So that I may become a double lotus blossom.”
The third line contains an allusion to the Buddhist ceremony of aspersion. The double lotus-flower is supposed to bear on the same stalk a male and a female blossom. It is the emblem of the union of two hearts and of happy loves.
The marble of the tomb is covered with inscriptions made by the visitors. Most of these are in verse, of the same metre and with the same rhymes used by the dead poetess.
Some way off is another mountain, where Lao-Tse spent a long time in meditation. In the centre of this mountain is a large lake, known as the “Celestial Lake,” where, in summer, lotuses of extraordinary size may be seen in flower. It used to be said that by eating these flowers one attained immortality.
All this district is full of celebrated places and of historical sites. Generally speaking, there is a monastery on the top of each of the mountains. In the middle of the spring all the ladies of the district make offerings to Buddha.
Those who admire pretty women take advantage of this custom to come and stare at the ladies.
The monastery is reached in sedan-chairs. The ladies go down again backwards. I never could understand the reason of this strange custom until chance brought under my notice these two lines, written in the seventeenth century by a woman:
“I go down stepping backwards, and you follow me face to face,
So that it is not necessary for me to turn my head round at each step.”