Directory_and_Chronicle_1845 — Page 797

35

A priestly Answer.

A man once went to a temple to cast lots, and asked a Táu priest to divine for him. The priest said, "First lay down the money for the incense, and then the response will be good; but if there be no cash, the answer will not be at all to your liking.”

Moral-If people have no money, who will ever give them a merry an- swer?

Looking at an Album.

A military man, dressed in cotton robes and boots, was visiting at a monastery, the priests of which did not observe much ceremony towards common men. The officer remarked to them, "I see every- thing is very meager and poor in your establishment; if you lack the means for repairing and cleaning it up, you had better bring the temple album, and I will put down something for that purpose." The priest, much pleased, forthwith presented him with a dish of tea, and treated him with the utmost politeness. The visitor wrote in the album four large characters in a row, tsungtuh pú-páng (i. e. the governor-general's): the priest, seeing it was such a high dignitary traveling incognito, became alarmed and made his obeisance with bent knee. He then took up the pencil, and added underneath the title, piáu-hiá tso ying kwán-ping (ie. lieutenant-general of the left division). The priest, finding his guest was a soldier, became red with anger, and rose up from his knees. On seeing him add, hí shí sánskih (i. e. gladly contributes thirty), down he went again on his knees, suppos- ing it would be thirty taels of silver; but when he saw him write wan- tsien (i. e. cash), he got up again from his knees, and turned his head away to hide his angry face at such niggardliness.

Moral.—At first he's no manners, because there's no money ;

Then he's civil as pie when he scents out the honey ; Now he bows for fear of power,

Then he kneels for hope of more :

All men are pretty much like this.

The man who was anxious about his two-hundredth birthday. An old man, both rich and honorable, whose sons and grandsons filled his hall, had a large crowd of guests assembled around his door to congratulate him upon his hundredth birthday; but he knit his eyebrows as if he was unhappy, till the crowd asked him what he was grieving at amidst the general joy. “I am not anxious about anything," said he; "only I was thinking that on the anniversary of my two hundredth birthday, there will be many hundreds and thou- sands more guests, and how shall I be able to remember them all?"

Moral. How silly thus to borrow trouble!