back to the kitchen, where the meal was now served
When it had gone, not too willingly-for our faithful friend dislikeparting from us and distrusted this new guide-the abbot, who wasnamed Kou-en, led us into the living room or rather the kitchen of themonks, about twelve in all, gathered round the fire of which we had seenf them inand the rest in warming themselvesThey were all old men; the youngest could not have been less thanixcty-five. To these we were solemnly introduced as Brethren of thestery called the World, where folk grow hungry for the abbotKou-en could not make up his mind to part from this little joke.ished us well and evidently were delighted at our arrival. This was notrange. however, seeing thatthe first new faces which theyad seen for four long years.
Nor did they stop at words, for while they made water hot for us towash in, two of them went to prepare a room-and others drew off ourrough hide boots and thick outer garments and brought us slippers forfeet Then they led us to the guest chamber which they informedwas a propitious place, for once it had been slept in by a noted saint.Here a fire was lit, and, wonder of wonders! clean garments, includinglinen, all of them ancient and faded, but of good qualityfor us to putSo we washed-yes, actually washed all over-and having arrayedourselves in the robes, which were somewhat small for Leo. struck thebell that hung in the room and were conducted by a monk whoanswered it. back to the kitchen, where the meal was now served. It consted of a kind of porridge, to which was added new milk brought in bthe Master of the Herds dried fish from a lake and buttered tea. thelast two luxuries produced in our special honour. Never had food tastedre delicious to us, and, I may add, never did we eat more. Indeed, atst I was obliged to request Leo to stop, for I saw the monks staring ahim and heard the old abbot chuckling to himselfOho. The Monastery of the World, where folk grow hungry, to whichanother monk, who was called the Master of the Provisions, " replied uneasily, that if we went on like this, their store of food would scarcely lastthe winter. So we finished at length, feelingme book of maxiwhich I can remember in my youth said all polite people shoulddo-that we could eat more, and much impressed our hosts by chantinga long Buddhist grace
Their feet are in the Path! Their feet are in the Path!"they saidastonished.Yes, replied Leo, they have been in it for sixteen years of our prescarnation. But we are only beginners, for you, holy Ones, know howstar-high, how ocean-wide and how desert-long is that path. Indeed it isto be instructed as to the right way of walking therein that we have beenmiraculously directed by a dream to seek you out, as the most pious, themost saintly and the most learned of all the Lamas in these parts.Yes, certainly we are that, answered the abbot Kou-er, seeing thatthere is no other monastery within five months journey and again hbuckled, though, alas! he added with a pathetic little sigh,bers grow few.fter this we asked leave to retire to our chamber in order to rest, andthere, upon very good imitations of beds, we slept solidly for four andtwenty hours, rising at last perfectly refreshed and well.Such was our introduction to the Monastery of the Mountains-for ithad no other name-where we were destined to spend the next sixmonths of our lives. Within a few days-they were not long in givingus their complete confidence-those good-hearted and simple old monkstold us all their history.It seemed that of old time there was a Lamasery here, in which dwelteveral hundred brethren. This, indeed, was obviously true, for the placewas enormous, although for the most part ruined, and, as the weathertue of Buddha showed, very ancient. The story ran, according tothe old abbot. that two centuries or so before. the monks had been killedout bfierce tribe who lived beyond the desert and across the dis-tant mountains which tribehoppers of fire. Onlya few of them esto bring the sad news to other communities andfor five generations no attempt was made to re-occupy the placegth itthat he was a re-incamation of orf the old monks of thistery, who also was named Kou-en, and that it was his duty during hispresent life to return thither, as by so doing he would win much meritand receive many wonderful revelations. So he gathered a band ofzealots and, with the blessing and consent of his superiors, they startedout, and after many hardships and losses found and took possession ofthe place, repairing it sufficiently for their needs
This happened about fifty years before, and here they had dwelt eversince, only communicating occasionally with the outside world. At firstere recruited from time to time by new brethren, butlength these ceased to come, with the result that the community was dIng o-nd what then? I askedAnd then. the abbot answeredWE have acquired muchmerit.have been blest with mons, and, after the reposec have earmed in Devachan. our lotsexistences will be easierWhat more can we ask or desire, removed as we are from all the temptions of the worldFor the rest, in the intervals of their endless prayers, and stillendless contemplations, they were husbandmen, cultivating the soilwhich was fertile at the foot of the mountain, and tending their herd ofyaks. Thus they wore away their blameless lives until at last they died ofld age, and, as they believed-and who shall say that they werewrong-the eternal round repeated itself elsewhere.Immediately after, indeed on the very day of our arrival at thetery the winter began in earnest with bitter cold and snowstorms soavy and frequent that all the desert was covered deep. Very soon it beobvious to us that here we must stay until the spring, since to attempt to move in any direction would be to perish With some misgivelained this to the abbot Kou- en, offeringthe empty rooms in the ruined part of the building, supporting ourselveswith fish that we could catch by cutting a hole in the ice of the lake abovethe monastery, and if we were able to find any, on game, which weight trap or shoot in the scrub-like forest of stunted pines and junipersat grew around its border. But he would listen to no such thing. Wehad been sent to be their guests, he said, and their guests we should re-for so long as might be convenient to us. ve lay upon themthe burden of the sin of inhospitality? Besides, he remarked with hischuckleWe who dwell alone like to hear about that other great monasteryalled the World. where the monks are not so favoured as we who are sein this blessed situation, and where folk even go hungry in body, andhe added. " in soul.found out, the dear old man s object was to keepur feet in the Path until we reached the goal of Truth, or, in otherords became excellent Lamas like himself and his flock
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