Ayesha:The Return of She

nd, behold! we two, Leo and I, were still travelling, still searching for that

re more prolonged, that is all. Five years we spent in Thibet, for the most part as guests of various monasteries, where we studied the law and traditions

bes in Chinese territory and elsewhere, learning many tongues, enduring much hardship. Thus we would hear a legend

since, before we started, we had sworn an oath that we would achieve or die. Indeed we ou

alhkash, of which we visited the shores. Two hundred miles or so to the westward is a range of mighty mountains marked on the maps as Arkarty–Tau, on which we sp

nhabited by Lamas of surpassing holiness. He said that they dwelt in this wild land, over which no power claimed dominion and where no tribes lived, to acquire "merit," with no other company than that of their own pious contemplations. We did not believe in its existence, still we were searching for that monastery, driven

emnant of a store which we had fortunately been able to buy from a caravan two years before, some money in gold and silver, a little tea and a bundle of skin rugs and sheepskin garments were his burden. On, on we trudged across

s flesh raw," I said, patting the poo

me in the morning," ans

ay not, in which

s die. It is the last resource of fa

years of tramping over mountains and through eternal snow

lence between us, for here arguments did not avail. Also even then

th, for a more magnificent man I never knew. Very tall, although he seemed spare to the eye, his girth matched his height, and those many years of desert life had turned his muscles to steel. His hair had grown long, like my own, for it was a protection from sun and cold, and hung upon his neck, a curling, go

th was perfect. In fact, during all this period of rough travels, although now and again we had met with accidents which laid us up for awhile, neither of us had known a day of sickness. Hardship

rtile soil, began a great desert of the sort with which we were familiar - sandy, salt-encrusted, treeless, waterless, and here and there streaked with the first snows of winter. Beyond it, eig

ws to splendour, I saw Leo's eyes become troubled. Swi

t the slope of the hills, along the base of which we had been travelling. As yet they were in gloom, for the sun was behind them, but presently light began to flow over their crests like a flood. Down it crept, lower, and yet lower, till it reached a little plat

e buried his face in the snow as though to hide it there, lest I should re

us emotions but only lowed and looked round with hungry eyes, I piled the sheepskin rugs on to its back. This done, I laid my hand on Leo's shoulder, saying, i

e yak to its feet, for the worn-out beast was too stiff and weak to rise of itself. Glancing at him

iscern any footprints. Was the place but a ruin? We had found many such; indeed this ancient land is full of buildings that had once served as the homes of men, le

In the centre of the edifice was a large building, evidently the temple, but nearer to us I saw a small door, almost above which the smoke appeared. To this door I went and knocked, calling aloud -"Op

ugh a pair of horn spectacles. "Who comes to disturb our

own dialect, with which I was well acquainted. "Travellers who are starving

of much the same pattern. Indeed, they were those of Thibetan monks, including a kind of quilted petticoat and an outer vestment not unlike an Eastern burnous

ed doubtfully, "and if

o belong to a monastery called the W

hook his head, saying -"It is against our custom to admit strang

bots are entitled, "to suffer strangers to starve"; and I quoted a well-k

o such we cannot refuse shelter. Come in, brethren of the monastery called the World. But stay, there is the yak

rinkled and to all appearance older than

yours lest an evil spirit should fly down it; take th

the beast, and the old fellow whose grandiloque

led us into the living room or rather the kitchen of the monastery, for it served both purposes. Here we found the rest of the monks, about twelve in

e were solemnly introduced as "Brethren of the Monastery called the World, where folk gr

and evidently were delighted at our arrival. This was not strange, however, see

garments and brought us slippers for our feet. Then they led us to the guest chamber, which they informed us was a "propitious place," for once it had been slept in by a n

en, where the meal was now served. It consisted of a kind of porridge, to which was added new milk brought in by the "Master of the Herds," dried fish from a lake, and buttered tea, the last two luxuries produced in our specia

that if we went on like this, their store of food would scarcely last the winter. So we finished at length, feeling, as some book of maxims which

h! Their feet are in the P

star-high, how ocean-wide and how desert-long is that path. Indeed it is to be instructed as to the right way of walking therein that we have

is no other monastery within five months' journey," and again he chuckled, "

, and there, upon very good imitations of beds, we slept solidly fo

e destined to spend the next six months of our lives. Within a few days - for they were not long in g

-worn statue of Buddha showed, very ancient. The story ran, according to the old abbot, that two centuries or so before, the monks had been killed out by some fierce tribe who lived beyond the desert and across

it was his duty during his present life to return thither, as by so doing he would win much merit and receive many wonderful revelations. So he gathered a band of zealots and, wit

ccasionally with the outside world. At first their numbers were recruited from time to time by n

t then?"

revelations, and, after the repose we have earned in Devachan, our lots in future existences will

oil, which was fertile at the foot of the mountain, and tending their herd of yaks. Thus they wore away their blameless lives until at

to one of the empty rooms in the ruined part of the building, supporting ourselves with fish that we could catch by cutting a hole in the ice of the lake above the monastery, and if we were able to find any, on game, which we might trap or shoot in the scrub-like forest of stunted pines and junipers that grew around its border. But he would listen to no such thing. We had been sent to be their guests, he sa

ep our feet in the Path until we reached the goal of Truth, or, i

ur own faith, and greatly delighted were they to find so many points of similarity between it and theirs. Indeed, I am not certain but that if we could have stopped there long enough, say ten years, we might have persuaded some of them to accept a new revelation of which we were the prophets. Further, in spare hours we to

lared, "for, who knows, perhaps in future incarn

re on the threshold - yes, we knew it, we knew it, and yet our wretched physical limitations made it impossible for us to advance by a single step. On the desert beneath fell the snow, moreover great w

nd re-arranged by their successors, who gave us liberty to examine them as often as we pleased. Truly it was a strange collection, and I should imagine of priceless value, for among them were to be found Buddhistic, Si

ery event of importance was recorded in great detail. Turning over the pages of one of the last volumes of this diary, written apparently about two hundred and fifty y

his companions who had been overwhelmed by sand and thirst. He was very fierce looking. He refused to say how he came into the desert, telling us only that he had followed the road known to the ancients before communication between his people and the outer world ceased. We gathered, however, that his

s who were descendants of the Greek king called Alexander, who conquered much country to the south-west of us. This may be true, as our records

mountain, apart, and is feared and adored by all, but is not the queen of the country, in the government of which she seldom interferes. To her, however, sacrifices

since nothing is immortal; also we laughed at his tale of her power. This made the man very angry. Indeed he de

spoke the truth. We do not know what became of him, and he refused to reveal to us the road to his country, which lies beyond t

tement. Nothing more appeared about the man or his country, but within a little over a year from that date the

ested that the brethren neither feared nor expected disturbance. We wondered whether the man from beyond the mountains was as good as his word and had brought down

assage, asked if he knew anything of the matter. He swayed his wise old head, which always reminded me of that of a tortoi

ill young, I dwelt as a humble brother in this very monastery, which was one of the first built, and I saw the army pass, that is all. That

common for Buddhist priests to state positively that they remem

t would have hurt the old man's feelings terribly. After all, also, as Leo himself had once said, surely we were not the people to mock at the theory

truction, learned One - seeing t

ow I see it passing, passing, and myself with other monks standing by the statue of the big Buddha in front yonder, and watching it go by. It was not a very large army, for most of the soldiers had died, or been killed, and it was be

our roof, to which he answered that if we did not, we should have no roof left, for he would burn the place and kill every one of us with the sword. Now, as you know, to be killed by violence means that we must pass sundry incarnations in the forms of a

cernedly as I could, for this

delaying me upon my journey to the Other Side, to the Shore of Salvation. I, as a humble Lama, was engaged in preparing her apartment when she entered

she like?" said

fess it that you may know how vile a thing I am - I whom perhaps you have thought holy - like yourselves. That woman, if woman she were, lit a fire in my heart which will not burn out, oh! and more, more," and Kou-en rocked himself to and fro upon his stool while tears of contrition trickled from beneath his horn spectacles, "she made me worship her! For first she asked

what goddess?'

makes all the world to be, that made you , O se

erself up, looking most royal, and touching her ivory breast

as I went she laughed, and cried: 'Remember me when you reach Devachan, O servant of the Budda-sain

d much for it through this, my next incarnation, yet I cannot be rid of her, and for me the Utter

But I, Holly, for reasons of my own, felt deep sympathy with that poor old man, and Leo was also sympathetic. We patted him on the back; we assured him that he was the victim of some evil hallucination which could never be brought up against him in this

his mind that he was obliged to be locked in his cell for eight days to prevent himself from following her. Yes, he had heard one thing, for the abbot of that day had told the brethren. This priestess was the real general of t

ertainly also it was true that about thirty years ago a brother who had climbed the great peak yonder to spend some days in solitary meditation, returned and reported that he had seen a marvellous thing, name

ou-en's innocent old heart, and he crept away lamenting and was seen n

wonder, and made up our minds that w