burning of a bundle of straw in memory of the fact that Uchino had once been a crematory. When this was done, the coffin was removed to the crematory at Kwazan-in, accompanied by the strains of the Shoshinge, and the smoke of incense.

None but the successor of the deceased Abbot, a few near relatives, and ancient retainers, were admitted to the crematorium, and the fire was kindled by the new Abbot himself. Presently the smoke was seen issuing from the building.

Jhayati! Jhapeti! "He burns and causes to burn." The words used in this phrase are interesting, as giving Pali forms instead of Sanskrit, thus pointing to a Buddhism of Magadhan origin, by the side of that which came via Central Asia and China. [**] After the cremation, the ashes were carried back to Uchino, secretly and under guard, a custom observed in the Shinshu ever since the fifteenth century, when, on the death of Rennyo Shonin, the jealous Tendai monks attempted to waylay the procession that was carrying back the hallowed bones, and to scatter the precious relics to the winds.

The next morning, with incense, Shoshinge, and Nembutsu, the ashes were again removed from Uchino to the Chuindo Hall of the Hongwanji, where they remained beneath an Altar until the 49th day after death, when they were finally placed in their permanent resting place. The 49th day is, in

[paragraph continues] Buddhist belief, a very critical day in the history of the soul after death. [**] On that day its future destiny is decided, and it goes from the intermediate state into its proper place in . the world to come. A Buddhist, who was much interested in Christianity, once pointed out to me the similarity between his beliefs, and the period recorded to have elapsed between Easter and Pentecost. "It was on the fortieth day after death," he said, "that Christ ascended into the Heavens, but it cannot have been till the forty-ninth that He definitely took his seat at the 'right hand' of His Father. And the very next day after He had come into His Kingdom He sent down the Holy Spirit!"

Footnotes

^135:* Go is the honorific, Ko (#) is incense.--"Incense colour" is a sort of grey, smoky, colour.

^135:+ It is universal in the funerals of clerics, thus to expose the corpse in a sitting posture. This is not done for laymen.

^135:++ The first washing of the corpse (for laymen; the only took place a few hours after death.

^139:* Jhayati, Jhapeti are not words peculiar to Shinshu. They are used in all sects. Of Pali words surviving in Japan we may instance dabi a cremation. Some words survive in two forms: e. g. biku, which is Pali, bishu which is the Sanskrit bhikshu, "a monk." Also abidon = the Pali abhidamma, and abidatsuma = Skt abhidharma.

^140:* section 94.