Morning journal and courier., 1894-03-05
TOO SACRED TO TOUGH.
Stricken Dowp, He Lay Where He
 Fell Until Death Came 10 His Re-

TFrom the Japan MaILl
 The ex-Lord Abbot of the Otsai sect, who died at p. 10. on January F at his residence in Kyoto, wss the head of all the Buddhist priests in Japan. He had been suffering since the fall of last year, when he contracted a cold, which appears to have been of the character of inHuepzs. bs!ng attended with much pain and ob.tI- nate fever. and which finally wore ont the strength of the old prelste. From the 14th inst his case developed grave symp- toms, and on the morning of the 18th he was declared by his physicians to be in & hopeless condition.
 He does not, however, seem O have been altogether prostrated, for on the morning of his last se'zure he was making bis way along the corridor attended by 6 maid ser want. The latter, seeing him fall insensi- ble, gave the alarm, and instantly 6 clus- ter of women, charged with all sorts of duties and ceremonial offices ir the house of the prelate, where a state of ceremony resembling that of 6 court was observed, ran to the spot. There were about twenty Of these women, but 90 inflexible is the et- iquette of the ex-Lord Abbot's household that in the absence of his wife not one of the attendants might venture to touch the body of the incarnate Buddhs, even in the moment of his death agony. All they could do was to send report to the ofh- cial in charge of the sffairs of the house- hold, and by him the tidings were con veyed to the present Lord Abbot, whose residence was about furlong distant.
 Some thirty minutes elapsed before the Lord Abbot arrived, simultaneously with physician, and during the whole of that time the venerable old man, too sacred 10 be touched, however much his humanity needed tending, lay helpless on the ground. He died about an hour afterward. A court physician, specially dispatched by the emperor from Tokio, had been in at tendance on the old prela.e during the lss. days of his illness, and his son, the pres ent Lord Abbot, had been at his side al- most continuously. Yet 1t was his fate to die as has been described.
 his remains, having been packed in yer million, were laid in state in his residence. where on the 18th inst. the public were al. lowed to visit them. The ceremony com msnced at two 6. m. and continued until three in the afternoon, during which time more than twenty thousand persons paid their last tribute to the Buddha.
 On the following day the coffin was con- ve5 Cd upon . splendid chariot to the two temples of Amida DAiehi, and, high mass having been performed in Hokushoin, the remains were finally laid beside those of his predecessors, . quantity of uji tss and incense having been laid over the vsrmil- Ion immediately surrounding the corpse. The coffin itself WAS of pure white pine, without any special ornsmentstion other
 than its richly chased gilt mountipgs- It
 was enveloped, however, by gold brocsde of the finest type. and upon 1t were laid | the state robee of the deceased, tbe mag nihcence of which may be coocsived from
 the fact that they are said to have cost ten
 thousand yen.
 This, however, does not represent the Anal rite of sspulture. A funeral esre.
 mony on 6 grspd scale will bs performed
 on the 29ih of January, one feature of
 which will be . feast at which there will