Rock Island Argus., 1906-12-22

|
and il is necessary, as well as de-
light, to wade in many places.
Cares for Thousand.
We started from here at $3.50 in the
| morning, and reached the first temple
at noon. This is one of the finest tenn
pies on the mountain and has a capa
| city sufficient to care for a thousand
guests. We followed the narrow road
on up the canyon, past steep and point
| ed mountains. up the Road of Ninety
and Nine Turns, and soon, breathless,
were enabled to SIT down and take in
| the beauties of these mountains below
us, and the plain beyond Another
| stretch of the steep read brought us in
good time to the Nine Old Sages' cave
| temple. Here water boils at 202.4 de-
| grees, and the temperature was 90. |
Charcoal fires were a necessity.
Jiu Lao Dong, as this temple is called
IN Chinese, has 40 priests. They take
priest, who died in a sitting posture, |
like Buddha, and there he is. They |
remove the cap and tell you to ''see
the hair" Yes, you see-that it is
like the hair on any other idol, that
is painted and glossy. You are as
Sured that no embalming was done
but he is just as he died. He is coated
with gold leaf. The cave that gives
he temple its name is not far away.
All along the roadway from the mouth
o the room some 200 yards in, there
are lunches of incense like bundles of
grain. the accumulation of years. In
he interior a priest keeps a lot OF
lamps burning before the idols, and
he air is so thick one can hardly
breathe. Small passages lead off from
he main room, one extending as far
as the main passageway. Swallows
and bats by the score inhabit the cave.
Following a small path around the
foot of the great cliff above the cave,
we got magnificent view of the noun
tains and the plain, and by picking
our way through a very maze of shrub
bamboo and briars. We reached point
where a road leads on around to the
base of the main cliff, the top of which
s II. 900 feet above the sea- From
tree tops overlooking the thicket and
swayed to and fro by the gale, we at
tempted to take pictures from a posi-
ton that we were sure no person had
ever been before Here leeches let us
know we were intruders, for they got
hold in the proverbial fashion, only
with both ends, and they did work that
two weeks time failed to heal.
Monkeys Abound.
This is one of the places where there
are monkeys, but they do not always
come out. and we did not see them.
Some very large ones have been seen,
and they are as full of mischief as any
other of their kind.
From the height of Jiu Lao Dong it
is necessary to go down several hun
dred feet and up again almost to the
top of the next ridge. where the Big
road and the little road meet. and from
that point up long. hard climb at an
angle of nearly fifty degrees. Shi
Shiang ST. or Wash Elephant temple,
is on a level point from which view p
can be obtained on a clear day for
hundred miles. The elephant bath is
a hexagonal cistern twenty feet deep,
and the little stone elephant seems to c
find it hard to make up his mind to a
lake such a desperate leap over the Il
rim for the sake of a bath. On ter W
|
Of small pagoda-like urns in which re- "
pose the ashes of departed priests. W
Cremation is usually the choice eX Il
pressed at death. g
We left the elephant taking a shower d
1ath and with our loads, which are n
carried on coolies backs, protected p
With oil paper and oil cloth, started b
after breakfast on the long climb of G.
our thousand feet to the summit. G.
Some people ride on the same sort of il
back chairs that the loads are car g
lied on, but | preferred to walk. With ft
stout cane five feet long with which "
o push myself up, it was easy to el
climb, and it was with some amuse- O,
nent, and also with a feeling of pity 81
or the poor foot-sore pilgrims COM
ng down that | heard one of them Il
say, See how easy he goes up, and te
We can hardly move a foot" There n
vas not much to see during that morn e
ng's climb, for we were in the cloud D
every minute. At one smalr temple cI
where | sat down to rest a few min 81
ties, | noticed a rosary that took my q
Eye. 1t was a Thibetan string, and IL
consisted of one hundred ten small if
black walnuts. I was fortunate in Sc al
curing it, as l found later when two NJ
we'll known priests told me, in an u
;wer to questions, the same as the Il
,ther priest, and set the value of it HI
rom two to five times the cost price. w
The latter sum the old priest at this a
emple offered to give me for it. al
Nearing the top, the temples become in
more numerous, and of less distinction; a,
,ut at one, another genuine flesh body" pl
3uddha is shown. The priest who built
he first temple on the upper part of
he mountain several hundred years ~
igo. is thus preserved and worshiped .,