CVIII.

THE PRIEST’S WARNING.

A man named Chang died suddenly, and was escorted at once by devil-lictors[537] into the presence of the King of Purgatory. His Majesty turned to Chang’s record of good and evil, and then, in great anger, told the lictors they had brought the wrong man, and bade them take him back again. As they left the judgment-hall, Chang persuaded his escort to let him have a look at Purgatory; and, accordingly, the devils conducted him through the nine sections,[538] pointing out to him the Knife Hill,[539] the Sword Tree, and other objects of interest. By-and-by, they reached a place where there was a Buddhist priest, hanging suspended in the air head downwards, by a rope through a hole in his leg. He was shrieking with pain, and longing for death; and when Chang approached, lo! he saw that it was his own brother. In great distress, he asked his guides the reason of this punishment; and they informed him that the priest was suffering thus for collecting subscriptions on behalf of his order, and then privately squandering the proceeds in gambling and debauchery.[540] “Nor,” added they, “will he escape this torment unless he repents him of his misdeeds.” When Chang came round,[541] he thought his brother was already dead, and hurried off to the Hsing-fu monastery, to which the latter belonged. As he went in at the door, he heard a loud shrieking; and, on proceeding to his brother’s room, he found him laid up with a very bad abscess in his leg, the leg itself being tied up above him to the wall, this being, as his brother informed him, the only bearable position in which he could lie. Chang now told him what he had seen in Purgatory, at which the priest was so terrified, that he at once gave up taking wine and meat,[542] and devoted himself entirely to religious exercises. In a fortnight he was well, and was known ever afterwards as a most exemplary priest.

FOOTNOTES:

[537] The spiritual lictors who are supposed to arrest the souls of dying persons, are also believed to be armed with warrants signed and sealed in due form as in the world above.

[538] Literally, the “nine dark places,” which will remind readers of Dante of the nine “bolgie” of the _Inferno_.

[539] This is a cliff over which sinners are hurled, to alight upon the upright points of knives below. The branches of the Sword Tree are sharp blades which cut and hack all who pass within reach.

[540] A crime by no means unknown to the clergy of China.

[541] That is, when the lictors had returned his soul to its tenement.

[542] See No. VI., note 52.