The keeper of the inn where I stopped had two sons who spoke English. The older was a youth of fifteen. We became friends at once.
“Have you, I wonder, visited our Temple of the Tooth?” he asked.
“Outside,” I answered. “Are sahibs allowed to enter?”
“Surely!” cried the youth. “We are joyed to have white men visit our temples. To-night we are having a service very important in the Temple of the Tooth. With my uncle, who keeps the cloth-shop across the way, I shall go. Will you not forget your religion and honor us by coming?”
“With pleasure,” I answered.
Two flaring torches threw fantastic shadows over the chattering crowd of natives that lifted us bodily up the broad stairway to the outer temple. At the top of the stairs surged a noisy multitude, each and every one of them carrying a candle, a bit of cardboard, or the lotus-flower, to lay in the lap of his favorite statue. From every nook and corner, the image of the wandering prince looked on with sadness.
Of all the crowd I alone was shod. I dropped my slippers at the landing, and, half expecting a stern command to remove my socks, walked into the brighter light of the interior.
A whisper arose beside me, and swelled louder as it passed quickly from mouth to mouth: “Sahib! sahib!” I had dreaded lest my coming should cause them to turn angrily upon me; but Buddha himself, arriving thus unexpectedly, could not have won more boisterous welcome. The worshipers swept down upon me, shrieking gladly. Several thrust into my hands the blossoms they had meant for Buddha. One pressed upon me a badly rolled cigar of native make. From every side came candles and matches.
At the tinkle of a far-off bell the natives fell back, leaving a lane for our passing. Two priests in yellow robes, smiling and bowing low at every step, advanced to meet me, and led the way to a balcony overlooking the lake.
In the dim light of a corner, three natives in scanty breech-clouts and great turbans squatted before what appeared to be large baskets. I remained near them with the priests, and waited for “the service very important.”