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here and there in the various authors who treat of Chinese subjects, and * The Serpent King was, it appears, a Sabbatharian, at least he devoted every seventh dhy to prayer. Bastian, I. 397. See also Trans. R.A.S., vol. II. p. 94, where Col. Low reports, “Every seventh day the mighty “ Raja Naga issues forth from his palace, and having ascended a high mountain, .pours forth his soul in ardent “ devotion.” + All these legends are taken from Bastian’s Vélker des Ostlichen Asien, pages 893 to 439. They are 89 mixed up together and vith extraneous matter that it is impossible to quote separate pages, even if it were worth while, G 2 52 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. ‘Writhout knowing exitetly what reliance to place on the information so afforded. It is nevertheless impossible to observe the very important part the Dragon plays in the imagery and decoration of Chinese temples, on the dress and ornaménts of the kings, or on the standards of the army, without feeling that some important symbolism is | concealed beneath its almost universal employment. lt is true that in modern times the dragon. hasbeen invested with wings, ‘and teeth, and claws, and transformed into 2 monster more horrible than any nightmare that ever disturbed the sleep of a medizeval herald; still it is difficult to avoid the conviction that, if we could trace him ‘far enough back, we should find that he was developed out of something much more nearly resembling “a beast of the field.” To: take one instance among many, Kempfer* relates that two eae: sent. Serpents watched over the first washing of Confucius; for which a spring burst forth from the floor of the cave in which he was born. It would be interesting, for many reasons, to know when this tradition arose, and whether ‘it is really Chinese or imported from India. Confucius was nearly contemporary with Buddha, and at a slightly subsequent timme+ was teaching doctrines so similar ‘to those of the Indian philosopher, that now that they have got mixed’ up together in China, it is extremely difficult to discriminate-what belongs to each. The connexion between Buddhism and- Serpent Worship will be sufficiently apparent in the following pages. It would-be curious if the same parensage could be traced for the Chinese philosophy. = eS oe The following “is anothes example.” ec Father Martin, one of. the J esuits who. “ obtained a settlement in China, says that the. Chinese delight in mountains and “high places, because there lives the dragon, upon whom their good fortune depends. “ They call him the father of. happiness. To this dragon they erect temples, shaded “with groves.”{ This ‘is exactly what we would expect ; but when. we meet with such a passage as. this we. are forced to ask, If this be so, why has not everybody seen it, and why have others not told us the same story? _ The most satisfactory evidence I have. obtained revarding Serpent Worship in China is from a Chinese work, entitled “The Great Cloud Wheel ‘Rain. asking Sutra.” Tt is an Imperial work, printed in its present form under the auspices of Keen Inng, A.D. 1783, and forms part of a great collection of Buddhist standard works. Tt is supposed to be spoken by Buddha in the “ beautifully adorned Great Cloud Circle Hall of the Naga-Raja Nanda Upananda, and consists of a succession of ‘Dharanis “ imparted by Buddha to the dragons for the sake of those who in their worship * desired rain.’’§ The most curious part. of the book is the plates. These represent, first, a Naga temple, which very much resembles—though the likeness is, of course, accidental— - the tabernacle of the Jews. The shrine is a tent, standing in a rectangular enclosure, * Japan, 426. See also Life of Confucius, Chinese Classies, vol. I. p. 59. + Confucius was 8 years old when Buddha died. $ The Rev. Bathurst Deane, quoting Cambray, Mémoires Celtiques, p. 163. § The.work in question was lent to me by the Rev. S. Beal, a thoroughly competent Chinese scholar, who furnislied the above particulars. His opinion is, that the work even in its present® form is older than the 13th century, though the woodcuts may be more modern. - See also J. R. A. S. XX. 170. Be INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. eannibalism, there Serpent Worship will be found also. In the Feejee islands it certainly exists. Degei, one of their principal gods, is supposed to be enshrined or to exist in the form of a serpent, lying coiled up in a cave of Navata, a mountain on the coast of Viti Levu. Some traditions represent him with the head and part of the body of a serpent, the rest of him being of stone, emblematic of his cverlasting and unchangeable nature.* The savages of Australia, it is said, believe in the existence of a gigantic serpent, who created the world by a blow of his tail, and, who is the cause of carthquakes. Nothing will induce them, however, to reveal to the white man the rites with which they worship the serpent, but which are reported to include human acrifices and cannibalism.t - Traces of Serpent Worship are found at Suku and Kedal, and other places in Java, but there.apparently not connected with Buddhism,{ but as a local superstition of the natives; and other instances might be quoted, if it were worth while, or they “could be depended upon. So little, however, is this the case, that the subject would hardly have been worth mentioning at all, were .it not that one of the most interesting problems connected with the subject is the supposed connexion between the Serpent Worship of the Old World and that of Central America. Is it possible it could have migrated vid the Feejee Islands and the Marquesas? There does not seem to be any other route which presents greater probabilities, if we are prepared to concede the previous question that America did borrow her Serpent Worship from the East; but as yet this is far from being settled. CEYLON. We must wait for further information before we can speak with anything like certainty, either regarding the extent to which Serpent Worship prevails in Ceylon, or with reference to any material evidences which may attest its existence in former days. Except Mr. Upham’s,§ no work that I am aware of treats of the subject, and no drawings except his have been published which afford any information regarding it. Though far from being exhaustive, Mr. Upham’s work is sufficient to show how imperfect the conversion of the natives to Buddhism has been, and to what an exteut the worship of the Naga still prevails. In Ceylon, however, it seems now to be mixed up with Demon Worship and the worst superstitions of the Hindu Pantheon to such an extent as to be barely recognizable, and. it will require considerable labour to resolve all these superstitions into their component parts. In addition to this, I have seen native drawings of mythological subjects, which show a greater admixture of Serpent Worship than would be found in similar representations on the continent of India; and I have also had access to original drawings by Europeans in which the three or seven-headed Naga is found adorning — * Seemann, Mission to Viti, p. 290. + Manusczipt information. { Sir S. Rafiles, Java, vol. ii. p. 47. Crawfurd’s Dictionary of the Eastern Atthipelago, sub vocibus, § History and Doctrine of Buddhism in Ceylon, by Ed. Upham, London, 1829, CEYLON. D0 almost every sacred spot in the country.* The difficulty is to judge from such imperfect materials of what is really old and what may have been added, and till the photographer reaches Ceylon this uncertainty must probably prevail in so far as people in Europe are concerned; but any competent antiquary on the spot conld .very easily tell us all we wish to know. . On the other hand, the testimony of the Buddhist scriptures seems to be as distinct ° as such evidence can be expected to be, that Ceylon was inhabited by a Naga race of serpent worshippers when converted to Buddhism, the legends say in the sixth, but more probably in the third, century, B.C. Whether Gorresio, the translator of the Ramayana, is correct in asserting that the Rakshasas whom Rama encountered in - that island were Nagas or not, is-a question that must be left to Sanskrit scholars to decide. It does not appear that the passages are’so understood by the modern Hindus. Snakes never appear as Rama’s opponents in any of the thousand and one representations of that famous war; but Gorresio may be correct neverthcless, and it would. be interesting to know.t The three Ceylonese historical works which have been translated—the Maha- -wanso, the. Ratndcari, and R&jAvali—all commence with an account, more or less detailed, of the conversion of the Nagas of Ccylon by Buddha himself. The account in the Mahdwanso is to the following effectt:—In the fifth year of his Buddhahood, the vanquisher of the five deadly sins perceiving that a conflict was in hand between the Nagas Mahodaro and Chilodaro for possession of a gem-set throne, out of compassion to the Nagas visited NAgadwipo.§ At that time this Mahodaro was a Naga king of a Naga kingdom, 500 yojanas in extent, bounded by the ocean. His sister had been given in marriage to a Naga king of the Kanawaddhamino mountain, and her son claimed the throne by inheritance, &c. ‘To them the vanquisher preached a sermon of reconciliation. Both “ parties rejoicing thercat, made an offering of the gem-set throne to the divine sage. “ The divine teacher alighting on the carth; scated himself on the throne, and was “ served by the Naga kings with celestial food and beverage. The lord of the universe ** procured for 80 kotis of Nagas, dwelling on land and in the water, the salvation “ of the faith, and the state of piety” (p- 6).