by the inhabitants of the earth, the déwa-lokas, and fifteen of the brahma-lokas; four of them (omitting body), by the inhabitants of the four incorporeal worlds; and only one by the asanyasattá, viz. body."* ." From this extract we learn that nirwana cannot be a state of sensuous enjoyment; nor of intellectual enjoyment; nor of incorporeality; nor of consciousness; nor of unconsciousness; nor a state that is neither conscious nor unconscious. It must, therefore, be a non-entity; and the being who enters this state must become non-existent.

XXIII. THE MODERN PRIESTHOOD.

In nearly all the villages and towns of Ceylon that are inhabited by the Singhalese or Kandians, the priests of Budha are frequently seen, as they have to receive their food by taking the alms-bowl from house to house. They usually walk along the road at a measured pace, without taking much notice of that which passes around. They have no covering for the head, and are generally bare-footed. In the right hand they carry a fan, in shape not much unlike the hand-screens that are seen on the mantel of an English fire-place, which they hold up before the face when in the presence of women, that the entrance of evil thoughts into the mind may be prevented. The bowl is slung from the neck, and is covered by the robe, except at the time when alms are received. When not carrying the bowl, they are usually followed by an attendant, with a book or small bundle.

The exact number of priests that there are now in Ceylon cannot be ascertained; but I should think that it will not average more than one in four hundred of the whole population. This would give, for the island, about 2500 priests. This proportion is much less than in Burma, where again the priests are fewer than in Siam, though the temples are more numerous. According to Howard Malcom there is one priest to thirty inhabitants among the Burmans; and the same author informs us that, in the province of Tavoy, the number of priests is estimated at 400, with about 50 nuns. Be

Gogerly's Essay on Budhism; Journ. Ceylon Branch Royal As. Soc. i. 16. This enumeration will enable the reader to understand some of the terms not hitherto explained, that appear on the 261st page.

sides the great temple in Rangoon, there are more than 500 smaller ones, occupying as much space as the city itself, if not more. There are more than a hundred temples in Canton, of which the most considerable portion belongs to the Budhists. The whole number. of the priests in the same city is estimated at 2000. The largest monasteries belonging to the Singhalese are in Kandy; but even in them there are not more than from twelve to twenty priests. In many of the village pansals only one priest is resident. But it is stated by Fa Hian that, at the time of his visit to Ceylon, there were 5000 ccclesiastics in one of the monasteries at Anuradhapura, and that upon a mountain not far distant (probably Mihintala) 2000 priests were resident. From the reports of the people he gathered that there were 50,000 or 60,000 priests in the whole of Ceylon. In some of the monasteries upon the continent of India he met with 3000 priests. In the inscription at Mihintala more than one hundred persons are separately mentioned as connected with the temple, including a secretary, a treasurer, a physician, a surgeon, a painter, twelve cooks, twelve thatchers, ten carpenters, six carters, two florists (who had to supply 200 lotus flowers monthly), and twentyfour inferior menials.

With this account it may be interesting to compare the number of persons attached to the monasteries of the west. According to William of Malmesbury the monastery of Bangor contained 2100 monks, who maintained themselves by the produce of their own labour. In the times of the Anglo-Saxons the monks in one monastery were also more numerous than in more recent periods; at Winchelcomb there were 300, and 600 in the united monastery of Weremouth and Yarrow. The usual number was from five to twenty resident brethren; but to this there were many exceptions. At Tewkesbury there were 38 brethren and 144 servants. The abbey of St. Albans was limited to 100 brethren. In 1381 the establishment at Sallay Abbey consisted of the lord abbot and prior, nearly thirty monks, including novices, and forty-five or forty-six servants. In the abbey at Whalley were a lord abbot, a prior, about twenty monks, besides an uncertain number of novices, twenty servants belonging to the abbot, and seventy in the general service of the house. In the abbey of St. Edmund's Bury there were thirtytwo officers under the abbot and 142 servants, in various departments, Whitaker's History of Craven. Whitaker's History of Whalley.

*Taylor's Index Monasticus.

*

besides the officiating chaplains, the monks, and their servants. Before the dissolution of the cathedral priory of Norwich, the establishment consisted of the following persons:-The lord prior, sub-prior, sixty monks, sacrist, sub-sacrist, cellarer or bursar, sub-cellarer or butler, camerarius or chamberlain, almoner, refectorer, pittancier, chaplains, precentor, sub-chantor, infirmarer, choristers, and keeper of the shrines; with the following lay officers: prior's butler, clerk of the infirmary, miller, cooper, maltster, carpenter, porter of the cellar, porter of the fish-house, caterer, woodherds, gardener's men, more than sixty servants for the monks, janitor, keeper of the sanctuarium, keepers of the garners, tokener, grooms, stallarius, provendarius, swanherd, gaoler, grangers, servants of the larder and of the kitchen, carters, scullions, &c., &c.f In Sumner's Antiquities of Canterbury there is a list of forty persons who were attached to the cellarer of the monastery of St. Augustine. In 1174 there were sixty-seven monks in the abbey of Evesham, with three nuns, three paupers at command, and three clerks, who had equal privileges with the monks. They had fiftynine servants: five attended in the church, two in the infimary, two in the chancery, five in the kitchen, seven in the bakehouse, four in the brewery, four in the bath, two as shoemakers, two in the pantry, three as gardeners, one at the gate of the cloister, two at the great gate, five in the vineyard, four waited on the monks who went abroad, four as fishermen, four in the abbot's chamber, three in the hall, and two as watchmen.‡

The countenances of the priests in Ceylon are frequently less in

* In some instances there was a fourth and fifth prior, and the general arrangement of the household differed from that of the priory of Norwich. The magister operis was the master mason; the eleemosinarius had the oversight of the alms; the pitantiarius had the care of the pictancies or pittances, which were extra allowances upon the usual provisions; the sacrista, or sexton, had the care of the vessels, books, and vestments belonging to the church, accounted for the oblations at the altars and images, and provided bread and wine for the sacrament; the camerarius, or chamberlain, had the care of the dormitory; the cellerarius, or cellarer, procured the provisions, and had the care of the kitchen; the thesaurarius, or bursar, received all rents and revenues, and paid all common expences; the precentor had the care of the choir, provided the music-books, parchment, ink, and colours, had the custody of the seal, and kept the chapter-book; the scriptores, or writers, transcribed the missals and books for the use of the library, for which they had frequently grants from pious individuals; the hostilarius, or hospitilarius, attended to the strangers; the refectiorarius provided vessels and servants for the refectory; and the infirmarius had the care of the infirmary, provided medicines, and prepared the dead for burial.-Burton's Monasticon.

Taylor's Index.

Tindal's History of Evesham, from Stevens's Appendix.

telligent than those of the common people; indeed there is often an appearance about them of great vacancy, amounting almost to imbecility, and they seldom appear cheerful or happy. But there are exceptions to this rule, and a few whom I have seen exhibit an exact personification of the quiet and gentleness by which their system is characterised. The same appearance of mental inertness has been noticed by nearly all those who have travelled in countries where Budhism is professed. Howard Malcom says, that a more stupid set could not be picked out in all Canton, than the priests who officiate at the Budhist temple in the suburb of Honan. He had previously remarked this characteristic of the Budhist priesthood in other countries, and was confirmed in the belief of its being attributable to the character of their religion and the nature of their duties. Sir J. F. Davis says, that to judge of its effects on the priests, the practice of Budhism appears to have a most debasing influence, as they have nearly all of them an expression approaching to idiotcy. With this agrees the testimony of Bishop Smith, who says that the greater part of these wretched men saunter about with an idiotic smile and vacant look, and appear little removed in intellect above the animal creation, only a few seeming to be raised by mental culture above the generality, and exhibiting a refinement of mind and manners.

When not treated with disrespect, the priests of Ceylon rather court intercourse with Europeans than otherwise. I was frequently visited by them; especially by one old man, who had travelled through Bengal, Burma, Siam, and many other countries, and who prided himself upon being able to make calomel much better than the European doctors, as his preparation did not cause the falling out of the teeth, soreness of the mouth, or salivation. He learnt the secret from an ancient sage that he met with in a forest on the continent of India, and he was the only person alive who possessed this knowledge. Often when listening to him was I reminded of the mysteries and crudities of the alchemists, who during so many ages vainly sought for the elixir vitae and the philosopher's stone. In travelling through unfrequented parts of the interior, as was once my wont and my delight, I usually took up my abode at the pansal, and seldom was I refused a night's lodging or a temporary shelter during the heat of the day. The priests would bring out the alms-bowl, when they saw that I was hungry, and stirring about the contents with the bare hand, exhibit them before me, to tempt me to partake

of them; or they would bring tobacco or some other luxury, to express their satisfaction at my visit. All that I had with me was a wonder to them, from the mechanism of my watch to the material of my hat. The paper of the tracts or Scriptures I gave them was supposed to be the leaf of some English tree. When I have taken off my ordinary clothes and put on my dressing-gown, they have told me that I now looked respectable; but that they could not at all admire me in my other dress. It was to my knowledge of their language I was in a great measure indebted for the welcome I received, as I was in most cases the only European with whom they had had the opportunity of entering into familiar conversation; and some were too indolent and indifferent, and others too confident in the truth of their own system, to feel enmity to me as the teacher of another faith. At the commencement of the Wesleyan mission, the priests of one village requested the use of the school-house in which to read bana, and could scarcely be brought to understand the motives upon which it was refused.

There is generally a school attached to the pansal, and the priests are much assisted by the boys whom they teach, in such offices as the bringing of water and the sweeping of the court attached to the wihára. But in forming an image of the eastern school, we are not to picture to ourselves the order and regularity of our own places of instruction. The children do not all attend at the same period of the day; as they have leisure, they go to the pansal, repeat their lesson, and then return home, or go to their employment in some other place. The school is a mere shed, open at the sides, with a raised platform in one corner, covered with sand, on which the letters are traced by the finger of the child when learning to write. The lessons are usually repeated aloud, and are recited in a singing tone, several boys frequently joining in chorus. On common occasions there is heard a low monotonous murmuring, interrupted at intervals by a general shout; as I have noticed the waves of the sea on a calm day, lazily rolling to the shore, with an occasional billow that by its deep booming breaks almost startlingly upon the previous silence. When strangers approach, the children scream out their tasks at the full pitch of their voices, and the din is for a time most unpleasant.

The letters of the Singhalese alphabet are classed and enunciated after the model presented by the Déwa-nágara, the vowels appearing first, and then, in order, the guttural, palatal, lingual, dental,