The erection of a temple is but the beginning of an interminable series of expenses; for, if there is a priest, he must be paid for each separate service rendered, and will besides demand a tax in grain of every villager after the wheat and autumn harvests--exactions which often become burdensome in the extreme. In addition to this, minor repairs keep up an unceasing flow of money. If there is an annual chanting of sacred books (called _ta chiao_), this is also a heavy expense. Temples which are not much used are convenient receptacles for coffins, which have been prepared in the Chinese style before they are needed, and also for the images of animals, made of reeds and paper, which are designed to be burnt at funerals that they may be thus transported to the spirit world. If the temple has a farm attached, the divinities are quite likely to be obscured, in the autumn, by the crops which are hung up to dry all about and even over them; for storage space under a roof is one of the commodities most rare in the village. The temples most popular in one region may be precisely those which are rarely seen in another, but next to those already named perhaps the most frequently honoured divinities are the Goddess of Mercy (_Kuan Yin P'u Sa_), some variety of the manifold goddess known as "Mother" (_Niang Niang_), and Buddha. What is called the "Hall of the Three Religions" (_San Chiao T'ang_), is one of the instructive relics of a time when the common proposition that the "three religions are really one" was not so implicitly received as now. In the Hall of the Three Religions, Confucius, Lao-tzŭ (the founder of Taoism, or Rationalism), and Buddha, all stand together on one platform; but Buddha, the foreigner, is generally placed in the middle as the post of honour, showing that even to the Chinese the native forms of faith have seemed to be lacking in something which Buddhism attempts to supply. This place has not been obtained, however, without a long struggle. Another form of genial compromise of rival claims, is what is called "The Temple of All the gods" (_Ch'üan shên miao_), in which a great variety of deities are represented on a wall, but with no clear precedence of honour. Temples to the god of Literature, (_Wên Ch'ang_), are built by subscriptions of the local scholars, or by taxes imposed by the District Magistrate. It is impossible to arrive at any exact conclusions on the subject, but it is probable that the actual cost of the temples, in almost any region in China, would be found to form a heavy percentage of the income of the people in the district. [Illustration: THE WORLD'S OLDEST SACRED MOUNTAIN, T'AI SHAN.] [Illustration: SCENERY ALONG THE RIVER LIN.] XII COÖPERATION IN RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES