Page:Through China with a camera.pdf/257

 an image known as the ** Laughing Buddha," the god of longevity ; and before this jovial-looking idol a joss-stick timepiece had been set up. This timepiece consists of a series of thin fire- sticks, placed parallel to each other over a flat clay bed con- tained in a box of bronze. Each stick will burn for twelve hours, and a fresh one is ignited when the one already burning is about to expire. Thus the time of day or night might be ascertained at a glance. This fire, like the vestal fires of Rome, so the old monk assured me, had been smouldering uninter- ruptedly for untold years before he came to the place.

below Foochow, and forms part of a range that rises abruptly out of the level, cultivated plain. The mountain enjoys a wide celebrity, as the great **Ku-Shan" monastery is built in a valley near its summit, on a site said in ancient times to have been the haunt of poisonous snakes or dragons, able to diffuse pesti- lence, raise up storms, or blight the harvest crops. One Ling- chiau, a sage, was entreated to put a stop to these ravages; so the good man, repairing to the pool in which the evil serpents dwelt, recited a ritual called the Hua-yen treatise, before which, like wise serpents, they took instant flight. It must indeed have been a powerful composition, for not even deadly snakes would risk a second recital, and the Emperor, hearing of the miracle, erected the Hua-yen monastery on the spot, in the year 784.
 * Ku-Shan," or "Drum Mountain," stands about seven miles

The establishment, though repeatedly destroyed, has been constantly rebuilt on its original foundations, receiving consider- able additions from time to time, until at the present day it accommodates 200 monks. The ascent from the plain is a steep and tedious one, but many picturesque views of the surround- ing country are to be obtained en route^ and we reach the