front of these is a stone three and a-half feet by four and a-half,
and bearing the inscription: ``Tribute from the Ten Thousand
Countries of the World.'' The Chinese solemnly believe that
in these tablets all the nations of the earth have acknowledged
the preeminence of Confucius.

Then we visited three gloomy buildings where the animals for
sacrifice are killed--one for cattle, one for sheep and one for
pigs. Beyond them, we entered temples to the wife of Confucius,
to his parents and to the ``Five Generations of
Ancestors,'' though the last-mentioned contains tablets to nine
generations instead of five. On every side are scores of monuments,
erected by or in honour of famous kings, some of them
by the monarchs of dynasties which flourished before the Christian
era.

Most notable of all is the great temple of the sage himself,
standing well back on a spacious stone-paved terrace, around
which runs a handsome marble balustrade. The eye is at once
arrested by the twenty-eight noble marble pillars, ten in front,
ten in the rear and four at each end. The ten in front are
round and elaborately carved, as magnificent a series of columns
as I ever saw. The others are smooth, octagonal pillars, but
traced with various designs in black.

Within, there are twelve other columns about four feet in
diameter and twenty-five feet high, each cut from a single tree
and beautifully polished. Naturally, the central object of
interest is a figure of Confucius of heroic size but impossible
features. In front is the tablet with costly lacquered ornaments