Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-03-23

| 10y AZ ms onlclal cnair, ana the great man
positively bowed to him. TO the stupefaction of
car
OFFICIAL sSUBBISG.
And while have been here H. r. H. Prince
Henry of Bourbon (Comte de Bardi) desired
very much TO see the Temple of Heaven, which
has been closed to foreigners for several years
| accordingly the German minister Che travels.
| OF course. with an Austrian passport) applied
to the Tsung-H Yamen for special permission
Tor his distinguished guest. After some delay
IL was granted. as some say only after the
Marquis Tseng had carried the request to the
empress herself. and the appointment was
made. The prince and his party. accompanied by
the secretary of the German legation, rode out
to the gates of the temples and only succeeded
IN passing the outer one after long discussion
and alteration. The next gate was still more diff
hcul: and after an hours parley the keepers
agreed to let the men of the party in, if the
princess would go back into the street and wait
for them. This was too much, and the whole
party naturally left in indignation. The German
minister sent formal aud vigorous complaint
/ TO the Isung-H lGmen and after a while he re-
ceived a sort of apology and expression of re-
greet at the misunderstanding. But the exclu-
sion was undoubtedly deliberate and according
TO orders received. The ministers could not
| well meet the request with n fiat refusal, but
they took care that the permission should have
no value.
AN EXCITING ADVENTURE.
My own principal experience of celestial
sightseeing 1 am not likely to forget and should
be very unwilling to repeat. Among the places
! of interest in Picking the Yung Ho Kung the
great Llamaserai or Llama temple ranks very
high. 1t is a monastery OF Mongol Buddhism
| or Shamanism, and contains over 900 Mongol
and Tnibetan monks ruled over by Living
Buddha." No foreigner however. has been in
it for several years. the inmates are a rough
and lawless lot. practically beyond the control
| OF the Chinese authorities, and the last party
that entered it was rudely handled. 1t is re-
I garded as all the more sacred too. because an
| emperor was born in one of its temples before
they were given to the Llamas When spoke
OF going there both my mafoo (groom) and
| boy "a Chinese valet or house servant is called
boy told me that strangers could no longer
J get i'll, the former adding that he had accom-
panied different employers there six times
/ without success. A friend in Picking. however
| told me that one of the priests. called the Pal
Llama. whatever that may mean. had come to
/ MN few weeks before to borrow So, and had
| said as an inducement that if he or any of his
/ friends wanted to see the Llamaserai he would
take them over ii himself without fee. So
| my Trend gave me his big red Chinese card
/ with the Pal Lama's name on it as an intro
/ duction, and got Mr.. Werner from the Brit
! lsh legation. who speaks Chinese. to go with
/ me, as he was equally anxious to see the place
/ 1t Is on the outskirts of Picking. nearly an
! hours ride from Legation street, and we
/ passed through two or three gates from the
street without any difficulty.
THE LLAMA TEMPLE.
| Then some boy neophites or acoytes-we
knew them from their shaven heads ahead
OF us and warned the priests. who shut the
! doors. After a quarter of an hours colloquy
| we bribed the doorkeeper to tell the Pal Llama.
| and by and by the latter appeared. small.
dirty individual. who succeeded with much
| dlfhculty IN persuading the others to open the
/ gates and let us step just inSide-AIr. Werner
! myself and my hoy" Then he immediately
| disappeared and We him no more. After
another half-hour of bargaining we agreed to
| pay them certain moderate sum to show us
the four chief sights OF the temple. The first
| of these was
! THE GREAT BUDDHA.
a wooden image, 20 feet high. richly orna-
! mented and clothed, holding an enormous
| lotus i'll each hand and with the traditional
| jewel on his breast. In each section of his
huge gold crown sat small Buddha as perfect
and as much ornamented as the great one. His
toe measured u inches. On each side of him
hung huge scroll, IS feet long. bearing
Chinese characters, and a series of galleries.
reached by several flights of stairs. surrounded
him. The expression of his great bronze face
was singuiarly lofty and | was seized with a
| great desire to photograph him. The crowd of
\ monks was outside the locked door. one only
entering with us. so limited to him that if he
| permitted me to take a photograph a dollar
might be forthcoming. The dollar interested
| him, but he had no idea what q photograph
was: After while Mr.. Werner succeeded in
| explaining what the Chinese call the shadow
picture. and then he would not hear of it, de-
| clarlng that the whole temple would instantly
| fall down if such thing were attempted. /
offered two dollars. three, four five. ten, and
then. my eagerness increasing with the diff
Guilty. twenty. At last he said that for twenty
dollars he would agree 20 smuggle me in next
morning to do II, as If any of the other priests
knew there would be trouble. So We passed
on to
THE OTHER SIGHTS.
two magnificent bronze lions and q wonderful
bronze urn many temples filled with strange
Idols, hung with thousands of silk hangnCs
and laid with Thibetan carpets: all sorts of
bronze and enamel altar utensils presented bv
different emperors. among them two elephants
i'll email cLOtsOiue, said to be the best specimens
of such work i'll China; and the great hall
with It's prayer-benches Tor all the monks where
they worship every afternoon at ). In a couple
| OF hours We had seen everything and came ont
| again into the central courtyard. Here were
already hundred or more monks waiting for
us. all with their heads shaven like billiard
balls. and on the whole set of thorough
paced black guards as ever l set eyes on; filthy
! yermin-covered. bloated. scrOfulous, and with
\ tine marks of nameless vices stamped clearly
| on many os their faces. Il shall be glad when
We are ont OF this | remarked, and my COM
| panlon heartily assented.
ROUGHLY HANDLED.
But easier said than done. They crowded
round US with brutal inquisitiveness, pulled us
/ about, shouted to and laughed grossly as
half-rational gorillas might do Werner said
| to them that We were very much pleased with
| our visit, and we slowly edged toward the door
| But these seemed to be a sort of half-developed
| conspiracy to crowd us in any other direction
| They did not actually oppose US, but somehow
| we could not get there. 1t was as though they
| did not like TO let get away, yet were con-
scious that they had no excuse for OBTAINING
us. After quarter of an hour of this We began
| to get 'riled." Just then we all came to a sort
of tunnel gate i'll wall, leading from one court
| to another, Werner and one crowd first | and
another crowd afterwards, and my boy" and a
| third crowd last. As | was passing, a man
| whom l took from his dress to be sort of door
| keeper spranS out and addressed me yolublv.
Not understanding him took no notice, when
! he grasped my arm to detain me. shook him
off and was passing on, when suddenly he seized
me by the collar with both hands and flung me
| violently back against the wall At such mo-
| ment one does not reflect upon consequences
| and did what anybody else would have done.
The moment his grasp quilted my collar
! STRUCK HIN BETWEEN THE EYES
/ He recovered himself, and the misunderstand-
ing was about to be prolonged vigorously on
both sides when very old priest in a fine vel
low robe emerged from a doorway and began