and I have lived here ever since we were children, burning incense and candles daily before the shrine. For our countrymen, hearing that China during the Han dynasty had accepted the Law of Buddha and that priests and nuns with shaven heads had become quite common there, determined to adopt the same religion, dispensing however with the usual monastic vows.”
The old priest then asked them whence they came, and on learning that they had just arrived from China became anxious to shew them some hospitality; but T‘ang prayed him to excuse them, urging that they wished to hurry on to the city. He then added, “May I ask what is the explanation of the clouds I see underneath the feet of the inhabitants of this country? Are you born with them?”
“Sir,” answered the old priest, “these clouds are perfectly independent of the will of the individuals to whom they are attached. Their colour varies, and also changes, with the disposition of each particular person. The best clouds to have are striped like a rainbow; yellow is the second best, and black is the worst of all.” T‘ang then begged him to point out the way to the city, which he did, and our travellers forthwith proceeded on their way thither. At length they arrived, but found nothing very different from what they had previously seen in the Country of Gentlemen, except that all the inhabitants were moving about on clouds of various hues, green, red, yellow, blue, and black. Amongst others they noticed a filthy beggar riding on a striped or rainbow cloud; whereupon T‘ang remarked, “Why, the priest told us that the striped cloud was the best of all, and here is a dirty old beggar with one!”
“Don't you recollect,” said Lin, “that the wine-bibbing, meat-eating, wife-marrying ascetic had a striped cloud himself? You may be pretty sure that neither of them are men of very distinguished virtue.”
“When I was here before,” explained To, “I heard that the colour of a man's cloud was quite independent of his wishes, being regulated entirely by his natural disposition and actions, so that virtuous people shew good colours and wicked people bad ones
