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PAGODAS IN AND NEar cantoN.
THE term pagoda, now usually applied to the lofty hexagonal storied towers common near Chinese cities, is said to be derived from the Sanscrit word bhagavati, or 'holy house.' By the Portuguese and French writers, the word is still used to designate temples of all kinds in India, Siam, and China; the lofty, storied pagodas being called towers. Many of the temples in India have lofty pyramidal structures attached to them, as in the famous pagoda at Tanjore, and the applica- tion of the term to the Chinese structures was easy and appropriate. English writers, however, have looked chiefly to the towers in China as resembling the Hindu buildings, while continental travelers seem to have paid more regard to the general purposes of the latter establish- inents, and called the temples in this country pagodas. This distinc- tion needs to be attended, to in reading books on China, for a large proportion of the pagodas in China have no temples attached to them. Whether the tahor Chinese pagoda is derived from the Indian structure, or is an original conception of the builders of this country, is a question which has been discussed at some length; we are inclined to think that it is indigenous, and that even the unimagina- tive Chinese architect would have produced something better than the simple nine-storied pagoda if he had tried to imitate the ornate pyrami- dal edifice of the Hindu. The similarity between the two is too slight, and the purposes for which they were erected too unlike, to lead us to suppose that one was copied from the other. The Chinese táh is. somewhat connected with the Budhist faith, and a few still have mo- nasteries near them; but they are so much more closely related to the geomantic notions of this people, that they are not now much associated with the Budhists. The remark of Rev. Mr. Milne, in refer- ence to the Tower of Ningpo, “"that the presence of such an edifice not only secures to the site the protection and favor of heaven if it already bears evidences of enjoying it, but represses any evil influences that may be native to the spot, and imparts to it the most salutary and felicitous omens," at once explains their purpose, and discloses the motive which has impelled the Chinese to erect such apparently use- less buildings.