Chinese and Arabian Literature - E. Wilson - The Search For Mecca

THE TRAVELS OF FA-HIEN 231
market-place, they strike a piece of wood to make themselves
known, so that men know and avoid them, and do not come
into contact with them. In that country they do not keep
pigs and fowls, and do not sell live cattle ; in the markets there
are no butchers' shops and no dealers in intoxicating drink.
In buying and selling commodities they use cowries. Only
the Chandalas are fishermen and hunters, and sell flesh meat.
After Buddha attained to pari-nirvana the kings of the various
countries and the heads of the Vaisyas built viharas for
the priests, and endowed them with fields, houses, gardens,
and orchards, along with the resident populations and their
cattle, the grants being engraved on plates of metal, so that
afterwards they were handed down from king to king, without
any one daring to annul them, and they remain even to the
present.time.
The regular business of the monks is to perform acts of mer-
itorious virtue, and to recite their Sutras and sit wrapped in
meditation. When stranger monks arrive at any monastery,
the old residents meet and receive them, carry for them their
clothes and alms-bowl, give them water to wash their feet, oil
with which to anoint them, and the liquid food permitted out
of the regular hours. ^ When the stranger has enjoyed a very
brief rest, they further ask the number of years that he has
been a monk, after which he receives a sleeping apartment with
its appurtenances, according to his regular order, and every-
thing is done for him which the rules prescribe.
Where a community of monks resides, they erect topes to
Sariputtra,^ to Maha-maudgalyayana,^ and to Ananda, and
also topes in honor of the Abhidharma,* the Vinaya,* and the
Sutras.* A month after the annual season of rest, the families
which are looking out for blessing stimulate one another to
make offerings to the monks, and send round to them the
liquid food which may be taken out of the ordinary hours.
All the monks come together in a great assembly, and preach
the Law ; after which offerings are presented at the tope of
* No monk can eat solid food except disciples of Buddha, and indeed the
between sunrise and noon, and total most learned and ingenious of them all.
abstinence from intoxicating drinks is * Mugalan, the Singhalese name of
obligatory. Food eaten at any other this disciple, is more pronounceable. He
Eart of the day is called vikala, and for- ako was one of the principal disciples,
idden; but a weary traveller might re- called Buddha's " left-hand attendant."
ceive unseasonable refreshment, con- He was distinguished for his power of
sisting of honey, butter, treacle, and vision, and his magic powers,
sesamum oil. * The different parts of the tripitaka.
» Sariputtra was one of the principal