Part 21 (1/2)

I certainly had no idea that such vast and magnificent edifices had existed in that part of the world in those days. Leaving this region of pillars, and pa.s.sing several broken statues of different animals, we were pursuing our way along the sh.o.r.es of another of those wonderful tanks of which I have spoken, when suddenly I heard a shot in the forest, then there was loud shouting and harking of dogs, and a huge buffalo, mad with rage and fear, burst through the jungle, and catching sight of the priest and me, with his head on the ground dashed towards us. There was a tree at a little distance, but it was too far off for the old man to reach before the buffalo would be up to us. I signed to him to fly to it, intimating that I would defend him with my rifle. He took my advice, and hastened towards it. Solon meantime ran off, barking loudly, towards the buffalo. This distracted somewhat the animal's attention, and he stopped to consider, apparently, which he should attack first, I might have hit him where he stood, but I preferred waiting till he came nearer, that I might have less chance of missing him. He first made a charge at Solon, but the brave dog was too quick for him, and nimbly leaped out of the way of his terrific horns.

Several times he stopped to b.u.t.t at Solon, but without being able to touch him. Then he turned towards me. Then my faithful dog saw that, he attacked him still more pertinaciously. I was afraid, however, when I fired, that I might hit the dog should I miss the buffalo, and I therefore kept shouting, ”Solon, Solon,” to call him off. I never felt more cool and composed. I really believe that I could have taken a pinch of snuff if I had had one. It was very necessary that I should be cool. The buffalo had got within ten paces of me, and in another instant he would have been over me, when, aiming at his forehead, I fired, and down he dropped in midway career, stone dead.

”Bravo, my lad, bravo!” I heard a voice exclaim from among the trees, it seemed. ”Capitally done, capital!”

I looked round and saw riding out of the wood on my left a somewhat thin, but active, wiry-looking old man, but evidently from the tone of his voice and his appearance a gentleman. Meantime the old priest came back, and threw his arms round my neck to express to me the grat.i.tude he felt for the service I had done him. I thought that I even saw tears trickling down his eyes. While this ceremony was going on, the old gentleman rode up to the dead buffalo, and leaping from his horse examined its head.

”A first-rate shot steadily planted. You are a young sportsman. How came you here?” exclaimed the old gentleman.

I told him briefly how I was travelling through the country, and following a deer had lost my companions.

”Not an uncommon occurrence. However, I can help you out of your difficulties, I hope, and enable you to find your friends,” he answered, in a brisk, kind tone. ”Come to my camp. We shall find it pitched not more than two or three miles from this, towards the other end of this wilderness of ruins.”

While we were speaking, a couple of Moors, hunters by profession they seemed, and other attendants, brown and scantily clothed, came up with a number of dogs. They expressed great satisfaction at seeing the buffalo dead, and cut out its tongue to carry away. The stranger directed them, as I understood, to return to the camp, saying that he would follow leisurely in a short time. He then turned to me.

”Thank the old Santon, and tell him you will not trouble him to come further,” said he.

I explained that I could not speak a word of his language.

”Oh, you have only lately come to the country,” said the old gentleman.

”I will then act interpreter for you.”

He spoke a few words to the hermit, and gave him a silver coin, which the latter placed reverently in his bosom, bowing low at the same time.

”That is for himself, not for Buddha, though, I must tell him,” observed the old gentleman. ”We have no business to support their false G.o.ds and impious wors.h.i.+p, under any pretext whatever. It only encourages them in their errors, and brings down retribution on the heads of those who ought to know better. Now, come along, my lad. I cannot take you up on my horse, nor can I walk, but you appear to possess a pair of good legs, which will carry you over the ground at a rate sufficient to keep up with me. Is that your dog? He is a fine beast. I must make his acquaintance. Now, wish the old hermit good-bye. Salaam to him. That will do. Come along.

”A fine old man that,” he continued. ”It is a pity he should be a priest of so absurd a faith. Do you know anything about Buddhism? The Buddhists believe in the transmigration of souls (the doctrine of the _metempsychosis_, as it is called). In that respect they are like the followers of Brahma. It is doubtful, indeed, which is the older faith of the two--whether Brahminism is a corruption of Buddhism, or whether Buddhism is an attempt to restore Brahminism to its original purity.

Buddhism has existed for upwards of two thousand years; it is the chief religion of the Chinese, and that indeed of upwards of one-third of the human race at the present day. Buddhists are practically atheists.

Buddha Gotama, to whom all Buddhists look up, was, they believe, the incarnation of excellence. They fancy that everything was made by chance, and that Buddha was only infinitely superior to all other beings, and therefore that he is a fit object of admiration and contemplation, and that the height of happiness is to be absorbed in some way, after having been purified by many changes, into his being.

They believe in the perfectibility of man, and therefore their great aim is to become moral and virtuous, while the employment of their priests is chiefly to contemplate virtue, and to inculcate its precepts and practice. Indeed, it may be said to be less a form of religion than a school of philosophy. Its wors.h.i.+p appeals father to the reason than to the imagination, through the instrumentality of rites and parades; and, though ceremonies and festivals are introduced, the more enlightened are anxious to explain that these are either innovations of the priesthood, or in honour of some of the monarchs who have proved patrons and defenders of the faith. No people, perhaps, are so dest.i.tute of all _warmth_ and fervour in their religion as the followers of Buddha. They believe because their ancestors believed, and they look with the most perfect complacency on the doctrines of the various sects who surround them. As Sir Emmerson Tennent says--'The fervid earnestness of Christianity, even in its most degenerate form, the fanatical enthusiasm of Islam, the proud exclusiveness of Brahma, and even the zealous warmth of other northern faiths, are all emotions utterly unknown and foreign to the followers of Buddhism in Ceylon. Yet, strange to tell, under all the icy coldness of this barren system there burns below the unextinguished fires of another and a darker superst.i.tion, whose flames overtop the icy summits of the Buddhist philosophy, and excite a deeper and more reverential awe in the imagination of the Singhalese. As the Hindus in process of time superadded to their exalted conceptions of Brahma, and the benevolent attributes of Vishnu, their dismal dreams and apprehensions, which embody themselves in the horrid wors.h.i.+p of Siva, and in invocations to propitiate the destroyer; so the followers of Buddha, unsatisfied with the vain pretensions of unattainable perfection, struck down by this internal consciousness of sin and insufficiency, and seeing around them, instead of the reign of universal happiness and the apotheosis of intellect and wisdom, nothing but the ravages of crime and the sufferings produced by ignorance, have turned with instinctive terror to propitiate the powers of evil, by whom alone such miseries are supposed to be inflicted, and to wors.h.i.+p the demons and tormentors, to whom this superst.i.tion is contented to attribute a circ.u.mscribed portion of power over the earth.' They call their demons Yakkas, and, like the Ghouls of the Mohammedans, they are supposed to infest grave-yards. They believe also in a demon for each form of disease--delighting in the miseries of mankind. Thus in every domestic affliction the services of the _Kattadias_, or devil-priests, are sought to exorcise the demon. Although the more intelligent Singhalese acknowledge the impropriety of this superst.i.tion, they themselves resort to it in all their fears and afflictions. It has been found to be the greatest impediment to the establishment of Christianity; for, though the people without much difficulty become nominal Christians, they cling to the terrible rites of their secret demon-wors.h.i.+p with such pertinacity, that while outwardly conforming to the doctrines of the truth, they still trust to the incantations and ceremonies of the devil priests. Notwithstanding this we must not despair. The struggle with Satan, the author of devil-wors.h.i.+p, may be long and fierce, but if we go on perseveringly endeavouring to spread a knowledge of the gospel, we shall most a.s.suredly gain the victory over him in the end.”

Such were the remarks of the old gentleman as Solon and I walked alongside him on our way to where he expected to find his camp pitched.

We found the tents pitched under a widespreading tamarind tree, in the immediate neighbourhood of a number of cocoa-nut palms. Close at hand were piles of curious ruins, near a beautiful lake bordered by trees; while carved slabs, fallen columns, and broken statues lay scattered around. The stranger's cortege was much of the same character as was Mr Fordyce's. Camp-fires were already lighted, near which the horses were sheltered, while four or five elephants stood, as usual, busy fanning off the flies in the background.

”I have a young companion with me, also a stranger in this country. He met with a slight accident, and could not come out hunting to-day. I have no doubt he will be glad to make your acquaintance.”

The moment the old gentleman said these words my heart beat quick. He saw my agitation. I thought of Alfred.

”Who is he--pray tell me?” I asked.

His hand was on the curtain of the tent. He made no answer, but threw it back. I entered. A young man was there. He looked up. No, it was not Alfred, but my old schoolfellow whom I had met at Teneriffe, Lumsden.

”Marsden, my dear fellow, I am delighted to see you,” he exclaimed, jumping up. ”How did you find your way here?”

”Marsden!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the old gentleman, looking earnestly at me.

”Marsden!--who are you?”

”Ralph Marsden, sir,” I answered hurriedly. ”My father has lately died; my mother was Miss Coventry.”

”Then you are my grandson, young gentleman, and right glad I am to welcome one who has proved himself so true a chip of the old block!”

exclaimed Mr Coventry.