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BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM.
viously taken no notice of him, and who suddenly exclaimed: "Wretch, let go the flea that you are torturing between your thumb and forefinger! I hear his groans, they penetrate to my heart." Fleas, it seems, are very abundant in Tibet, and the Grand Lama, in violation of the precept that says, Thou shalt not kill, was privily in the act of committing murder, when thus rebuked by Tsong Kaba. Struck by this proof of Tsong Kaba's divine perception, the Grand Lama acknowledged his supremacy, prostrated himself before him, and adopted his reforms. Tradition speaks of a stranger Lama from the west, who was Tsong Kaba's preceptor, and who was remarkable amongst other things for a long nose; noses in Tartary are somewhat of the shortest; from which circumstance, as well as from the palpable resemblances adverted to, Messieurs Huc and Gabet infer*, not without some plausibility, that Tsong Kaba derived his innovations from the instructions of a European missionary, several of whom at this early period had penetrated into Tibet, Tartary, and China.
The peculiarities of the costume are certainly foreign to the original institutes of the Vinaya, which is much more faithfully followed in the south. The shaven head and yellow robes of the priests of Ceylon, Ava, and Siam, are much more orthodox than the red robes and yellow hats or mitres of the Lamas of Tartary and Tibet.
Notwithstanding the liberality shewn by the people [So uvenirs d'un voyage, &c., II, 104 ff.]
*
