As I said, I was seated on the bow of the boat in the fresh air of the purple morning, as my craft glided silently along, whilst the rising sun shone through the trees, jewelled with dew that grew up thy mountain's side, and stood upon its ridges like sentinels against the pale beautiful sky. Suddenly there reached my ears, borne over the silent waters through the quiet morning air, the sounds of music, Clanging cymbals and screeching claridnets are usually a terror to the sensitive European soul. But on such a morning, amidst such scenes of 'a silence otherwise so delicious inutiled by distance, the said music was neither harsh nor unpleasant. Within the building, apparently, every one was 80 engrossed with his own duty that no notice was taxon of the approach of a boat towards the steps of the monastery, Moreover, the boatmen's shouts were less raucous than usual; perhaps they hat awed by the sacred music at that time in the morning. So it came to pass that I was enabled to ascend the steps and enter the monastery unannounced and unsuspected. I distinctly remember the impression made by my intrusion. And no wonder! I was carrying in my hands a double-barrelled gun; I held cigar between my teeth; I was wearing the white pith hat so necessary in the South of China. Thus an uncouth foreigner suddenly stood at the threshold of the building. The immediate effect was comical. Had one of the Chinese lictors from the lower wor}d, clad in the blood-red uniform, horned, and with projecting teet stood before the musicians, holding over them a long and gleaming sword, they could not have shown greater astonish ment. They suddenly stopped their mousic—and it was clangour now, as one approached it closely—as if the entire band had been worked by machinery. Automatically each allowed the instrument he held to drop by his side while he stared at the apparition of the intruding foreigner. For the space of several seconds no one spoke. Then the comicality of the situation swept me from my feet, and burst into an uproarious laugh. This broke the spell. Subterranean lictors do not Iaugh. The situation was grasped. A peripatetic foreign devil had strayed into their building. Presently I apologized for my intrusion and begged them to be 60 good as to advise as to the cause of all this especial excitement at an hour so early. One man, probably the leader, jerked with his hand towards a door at the upper end of the court-yard and exclaimed, "The priests are enthroning an abbot." Then, like Miss Haversham to Little turned towards the diser ized and bawled out "play." A sudden crash of music filled the courtyard, all the more tempestuous and sonorous because of the intervening rest.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.