But the coffin crumbled into dust before their eyes; for the worms had gnawed it, and the hungry earth had devoured its substance, leaving only a phantom shell that vanished at touch of the light.  And lo! as it vanished, all beheld lying there the perfect form and features of the good Tchin-King.  Corruption had not touched him, nor had the worms disturbed his rest, nor had the bloom of life departed from his face.  And he seemed to dream only,—­comely to see as upon the morning of his bridal, and smiling as the holy images smile, with eyelids closed, in the twilight of the great pagodas.

Then spoke a priest, standing by the grave:  “O my children, this is indeed a Sign from the Master of Heaven; in such wise do the Powers Celestial preserve them that are chosen to be numbered with the Immortals.  Death may not prevail over them, neither may corruption come nigh them.  Verily the blessed Tchin-King hath taken his place among the divinities of Heaven!”

Then they bore Tchin-King back to his native place, and laid him with highest honors in the mausoleum which the Emperor had commanded; and there he sleeps, incorruptible forever, arrayed in his robes of state.  Upon his tomb are sculptured the emblems of his greatness and his wisdom and his virtue, and the signs of his office, and the Four Precious Things:  and the monsters which are holy symbols mount giant guard in stone about it; and the weird Dogs of Fo keep watch before it, as before the temples of the gods.

[Illustration:  Chinese calligraphy]

The Tradition of the Tea-Plant

SANG A CHINESE HEART FOURTEEN HUNDRED YEARS AGO:—­

There is Somebody of whom I am thinking. 
Far away there is Somebody of whom I am thinking. 
A hundred leagues of mountains lie between us:—­
Yet the same Moon shines upon us, and the passing Wind

          breathes upon us both.

THE TRADITION OF THE TEA-PLANT

“Good is the continence of the eye;
Good is the continence of the ear;
Good is the continence of the nostrils;
Good is the continence of the tongue;
Good is the continence of the body;
Good is the continence of speech;
Good is all....”

Again the Vulture of Temptation soared to the highest heaven of his contemplation, bringing his soul down, down, reeling and fluttering, back to the World of Illusion.  Again the memory made dizzy his thought, like the perfume of some venomous flower.  Yet he had seen the bayadere for an instant only, when passing through Kasi upon his way to China,—­to the vast empire of souls that thirsted after the refreshment of Buddha’s law, as sun-parched fields thirst for the life-giving rain.  When she called him, and dropped her little gift into his mendicant’s bowl, he had indeed lifted his fan before his face, yet not quickly enough; and the penally of that fault