Up among the where, in normal seasons, no one is very poor and none very rich, the simple, honest country folk, who are a blend of many warlike tribes, even of several races, are offered a rich variety of spiritual pabulum. We all know that the Mohammedans are—strong Kansu, strong in their faith and strong in their military organization. It mirist also be remembered that the Tibetans occupy at least a third of Kansu, as it is delimited on the ordinary map, and _propagate their variety of Buddhism with great fervour and great resistance to alien influence. Taoism has rich and! strong centres in the province; while the Chinese variety of Buddhism, languishing elsewhere, takes example in Kansu from the more fervent creeds and exercises much influence upon its adherents. Of course many of the simple folk contrive to cull a little from each ereed, as Chinese have been known to do elsewhere, and cherish a pot-pourri of dogmas, of the inconsistency of whicl they are unaware and the origin of which they do not question; but what they do believe they firm ly believe. That the soul of man returns to earth after death and takes up its abode in something animate, high or low in the scale of creation according to its deserts, is not a vague theory in Buddhist communities in Kansu, but a deep conviction which may override considerations of wealth and power. The following story of the relations of the families of Wang and Li, with a hill village near the city of Kungch'angfu for a setting, illustrates the force of this conviction.
MisrorTUNE oF THE WaNcs.
A generation ago the families of Wang and Li shared between them the landed wealth of their jmmediate district and they, and their kin and dependents, made up nearly the total population of their native village. They lived on the best possible terms and when it happened' that for some reason, now forgotten, the patriarch of the Wang family had reason to use rather a large sum of money which he did) not have at hand, the patriarch of the Li family gladly obliged him with a loan, merely stipulating, so that he might not seem too soft and silly in a business way, that the loan was to yield 36 per cent. interest per annum.
The patriarch of the clan of Wang saw nothing stringent in this bargain and anticipated clearing the account with ease, but thereafter evil fortune was visited upon him. His crops failed year after year, his sheep were stolen or killed by wolves and for many years it took all he could rake and serape to meet the interest payments; and as time went by and the utmost thrift and diligence on the part of all the Wangs seemed to make no change in their for-
Kansu_ hills,' tunes, they despaired, of over returning any portion 6f the original loan. Meanwhile the patriarch of the Li family, for the sake of their ancient friendship, never pressed them and made no more fuss when interest payments were late or even when they were compounded, than was essential to his "face" among his own kith and kin. Finally, however, there came a famine in the Jand which only the wealthiest survived. The Li-family weathered it, but the Wang family came through only to find themselves at the very end of their resources. Then the patriarch of the Wang family gave up in despair, became listless in the face of evil fortune, and very soon went on.to meet his fathers.
Toe Last Remainixo Prop.
For his son, upon whom the whole burden of the family's tribulations descended, the Li family felt bound to show less consideration. They harried him for money day and night. When the pressure became unbearable he mortgaged the family homestead to them, then the field and pasture lands, but even these measures only sufficed to pay the interest in part, so that the Wang family found themselves with next to no resources but with as groat a debt as ever. At last their' sole asset in the world was a gentle, patient old ass and their sole hope for the future was centred in the fact that she was in foal.
A few days before the foal came into the world the patriarch of the Li family passed into that realm in which all his lands and hoarded wealth availed him nothing. He had been a pious man and had brought up a large family firm in the Buddhist faith, His eldest son, moreover, immediately conspired with every available priest and lama to propitiate the unseen Powers and make his path smooth in the world beyond. All, this was of no avail. The judges of the underworld had a full record of the sufferings of the Wang family ind of the misery which the patriarch of the Li family had brought upon them through his persistent usury, so they condemned him to return at once into the world and to enter into the body of the foal born to the Wang family's she ass.
This no ordinary layman might have discovered, but it was soon revealed to the holy men whom the younger Li had employed to say prayers for his father's soul. They had found this younger Li a hard bargainer and twice caught him in the act of compensate ing them for their endless prayers and night vigils with the sort of silver with which one trades with the ignorant Tibetans. Then, when exhausted from the fervour of their devotions, they strolled abroad for relaxation, had observed the dire distress and squalor of the remnants of the once prosperous Wang family and had con-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.