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INTRODUCTION.
cise in future upon the welfare and salvation of the inhabitants of Ladak. The monastery was commenced in 1644 A. C. and finished in 1664.
If, notwithstanding these facts, the Himis monastery is "a mythical convent" or that "we do not find [it on our own calendar of Buddhist ccclesiastical institutions," the native of Central Africa may as well say that Chicago is a city existing only in the imagination of the Americans, or the inhabitant of the Fiji islands may say he does not find Palestine on his own list of Christian holy places. We can excuse these persons for their ignorance, but not a Doctor of Divinity like Rev. Dr. Hale.
M. Notovitch, having in his journey broken his leg, was obliged to stay for a short time at the monastery of Himis, where he received medical aid. This hospitality of the Buddhist monks is interpreted in a half sneer"It was as if ing, half sarcastic way by Dr. Hale, thus: a Buddhist delegate to the Parliament of Religions had been wounded in watching a Princeton foot-ball match and Dr. McCosh had received him to his hospitality. What more natural than that Dr. McCosh should give his guest a New Testament?" To a person educated to think that he is insulted if a stranger happens to talk familiarly with him, without ኀ ነ ነ introduction, Oriental hospitality may seem an improbability; but, despite the gratuitous assumptions of Western scholvisited India, that hospitality who have never is still there. It is in the hundreds of Dharmashalas [inns erected by the Jains of India at most of their important towns, in which travelers can rest for a time free of change, and at several places even meals can be had on the same terms. It is found, in the words of Sir William Hunter," in that gentleness and charity to all men, which takes the place of a poor law in India,
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