nunnery and a refectory for the Abbot and monks. There are, in addition, cells for the priests and quarters for the servants. Accommodation is found for the widows, orphans, and the destitute; for the lame, the halt, and the blind; for the aged and forlorn, to whom the monks grant shelter and protection. Besides the Abbot, there were in the monastery some twenty other men, monks, priests and neophytes, and ten nuns of various ages, ranging from girl hood to wrinkled wisdom.
The establishment derives its revenues from the rent and proceeds of the Church lands, donations from pilgrims and guests, occasional benefactions from the wealthy, and the collections made by the mendicant monks. These latter chant the litanies of Buddha from house to house, and travel throughout the Empire, finding food and lodging by the wayside, to collect the scanty contributions which their solicitations evoke. The four great monasteries are presided over by a member of the community, who is elected annually to the office. Unless his conduct gives rise to dissatisfaction, he is maintained in authority, usually until his death, or transference to some other centre of Buddhistic activity. The practices and observances, in these monasteries of the Diamond Mountains, conform to the principles of the religion of Buddha, as nearly as do the customs and manners of our own Church to the varied tenets of Christianity throughout the world.
I confess myself sorely puzzled to discover any substratum of truth in the charges of gross profligacy and irreverence which the agent of an American Missionary Society brings against the monasteries of the Keum-kang-san. Personally, after spending many weeks in the calm seclusion of this monastic region, I prefer to recall the
