pretend that he interested himself in their behalf, and now listens complacently to the prayers addressed to him by their bonzes. There is no end to the fables and traditions respecting Gaudama which are found in the sacred books. Some of the ancient Catholic writers report that his mother's name was Maha Maria-the great Mary-and that there were bonzes who represented him as a brother of Jesus Christ.* But there is, I repeat, sufficient evidence of the existence of Gaudama,—that he was a sagacious and a benevolent prince-probably the son of a monarch of some consideration—a sage and a hero deified by the admiration of after-days. "Men first made heroes-then those heroes gods," in the same way that priests begin by making their heroes saints, and to these saints are afterwards ascribed attributes of divinity. Such creations are not confined to any one portion of the globe: they are the tribute which ignorance and vanity pay to credulity and pride. La Loubère gives, from the Pali books, a translation of a curious Life of Thevathat, the brother of Gaudama according to the Siamese traditions, but represented in the Pali text as only his relation and contemporary. This "Life" is full of marvellous and miraculous events connected with Gaudama's history.† Of the most famous of the images of Buddha, I received the following account from the King. The * La Loubère, p. 136. † Ib., p. 145-147. accompanying engraving is a most correct representation of the idol in the garments in which he is clad at different seasons of the year, as described in the narrative: (COPY.) "Those persons having understanding, both those who are followers of the Buddhist religion and those who are friendly to his Majesty the King of Siam, are invited to listen to the following account of the image of the Budh Gotam,* made of a solid beautiful green stone, or jasper. It is supposed to have been made by the ancient followers of the Budhist religion, but by whom it is not certainly known by the people of the present day, for its narrative account is lost in antiquity. The image was made to represent the Budh Gotam, but at what time it was made it cannot be ascertained; yet it is ascertained that it must have been made many years ago, probably within the first 2000 years after the death of the Budh Gotam, corresponding to the year 1457 of the Christian era, for it has been worshipped for a long period. "We cannot give an account which is certainly worthy of belief, because many of the Cambodians, the Northern Siamese, and the Laos Shiang and Laos Kao, have a tradition, which is handed down to the present day, that this jasper image has been in each of their respective countries at such a time; but the evidence of these persons cannot be trusted, as they *Kodom. |