Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-06-24

half-castes. was packing the crooked
narrow streets.
1 noticed chiefly one young Tartar. 9
sturdy. round-headed, big-headed. big
limbed ruffian. who was forever in oui
way. addressing sailors in pidgin Eng
l!sh and promising them new ano
strange sights. In his belt, contrary
to the municipal regulations of Macao
there was stuck cheray. the terrible
knife of central Asia.
Twice he bumped against me with
out apologizing When he did it the
third time l lost patience. and turned
on him with an oath.
Where are thy manners. o he-goat
o son of a burnt father?" l shouted
speaking in his native dialect.
To my surprise. the Tartar did not
reach for the ever-ready cheray. In
said:
'Thy forgiveness master, There is
meekness even in the son of the Tar
tar. There is sense even in the written
babbltng. of priests, o head of many
tongues
was amazed. for. in the meta
phorical parlance of the Tartar, the
last appellation means polyglot-
which | certainly am. But ! had no
time to ask questions.
For the next moment the Tartar
winked at me, meaningly, deliberately.
In the faintest whisper he said:
ITO the right, Q master"
And the same instant. to the right,
from little squat Buddhist temple for
Chinese sailors which huddled there,
framed by go-downs and drinking
shops, an old Chinese priest came out.
He stepped directly into my path.
brushed against me. and dropped his
IAN / picked il mp and returned it TO
him. Our hands met for fraction of
a moment. and il that inf1nitesimal
space of time l felt that the old man
was pressing piece of paper into my
hand
/ made no exclama ton, no unneces-
sary gesture. | kept my hand closed,
and. without looking to right or to left
continued with my friends to the foot
of the Praya Grande.
The steam launch belonging to the
man-of-war was waiting for u.s. We
boarded it, and a few minutes later we
were chugging through the bay on our
way to the flagship
once seated comfortably in the ad-
mirars saloon, / opened the paper which
the old priest had pressed into my hand
1t was long letter. written in Chi
nese ideographs. and in the Mandarin
dialect. the dialect of priests and
princes.
The opening paragraphs were self
explanatory:
by the favor and courtesy of krish
havana Anpa Rao. the high priest of
the temple of IDoorGha. and of Sardar
Eowaiee Pudumjer. Mahendra Pal
Singh. and Mira hunnar Sem-Gupta,
priests of the same temple.
This is a message from Yuan Kee to
kwang Vat, honored priest of the Bud
dhist temple in the street of the Leaning
Willow. and once abbot of the Such-zen
Monastery in the province of Annoy
Greetings to thee And thanks to
the Brahmans who have granted me
permission to receive before death
which | deserve. being a traitor-spir-
itual counsel by writing to thee. holy
one. the confession of my faith"
So far the thing was clear. The
Brahmans had granted the condemned
man permission to confess to his priest
in writing before they dispatched him
into the beyond
Then came the confession itself of
partly religious and partly mystic ma
ture
1t was, of course. clear to me from
the first that it was message meant
for me and after much work / deci-
phered 1t.
There are the faiths of Climatic
faith of Buddha the faith of Hong-fu-
tse. the faith of Tao.
"In three words have the sages con-
densed the wisdom of their teaching-
in Ii. which is the ultimate law OF
right action: in Shu. which is the
golden rule of tolerance and charity;
in Chuntz. which is good manners.
therefore it is clear that shining
merit is in the number three. and that
the third is blessed by the gods. ID
serve. then. the number three Read
it. Mediate on it.
Thus it says in the book of Lieh-