required—­expounded the law—­adjusted disputes—­made all their little arithmetical calculations—­gave them moral instruction—­and, when he could not afford them relief in their difficulties, he taught them patience, and gave them consolation.  He, in short, united, for the simple people by whom he was surrounded, the functions of lawyer, physician, schoolmaster, and divine, and richly merited the reverential respect in which they held him, as well as their little presents of eggs, fruit, and garden stuff.

From the first evening that I joined the party which I saw clambering up the path that led to the Hermit’s cell, I found myself strongly attached to this venerable man, and the more so, from the mystery which hung around his history.  It was agreed that he was not a Burmese.  None deemed to know certainly where he was born, or why he came thither.  His own account was, that he had devoted himself to the service of God, and in his pilgrimage over the east, had selected this as a spot particularly favourable to the life of quiet and seclusion he wished to lead.

There was one part of his story to which I could scarcely give credit.  It was said that in the twelve or fifteen years he had resided in this place, he had been occasionally invisible for months together, and no one could tell why he disappeared, or whither he had gone.  At these times his cell was closed; and although none ventured to force their way into it, those who were the most prying could hear no sound indicating that he was within.  Various were the conjectures formed on the subject.  Some supposed that he withdrew from the sight of men for the purpose of more fervent prayer and more holy meditation; others, that he visited his home, or some other distant country.  The more superstitious believed that he had, by a kind of metempsychosis, taken a new shape, which, by some magical or supernatural power, he could assume and put off at pleasure.  This opinion was perhaps the most prevalent, as it gained a colour with these simple people, from the chemical and astronomical instruments he possessed.  In these he evidently took great pleasure, and by their means he acquired some of the knowledge by which he so often excited their admiration.

He soon distinguished me from the rest of his visitors, by addressing questions to me relative to my history and adventures; and I, in turn, was gratified to have met with one who took an interest in my concerns, and who alone, of all I had here met with, could either enter into my feelings or comprehend my opinions.  Our conversations were carried on in English, which he spoke with facility and correctness.  We soon found ourselves so much to each other’s taste, that there was seldom an evening that I did not make him a visit, and pass an hour or two in his company.