"The form of this office is a very curious one. It bears a singular likeness in its outline to the common type of the Eastern Christian liturgies. That is to say there is a 'Proanaphoral' and an 'Anaphoral' portion. There is a prayer of entrance (τῆς εἰσοδου), a prayer of incense (τοῦ θυμιάματος), an ascription of praise to the threefold object of worship (τρισαγίον), a prayer of oblation (τῆς προσ θεσεως), the lections, the recitations of the Dharanî (μυστηριον), the Embolismus or prayer against temptation, followed by a 'Confession,' and a 'Dismissal.'" ("Catena of Buddhist Scriptures," p. 397.) Turning to architecture, I must point out that Mr. Fergusson, the leading authority in ancient art, was of opinion that the various details of the early Christian basilica--nave, aisle, columns, semi-domed apse, cruciform ground plan--were borrowed _en bloc_ from the Buddhists. Mr. Fergusson lays special stress on the Dâgoba and its enshrined relics, represented in the Christian Church by the high altar, the bones of a saint, the baldechino. Relic worship, he says, was certainly borrowed from the East. Of the rock-cut temple of Kârle (B.C. 78) he writes:-- "The building resembles, to a great extent, an early Christian church in its arrangements, consisting of a nave and side aisles terminating in an apse or semi-dome, round which the aisle is carried.... As a scale for comparison, it may be mentioned that its arrangements and dimensions are very similar to those of the choir of Norwich Cathedral, and of the Abbaye aux Hommes at Caen, omitting the outer aisles in the latter buildings. Immediately under the semi-dome of the apse, and nearly where the altar stands in Christian churches, is placed the Dâgoba." ("Indian and Eastern Architecture," p. 117.) The list of resemblances is by no means exhausted. The monks on entering a temple make the gesture that we call the sign of the cross. The Buddhists have illuminated missals, Gregorian chants, a tabernacle on the altar for oblations, a pope, cardinals, angels with wings, saints with the nimbus. For a full account I must refer the reader to my "Buddhism in Christendom," where I give (pp. 182, 184) drawings of monks and nuns, the Virgin and Child (p. 205), the adoration of the rice cake on the altar (p. 83), Buddha coming down to the altar with the heavenly host (p. 210), the long candles, artificial flowers, cross, incense burner, and divine figure with the aureole, of the Buddhist temple (p. 208). The election of the Grand Lâma I show to be pin for pin like the election of the Pope. The list is endless. How is all this to be accounted for? Several theories have been started:--