A CURIOUS STORY FROM EASTERN ASIA.
A CURIOUS story is current in the eastern portion of central Asia respecting the overthrow of the Guebre fire worship once predominant there by the Buddhist creed imported from China. Whether historically true or not, the tale is at least thoroughly characteristic of the people and the country which produced it. It was the custom of the Guebres to insist that whenever any attempt was made to introduce the worship of a foreign God, the new-comer's image should be brought into direct contact with their sacred fire, and that the votaries of the conquered deity should at once quit the field. For many years the fire had the best of it, and the unfortunate gods who faced it either crumbled to ashes or melted away according to the material of which they were composed. At length a colony of Chinese Buddhists came in from the East, and the usual test was applied to their sacred image. But the high priest of Buddha, thinking that the latter's divine power had need of a little secular aid, had previously filled the image with water, and stopped with wax the tiny holes which perforated its sides. Accordingly, the moment the wax melted, the hitherto invincible fire began to hiss and spatter in a very unpromising way, and finally went out altogether, whereupon its crest-fallen worshipers instantly abandoned the field to their opponents.