Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/379

367 DOCTRINE OF METEMPSYCHOSIS. 367 love of God.' ' These cats, these apes, these dogs, all these beasts,' answered I, ' are not spiritual souls — they are merely animals.' ' No,' said the Bonze, ' they are not beasts ; they are the souls of the dead. Noble souls, after this life, pass into the bodies of noble animals, and the souls of peasants inhabit the bodies of the vilest beasts.' It was in vain I preached," adds brother Oderic ; " I found it impossible to argue him out of his superstition." It is known that Buddhists admit the doctrine of meteinps} r cliosis : they are persuaded that the souls of beasts have formerly been human souls ; and hence arises the respect of Buddhist devotees for animals, and the minute precautions which they take for fear of hurting them. It was not therefore surprising to see, in a mo- nastery of Bonzes, animals of all kinds, tamed, caressed and petted, assembling at the sound of the tam-tam to take their meals, and constituting, in some measure, a part of the religious community. The old Bonze of the convent of Han-Tcheou-Fou might be sincere in his belief, and might really think himself surrounded by friends, when he was in the midst of the apes and cats of his own park ; and it is even probable that he might have repulsed, as impieties, the exhortations of the Franciscan brother.* Oderic wrought numerous conversions in the south- tended for the reception of old and invalid animals. There are to be seen incurable quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles, on whom the pity of the Hindoos lavished the most tender cares. Unfortunately, there is not any similar establishment for men. It seems, nevertheless, as if some interest ought to have been felt for them also, were it only because they may, perhaps, formerly have been animals.
 * We have visited, at Bombay, a vast and handsome hospital, in-