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

THE TRAVELS OF FA-HIEN 437
dents of the hinayana. At a distance from the city of six or
seven li, on the west, on the northern bank of the Ganges, is
a place where Buddha preached the Law to his disciples. It
has been handed down that his subjects of discourse were such
as " The bitterness and vanity of Hfe as impermanent and un-
certain," and that " The body is as a bubble or foam on the
water." At this spot a tope was erected, and still exists.
Having crossed the Ganges, and gone south for three yoja-
nas, the travellers arrived at a village named A-le, containing
places where Buddha preached the Law, where he sat, and
where he walked, at all of which topes have been built.
CHAPTER XIX
Legend of Buddha's Danta-kashtha
Going on from this to the southeast for three yojanas, they
came to the great kingdom of Sha-che. As you go out of the
city of Sha-che by the southern gate, on the east of the road
is the place where Buddha, after he had chewed his willow
branch, stuck it in the ground, when it forthwith grew up seven
cubits, at which height it remained, neither increasing nor di-
minishing. The Brahmans, with their contrary doctrines, became
angry and jealous. Sometimes they cut the tree down,
sometimes they plucked it up, and cast it to a distance, but it
grew again on the same spot as at first. Here also is the place
where the four Buddhas walked ajid sat, and at which a tope
was built that is still existing.
CHAPTER XX
The Jetavana Vihara—Legends of Buddha
Going on from this to the south, for eight yojanas, the trav-
ellers came to the city of Sravasti in the kingdom of Kosala,
in which the inhabitants were few and far between, amounting
in all only to a few more than two hundred families ; the city
where king Prasenajit ruled, and the place of the old vihara of