenth year attained an age when, according to Jewish\nlaw, the boy becomes an adult, has the right to marry, and incurs\nobligations for the discharge of the religious duties of a man.\n\nThere exists still, in our times, among the Israelites, an ancient\nreligious custom that fixes the majority of a youth at the accomplished\nthirteenth year. From this epoch the youth becomes a member of the\ncongregation and enjoys all the rights of an adult. Hence, his marriage\nat this age is regarded as having legal force, and is even required in\nthe tropical countries. In Europe, however, owing to the influence of\nlocal laws and to nature, which does not contribute here so powerfully\nas in warm climates to the physical development, this custom is no more\nin force and has lost all its former importance.\n\nThe royal lineage of Jesus, his rare intelligence and his learning,\ncaused him to be looked upon as an excellent match, and the wealthiest\nand most respected Hebrews would fain have had him for a son-in-law,\njust as even nowadays the Israelites are very desirous of the honor of\nmarrying their daughters to the sons of Rabbis or scholars. But the\nmeditative youth, whose mind was far above anything corporeal, and\npossessed by the thirst for knowledge, stealthily left his home and\njoined the caravans going to India.\n\nIt stands to reason that Jesus Christ should have thought, primarily, of\ngoing to India, first, because at that epoch Egypt formed part of the\nRoman possessions; secondly, and principally, because a very active\ncommercial exchange with India had made common report in Judea of the\nmajestic character and unsurpassed richness of the arts and sciences in\nthis marvellous country, to which even now the aspirations of all\ncivilized peoples are directed.\n\nHere the Evangelists once more lose the thread of the terrestrial life\nof Jesus. Luke says he \"was in the deserts till the day of his shewing\nunto Israel\" (Luke 1, 80), which clearly demonstrates that nobody knew\nwhere the holy youth was until his sudden reappearance sixteen years\nlater.\n\nArrived in India, this land of marvels, Jesus began to frequent the\ntemples of the Djainites.\n\nThere exists until today, on the peninsula of Hindustan, a sectarian\ncult under the name of Djainism. It forms a kind of connecting link\nbetween Buddhism and Brahminism, and preaches the destruction of all\nother beliefs, which, it declares, are corroded by falsehood. It dates\nfrom the seventh century before Jesus Christ and its name is derived\nfrom the word \"djain\" (conqueror), which was assumed by its founders as\nexpressive of its destined triumph over its rivals.\n\nIn sympathetic admiration for the spirit of the young man, the Djainites\nasked him to stay with them; but Jesus left them to settle in\nDjagguernat, where he devoted himself to the study of treatises on\nreligion, philosophy, etc. Djagguernat is one of the chief sacred cities\nof Brahmins, and, at the time of Christ, was of great religious\nimportance. According to tradition, the ashes of the illustrious\nBrahmin, Krishna, who lived in 1580 B.C., are preserved there, in the\nhollow of a tree, near a magnificent temple, to which thousands make\npilgrimage every year. Krishna collected and put in order the Vedas,\nwhich he divided into four books--Richt, Jagour, Saman and Artafan;--in\ncommemoration of which great work he received the name of Vyasa (he who\ncollected and divided the Vedas), and he also compiled the Vedanta and\neighteen Puranas, which contain 400,000 stanzas.\n\nIn Djagguernat is also found a very precious library of Sanscrit books\nand religious manuscripts.\n\nJesus spent there six years in studying the language of the country and\nthe Sanscrit, which enabled him to absorb the religious doctrines,\nphilosophy, medicine and mathematics. He found much to blame in\nBrahminical laws and usages, and publicly joined issue with the\nBrahmins, who in vain endeavored to convince him of the sacred character\nof their established customs. Jesus, among other things, deemed it\nextremely unjust that the laborer should be oppressed and despised, and\nthat he should not only be robbed of hope of future happiness, but also\nbe denied the right to hear the religious services. He, therefore, began\npreaching to the Sudras, the lowest caste of slaves, telling them that,\naccording to their own laws, God is the Father of all men; that all\nwhich exists, exists only through Him; that, before Him, all men are\nequal, and that the Brahmins had obscured the great principle of\nmonotheism by misinterpreting Brahma's own words, and laying excessive\nstress upon observance of the exterior ceremonials of the cult.\n\nHere are the words in which, according to the doctrine of the Brahmins,\nGod Himself speaks to the angels: \"I have been from eternity, and shall\ncontinue to be eternally. I am the first cause of everything that exists\nin the East and in the West, in the North and in the South, above and\nbelow, in heaven and in hell. I am older than all things. I am the\nSpirit and the Creation of the universe and also its Creator. I am\nall-powerful; I am the God of the Gods, the King of the Kings; I am\nPara-Brahma, the great soul of the universe.\"\n\nAfter the world appeared by the will of Para-Brahma, God created human\nbeings, whom he divided into four classes, according to their colors:\nwhite (Brahmins), red (Kshatriyas), yellow (Vaisyas), and black\n(Sudras). Brahma drew the first from his own mouth, and gave them for\ntheir _appanage_ the government of the world, the care of teaching men\nthe laws, of curing and judging them. Therefore do the Brahmins occupy\nonly the offices of priests and preachers, are expounders of the Vedas,\nand must practice celibacy.\n\nThe second caste of Kshatriyas issued from the hand of Brahma. He made\nof them warriors, entrusting them with the care of defending society.\nAll the kings, princes, captains, governors and military men belong to\nthis caste, which lives on the best terms with the Brahmins, since they\ncannot subsist without each other, and the peace of the country depends\non the alliance of the lights and the sword, of Brahma's temple and the\nroyal throne.\n\nThe Vaisyas, who constitute the third caste, issued from Brahma's belly.\nThey are destined to cultivate the ground, raise cattle, carry on\ncommerce and practice all kinds of trades in order to feed the Brahmins\nand the Kshatriyas. Only on holidays are they authorized to enter the\ntemple and listen to the recital of the Vedas; at all other times they\nmust attend to their business.\n\nThe lowest caste, that of the black ones, or Sudras, issued from the\nfeet of Brahma to be the humble servants and slaves of the three\npreceding castes. They are interdicted from attending the reading of the\nVedas at any time; their touch contaminates a Brahmin, Kshatriya, or\neven a Vaisya who comes in contact with them. They are wretched\ncreatures, deprived of all human rights; they cannot even look at the\nmembers of the other castes, nor defend themselves, nor, when sick,\nreceive the attendance of a physician. Death alone can deliver the\nSudra from a life of servitude; and even then, freedom can only be\nattained under the condition that, during his whole life, he shall have\nserved diligently and without complaint some member of the privileged\nclasses. Then only it is promised that the soul of the Sudra shall,\nafter death, be raised to a superior caste.\n\nIf a Sudra has been lacking in obedience to a member of the privileged\nclasses, or has in any way brought their disfavor upon himself, he sinks\nto the rank of a pariah, who is banished from all cities and villages\nand is the object of general contempt, as an abject being who can only\nperform the lowest kind of work.\n\nThe same punishment may also fall upon members of another caste; these,\nhowever, may, through repentance, fasting and other trials, rehabilitate\nthemselves in their former caste; while the unfortunate Sudra, once\nexpelled from his, has lost it forever.\n\nFrom what has been said above, it is easy to explain why the Vaisyas and\nSudras were animated with adoration for Jesus, who, in spite of the\nthreats of the Brahmins and Kshatriyas, never forsook those poor people.\n\nIn his sermons Jesus not only censured the system by which man was\nrobbed of his right to be considered as a human being, while an ape or a\npiece of marble or metal was paid divine worship, but he attacked the\nvery life of Brahminism, its system of gods, its doctrine and its\n\"trimurti\" (trinity), the angular stone of this religion.\n\nPara-Brahma is represented with three faces on a single head. This is\nthe \"trimurti\" (trinity), composed of Brahma (creator), Vishnu\n(conservator), and Siva (destroyer).\n\nHere is the origin of the trimurti:--\n\nIn the beginning, Para-Brahma created the waters and threw into them the\nseed of procreation, which transformed itself into a brilliant egg,\nwherein Brahma's image was reflected. Millions of years had passed when\nBrahma split the egg in two halves, of which the upper one became the\nheaven, the lower one, the earth. Then Brahma descended to the earth\nunder the shape of a child, established himself upon a lotus flower,\nabsorbed himself in his own contemplation and put to himself the\nquestion: \"Who will attend to the conservation of what I have created?\"\n\"I,\" came the answer from his mouth under the appearance of a flame. And\nBrahma gave to this word the name, \"Vishnu,\" that is to say, \"he who\npreserves.\" Then Brahma divided his being into two halves, the one male,\nthe other female, the active and the passive principles, the union of\nwhich produced Siva, \"the destroyer.\"\n\nThese are the attributes of the trimurti; Brahma, creative principle;\nVishnu, preservative wisdom; Siva, destructive wrath of justice. Brahma\nis the substance from which everything was made; Vishnu, space wherein\neverything lives; and Siva, time that annihilates all things.\n\nBrahma is the face which vivifies all; Vishnu, the water which sustains\nthe forces of the creatures; Siva, the fire which breaks the bond that\nunites all objects. Brahma is the past; Vishnu, the present; Siva, the\nfuture. Each part of the trimurti possesses, moreover, a wife. The wife\nof Brahma is Sarasvati, goddess of wisdom; that of Vishnu, Lakshmi,\ngoddess of virtue, and Siva's spouse is Kali, goddess of death, the\nuniversal destroyer.\n\nOf this last union were born, Ganesa, the elephant-headed god of wisdom,\nand Indra, the god of the firmament, both chiefs of inferior divinities,\nthe number of which, if all the objects of adoration of the Hindus be\nincluded, amounts to three hundred millions.\n\nVishnu has descended eight times upon the earth, incarnating in a fish\nin order to save the Vedas from the deluge, in a tortoise, a dwarf, a\nwild boar, a lion, in Rama, a king's son, in Krishna and in Buddha. He\nwill come a ninth time under the form of a rider mounted on a white\nhorse in order to destroy death and sin.\n\nJesus denied the existence of all these hierarchic absurdities of gods,\nwhich darken the great principle of monotheism.\n\nWhen the Brahmins saw that Jesus, who, instead of becoming one of their\nparty, as they had hoped, turned out to be their adversary, and that the\npeople began to embrace his doctrine, they resolved to kill him; but his\nservants, who were greatly attached to him, forewarned him of the\nthreatening danger, and he took refuge in the mountains of Nepaul. At\nthis epoch, Buddhism had taken deep root in this country. It was a kind\nof schism, remarkable by its moral principles and ideas on the nature of\nthe divinity--ideas which brought men closer to nature and to one\nanother.\n\nSakya-Muni, the founder of this sect, was born fifteen hundred years\nbefore Jesus Christ, at Kapila, the capital of his father's kingdom,\nnear Nepaul, in the Himalayas. He belonged to the race of the Gotamides,\nand to the ancient family of the Sakyas. From his infancy he evinced a\nlively interest in religion, and, contrary to his father's wishes,\nleaving his palace with all its luxury, began at once to preach against\nthe Brahmins, for the purification of their doctrines. He died at\nKou\u00e7inagara, surrounded by many faithful disciples. His body was burned,\nand his ashes, divided into several parts, were distributed between the\ncities, which, on account of his new doctrine, had renounced Brahminism.\n\nAccording to the Buddhistic doctrine, the Creator reposes normally in a\nstate of perfect inaction, which is disturbed by nothing and which he\nonly leaves at certain destiny-determined epochs, in order to create\nterrestrial buddhas. To this end the Spirit disengages itself from the\nsovereign Creator, incarnates in a buddha and stays for some time on\nthe earth, where he creates Bodhisattvas (masters),[3] whose mission it\nis to preach the divine word and to found new churches of believers to\nwhom they will give laws, and for whom they will institute a new\nreligious order according to the traditions of Buddhism.\n\nA terrestrial buddha is, in a certain way, a reflection of the sovereign\ncreative Buddha, with whom he unites after the termination of his\nterrestrial existence. In like manner do the Bodhisattvas, as a reward\nfor their labors and the privations they undergo, receive eternal bliss\nand enjoy a rest which nothing can disturb.\n\nJesus sojourned six years among the Buddhists, where he found the\nprinciple of monotheism still pure. Arrived at the age of twenty-six\nyears, he remembered his fatherland, which was then oppressed by a\nforeign yoke. On his way homeward, he preached against idol worship,\nhuman sacrifice, and other errors of faith, admonishing the people to\nrecognize and adore God, the Father of all beings, to whom all are alike\ndear, the master as well as the slave; for they all are his children, to\nwhom he has given this beautiful universe for a common heritage. The\nsermons of Jesus often made a profound impression upon the peoples among\nwhom he came, and he was exposed to all sorts of dangers provoked by the\nclergy, but was saved by the very idolators who, only the preceding day,\nhad offered their children as sacrifices to their idols.\n\nWhile passing through Persia, Jesus almost caused a revolution among the\nadorers of Zoroaster's doctrine. Nevertheless, the priests refrained\nfrom killing him, out of fear of the people's vengeance. They resorted\nto artifice, and led him out of town at night, with the hope that he\nmight be devoured by wild beasts. Jesus escaped this peril and arrived\nsafe and sound in the country of Israel.\n\nIt must be remarked here that the Orientals, amidst their sometimes so\npicturesque misery, and in the ocean of depravation in which they\nslumber, always have, under the influence of their priests and teachers,\na pronounced inclination for learning and understand easily good common\nsense explications. It happened to me more than once that, by using\nsimple words of truth, I appealed to the conscience of a thief or some\notherwise intractable person. These people, moved by a sentiment of\ninnate honesty,--which the clergy for personal reasons of their own,\ntried by all means to stifle--soon became again very honest and had only\ncontempt for those who had abused their confidence.\n\nBy the virtue of a mere word of truth, the whole of India, with its\n300,000,000 of idols, could be made a vast Christian country; but ...\nthis beautiful project would, no doubt, be antagonized by certain\nChristians who, similar to those priests of whom I have spoken before,\nspeculate upon the ignorance of the people to make themselves rich.\n\nAccording to St. Luke, Jesus was about thirty years of age when he began\npreaching to the Israelites. According to the Buddhistic chroniclers,\nJesus's teachings in Judea began in his twenty-ninth year. All his\nsermons which are not mentioned by the Evangelists, but have been\npreserved by the Buddhists, are remarkable for their character of divine\ngrandeur. The fame of the new prophet spread rapidly in the country, and\nJerusalem awaited with impatience his arrival. When he came near the\nholy city, its inhabitants went out to meet him, and led him in triumph\nto the temple; all of which is in agreement with Christian tradition.\nThe chiefs and elders who heard him were filled with admiration for his\nsermons, and were happy to see the beneficent impression which his words\nexercised upon the populace. All these remarkable sermons of Jesus are\nfull of sublime sentiments.\n\nPilate, the governor of the country, however, did not look upon the\nmatter in the same light. Eager agents notified him that Jesus announced\nthe near coming of a new kingdom, the reestablishment of the throne of\nIsrael, and that he suffered himself to be called the Son of God, sent\nto bring back courage in Israel, for he, the King of Judea, would soon\nascend the throne of his ancestors.\n\nI do not purpose attributing to Jesus the _r\u00f4le_ of a revolutionary, but\nit seems to me very probable that Jesus wrought up the people with a\nview to reestablish the throne to which he had a just claim. Divinely\ninspired, and, at the same time, convinced of the legitimacy of his\npretentions, Jesus preached the spiritual union of the people in order\nthat a political union might result.\n\nPilate, who felt alarmed over these rumors, called together the priests\nand the elders of the people and ordered them to interdict Jesus from\npreaching in public, and even to condemn him in the temple under the\ncharge of apostasy. This was the best means for Pilate to rid himself of\na dangerous man, whose royal origin he knew and whose popularity was\nconstantly increasing.\n\nIt must be said in this connection that the Israelites, far from\npersecuting Jesus, recognized in him the descendant of the illustrious\ndynasty of David, and made him the object of their secret hopes, a fact\nwhich is evident from the very Gospels which tell that Jesus preached\nfreely in the temple, in the presence of the elders, who could have\ninterdicted him not only the entrance to the temple, but also his\npreachings.\n\nUpon the order of Pilate the Sanhedrim met and cited Jesus to appear\nbefore its tribunal. As the result of the inquiry, the members of the\nSanhedrim informed Pilate that his suspicions were without any\nfoundation whatever; that Jesus preached a religious, and not a\npolitical, propaganda; that he was expounding the Divine word, and that\nhe claimed to have come not to overthrow, but to reestablish the laws of\nMoses. The Buddhistic record does but confirm this sympathy, which\nunquestionably existed between the young preacher, Jesus, and the elders\nof the people of Israel; hence their answer: \"We do not judge a just\none.\"\n\nPilate felt not at all assured, and continued seeking an occasion to\nhale Jesus before a new tribunal, as regular as the former. To this end\nhe caused him to be followed by spies, and finally ordered his arrest.\n\nIf we may believe the Evangelists, it was the Pharisees who sought the\nlife of Jesus, while the Buddhistic record most positively declares that\nPilate alone can be held responsible for his execution. This version is\nevidently much more probable than the account of the Evangelists. The\nconquerors of Judea could not long tolerate the presence of a man who\nannounced to the people a speedy deliverance from their yoke. The\npopularity of Jesus having commenced to disturb Pilate's mind, it is to\nbe supposed that he sent after the young preacher spies, with the order\nto take note of all his words and acts. Moreover, the servants of the\nRoman governor, as true \"agents provocateurs,\" endeavored by means of\nartful questions put to Jesus, to draw from him some imprudent words\nunder color of which Pilate might proceed against him. If the preachings\nof Jesus had been offensive to the Hebrew priests and scribes, all they\nneeded to do was simply to command the people not to hear and follow\nhim, and to forbid him entrance into the temple. But the Evangelists\ntell us that Jesus enjoyed great popularity among the Israelites and\nfull liberty in the temples, where Pharisees and scribes discussed with\nhim.\n\nIn order to find a valid excuse for condemning him, Pilate had him\ntortured so as to extort from him a confession of high treason.\n\nBut, contrary to the rule that the innocent, overcome by their pain,\nwill confess anything to escape the unendurable agonies inflicted upon\nthem, Jesus made no admission of guilt. Pilate, seeing that the usual\ntortures were powerless to accomplish the desired result, commanded the\nexecutioners to proceed to the last extreme of their diabolic cruelties,\nmeaning to compass the death of Jesus by the complete exhaustion of his\nforces. Jesus, however, fortifying his endurance by the power of his\nwill and zeal for his righteous cause--which was also that of his people\nand of God--was unconquerable by all the refinements of cruelty\ninflicted upon him by his executioners.\n\nThe infliction of \"the question\" upon Jesus evoked much feeling among\nthe elders, and they resolved to interfere in his behalf; formally\ndemanding of Pilate that he should be liberated before the Passover.\n\nWhen their request was denied by Pilate they resolved to petition that\nJesus should be brought to trial before the Sanhedrim, by whom they did\nnot doubt his acquittal--which was ardently desired by the people--would\nbe ordained.\n\nIn the eyes of the priests, Jesus was a saint, belonging to the family\nof David; and his unjust detention, or--what was still more to be\ndreaded--his condemnation, would have saddened the celebration of the\ngreat national festival of the Israelites.\n\nThey therefore prayed Pilate that the trial of Jesus should take place\nbefore the Passover, and to this he acceded. But he ordered that two\nthieves should be tried at the same time with Jesus, thinking to, in\nthis way, minimize in the eyes of the people, the importance of the fact\nthat the life of an innocent man was being put in jeopardy before the\ntribunal; and, by not allowing Jesus to be condemned alone, blind the\npopulace to the unjust prearrangement of his condemnation.\n\nThe accusation against Jesus was founded upon the depositions of the\nbribed witnesses.\n\nDuring the trial, Pilate availed himself of perversions of Jesus' words\nconcerning the heavenly kingdom, to sustain the charges made against\nhim. He counted, it seems, upon the effect produced by the answers of\nJesus, as well as upon his own authority, to influence the members of\nthe tribunal against examining too minutely the details of the case, and\nto procure from them the sentence of death for which he intimated his\ndesire.\n\nUpon hearing the perfectly natural answer of the judges, that the\nmeaning of the words of Jesus was diametrically opposed to the\naccusation, and that there was nothing in them to warrant his\ncondemnation, Pilate employed his final resource for prejudicing the\ntrial, viz., the deposition of a purchased traitorous informer. This\nmiserable wretch--who was, no doubt, Judas--accused Jesus formally, of\nhaving incited the people to rebellion.\n\nThen followed a scene of unsurpassed sublimity. When Judas gave his\ntestimony, Jesus, turning toward him, and giving him his blessing, says:\n\"Thou wilt find mercy, for what thou has said did not come out from\nthine own heart!\" Then, addressing himself to the governor: \"Why dost\nthou lower thy dignity, and teach thy inferiors to tell falsehood, when\nwithout doing so it is in thy power to condemn an innocent man?\"\n\nWords touching as sublime! Jesus Christ here manifests all the grandeur\nof his soul by pardoning his betrayer, and he reproaches Pilate with\nhaving resorted to such means, unworthy of his dignity, to attain his\nend.\n\nThis keen reproach enraged the governor, and caused him to completely\nforget his position, and the prudent policy with which he had meant to\nevade personal responsibility for the crime he contemplated. He now\nimperiously demanded the conviction of Jesus, and, as though he\nintended to make a display of his power, to overawe the judges, ordered\nthe acquittal of the two thieves.\n\nThe judges, seeing the injustice of Pilate's demand, that they should\nacquit the malefactors and condemn the innocent Jesus, refused to commit\nthis double crime against their consciences and their laws. But as they\ncould not cope with one who possessed the authority of final judgment,\nand saw that he was firmly decided to rid himself, by whatever means, of\na man who had fallen under the suspicions of the Roman authorities, they\nleft him to himself pronounce the verdict for which he was so anxious.\nIn order, however, that the people might not suspect them of sharing the\nresponsibility for such unjust judgment, which would not readily have\nbeen forgiven, they, in leaving the court, performed the ceremony of\nwashing their hands, symbolizing the affirmation that they were clean of\nthe blood of the innocent Jesus, the beloved of the people.\n\nAbout ten years ago, I read in a German journal, the _Fremdenblatt_, an\narticle on Judas, wherein the author endeavored to demonstrate that the\ninformer had been the best friend of Jesus. According to him, it was out\nof love for his master that Judas betrayed him, for he put blind faith\nin the words of the Saviour, who said that his kingdom would arrive\nafter his execution. But after seeing him on the cross, and having\nwaited in vain for the resurrection of Jesus, which he expected to\nimmediately take place, Judas, not able to bear the pain by which his\nheart was torn, committed suicide by hanging himself. It would be\nprofitless to dwell upon this ingenious product of a fertile\nimagination.\n\nTo take up again the accounts of the Gospels and the Buddhistic\nchronicle, it is very possible that the bribed informer was really\nJudas, although the Buddhistic version is silent on this point. As to\nthe pangs of conscience which are said to have impelled the informer to\nsuicide, I must say that I give no credence to them. A man capable of\ncommitting so vile and cowardly an action as that of making an\ninfamously false accusation against his friend, and this, not out of a\nspirit of jealousy, or for revenge, but to gain a handful of shekels!\nsuch a man is, from the psychic point of view, of very little worth. He\nignores honesty and conscience, and pangs of remorse are unknown to him.\n\nIt is presumable that the governor treated him as is sometimes done in\nour days, when it is deemed desirable to effectually conceal state\nsecrets known to men of his kind and presumably unsafe in their keeping.\nJudas probably was simply hanged, by Pilate's order, to prevent the\npossibility of his some day revealing that the plot of which Jesus was a\nvictim had been inspired by the authorities.\n\nOn the day of the execution, a numerous detachment of Roman soldiers was\nplaced around the cross to guard against any attempt by the populace for\nthe delivery of him who was the object of their veneration. In this\noccurrence Pilate gave proof of his extraordinary firmness and\nresolution.\n\nBut though, owing to the precautions taken by the governor, the\nanticipated revolt did not occur, he could not prevent the people, after\nthe execution, mourning the ruin of their hopes, which were destroyed,\ntogether with the last scion of the race of David. All the people went\nto worship at Jesus' grave. Although we have no precise information\nconcerning the occurrences of the first few days following the Passion,\nwe could, by some probable conjectures, reconstruct the scenes which\nmust have taken place.\n\nIt stands to reason that the Roman C\u00e6sar's clever lieutenant, when he\nsaw that Christ's grave became the centre of universal lamentations and\nthe subject of national grief, and feared that the memory of the\nrighteous victim might excite the discontent of the people and raise the\nwhole country against the foreigners' rule, should have employed any\neffective means for the removal of this rallying-point, the mortal\nremains of Jesus. Pilate began by having the body buried. For three days\nthe soldiers who were stationed on guard at the grave, were exposed to\nall kinds of insults and injuries on the part of the people who, defying\nthe danger, came in multitudes to mourn the great martyr. Then Pilate\nordered his soldiers to remove the body at night, and to bury it\nclandestinely in some other place, leaving the first grave open and the\nguard withdrawn from it, so that the people could see that Jesus had\ndisappeared. But Pilate missed his end; for when, on the following\nmorning, the Hebrews did not find the corpse of their master in the\nsepulchre, the superstitious and miracle-accepting among them thought\nthat he had been resurrected.\n\nHow did this legend take root? We cannot say. Possibly it existed for a\nlong time in a latent state and, at the beginning, spread only among the\ncommon people; perhaps the ecclesiastic authorities of the Hebrews\nlooked with indulgence upon this innocent belief, which gave to the\noppressed a shadow of revenge on their oppressors. However it be, the\nday when the legend of the resurrection finally became known to all,\nthere was no one to be found strong enough to demonstrate the\nimpossibility of such an occurrence.\n\nConcerning this resurrection, it must be remarked that, according to the\nBuddhists, the soul of the just Issa was united with the eternal Being,\nwhile the Evangelists insist upon the ascension of the body. It seems to\nme, however, that the Evangelists and the Apostles have done very well\nto give the description of the resurrection which they have agreed upon,\nfor if they had not done so, _i.e._, if the miracle had been given a\nless material character, their preaching would not have had, in the\neyes of the nations to whom it was presented, that divine authority,\nthat avowedly supernatural character, which has clothed Christianity,\nuntil our time, as the only religion capable of elevating the human race\nto a state of sublime enthusiasm, suppressing its savage instincts, and\nbringing it nearer to the grand and simple nature which God has\nbestowed, they say, upon that feeble dwarf called man.\n\n\n\n\n_Explanatory Notes_\n\n\n_Chapter III._\n\n_\u00a7\u00a7 3, 4, 5, 7_\n\nThe histories of all peoples show that when a nation has reached the\napogee of its military glory and its wealth, it begins at once to sink\nmore or less rapidly on the declivity of moral degeneration and decay.\nThe Israelites having, among the first, experienced this law of the\nevolution of nations, the neighboring peoples profited by the decadence\nof the then effeminate and debauched descendants of Jacob, to despoil\nthem.\n\n_\u00a7 8_\n\nThe country of Romeles, _i.e._, the fatherland of Romulus; in our days,\nRome.\n\n_\u00a7\u00a7 11, 12_\n\nIt must be admitted that the Israelites, in spite of their incontestable\nwit and intelligence, seem to have only had regard for the present.\nLike all other Oriental peoples, they only in their misfortunes\nremembered the faults of their past, which they each time had to expiate\nby centuries of slavery.\n\n\n_Chapter IV_\n\n_\u00a7 6_\n\nAs it is easy to divine, this verse refers to Joseph, who was a lineal\ndescendant from King David. Side by side with this somewhat vague\nindication may be placed the following passages from the Gospels:\n\n--\"The angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph,\nthou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife\" ... (Matt.\ni, 20.)\n\n--\"And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried,\nsaying, Hosanna to the son of David\" (Matt. xxi, 9.)\n\n--\"To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of\nDavid;\" ... (Luke i, 27.)\n\n--\"And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David;\"\n... (Luke i, 32.)\n\n--\"And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as\nwas supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli ... which was\nthe son of Nathan, which was the son of David\" (Luke iii, 23-31.)\n\n_\u00a7 7_\n\nBoth the Old and the New Testaments teach that God promised David the\nrehabilitation of his throne and the elevation to it of one of his\ndescendants.\n\n_\u00a7\u00a7 8, 9_\n\n--\"And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom,\nand the grace of God was upon him.\"\n\n--\"And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the\ntemple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and\nasking them questions.\"\n\n--\"And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and\nanswers.\"\n\n--\"And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that\nI must be about my Father's business?\"\n\n--\"And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and\nman\" (Luke ii, 40, 46, 47, 49, 52.)\n\n\n_Chapter V_\n\n_\u00a7 1_\n\n\"Sind,\" a Sanscrit word, which has been modified by the Persians into\nInd. \"Arya,\" the name given in antiquity to the inhabitants of India;\nsignified first \"man who cultivates the ground\" or \"cultivator.\"\nAnciently it had a purely ethnographical signification; this appellation\nassumed later on a religious sense, notably that of \"man who believes.\"\n\n_\u00a7 2_\n\nLuke says (i, 80): \"And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and\nwas in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.\" The\nEvangelists say that Jesus was in the desert, the Buddhists explain this\nversion of the Gospels by indicating where Jesus was during his absence\nfrom Judea. According to them he crossed the Sind, a name which,\nproperly spoken, signifies \"the river\" (Indus). In connection with this\nword it is not amiss to note that many Sanscrit words in passing into\nthe Persian language underwent the same transformation by changing the\n\"s\" into \"h\"; per example:\n\n_Sapta_ (in Sanscrit), signifying seven--_hafta_ (in Persian);\n\n_Sam_ (Sanscrit), signifying equal--_ham_ (Persian);\n\n_Mas_ (Sanscrit), meaning mouth--_mah_ (Persian); _Sur_ (Sanscrit),\nmeaning sun--_hur_ (Persian); _Das_ (Sanscrit), meaning ten--_Dah_\n(Persian); _Loco citato_--and those who believed in the god Djain.\n\nThere exists, even yet, on the peninsula of Hindustan, a cult under the\nname of Djainism, which forms, as it were, a link of union between\nBuddhism and Brahminism, and its devotees teach the destruction of all\nother beliefs, which they declare contaminated with falsehood. It dates\nas far back as the seventh century, B.C. Its name is derived from Djain\n(conqueror), which it assumed as the symbol of its triumph over its\nrivals.\n\n_\u00a7 4_\n\nEach of the eighteen Puranas is divided into five parts, which, besides\nthe canonical laws, the rites and the commentaries upon the creation,\ndestruction and resurrection of the universe, deal with theogony,\nmedicine, and even the trades and professions.\n\n\n_Chapter VI_\n\n_\u00a7 12_\n\nOwing to the intervention of the British, the human sacrifices, which\nwere principally offered to Kali, the goddess of death, have now\nentirely ceased. The goddess Kali is represented erect, with one foot\nupon the dead body of a man, whose head she holds in one of her\ninnumerable hands, while with the other hand she brandishes a bloody\ndagger. Her eyes and mouth, which are wide open, express passion and\ncruelty.\n\n\n_Chapter VIII_\n\n_\u00a7\u00a7 3, 4_\n\nZoroaster lived 550 years before Jesus. He founded the doctrine of the\nstruggle between light and darkness, a doctrine which is fully expounded\nin the Zend-Avesta (Word of God), which is written in the Zend language,\nand, according to tradition, was given to him by an angel from Paradise.\n\nAccording to Zoroaster we must worship Mithra (the sun), from whom\ndescend Ormuzd, the god of good, and Ahriman, the god of evil. The world\nwill end when Ormuzd has triumphed over his rival, Ahriman, who will\nthen return to his original source, Mithra.\n\n\n_Chapter X_\n\n_\u00a7 16_\n\nAccording to the Evangelists, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, which the\nBuddhistic version confirms, for only from Bethlehem, situated at a\ndistance of about seven kilometres from Jerusalem, could the walls of\nthis latter city be seen.\n\n\n_Chapter XI_\n\n_\u00a7 15_\n\nThe doctrine of the Redemptor is, almost in its entirety, contained in\nthe Gospels. As to the transformation of men into children, it is\nespecially known from the conversation that took place between Jesus and\nNicodemus.\n\n\n_Chapter XII_\n\n_\u00a7 1_\n\n--\"Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute\nunto C\u00e6sar, or not?\" (Matt. xxii, 17.)\n\n_\u00a7 3_\n\n--\"Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto C\u00e6sar the things which\nare C\u00e6sar's; and unto God the things that are God's.\" (Matt. xxii, 21;\n_et al._)\n\n\n_Chapter XIV_\n\n_\u00a7 3_\n\nAccording to the Buddhistic belief, the terrestrial buddhas after death,\nlose consciousness of their independent existence and unite with the\neternal Spirit.\n\n_\u00a7\u00a7 10, 11_\n\nHere, no doubt, reference is made to the activity of the Apostles among\nthe neighboring peoples; an activity which could not have passed\nunnoticed at that epoch, because of the great results which followed the\npreaching of the new religious doctrine of love among nations whose\nreligions were based upon the cruelty of their gods.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWithout permitting myself indulgence in great dissertations, or too\nminute analysis upon each verse, I have thought it useful to accompany\nmy work with these few little explanatory notes, leaving it to the\nreader to take like trouble with the rest.\n\n\n--_Finis_\n\n\n[1] The Vaisyas and Sudras castes.\n\n[2] Brahmins and Kshatriyas.\n\n[3] _Sanscrit_:--\"He whose essence (sattva) has become intelligence\n(bhodi),\" those who need but one more incarnation to become perfect\nbuddhas, _i.e._, to be entitled to Nirv\u00e2na.","title":"The unknown life of Jesus Christ : $b the original text of Nicolas Notovitch's 1877 discovery","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":37175}