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

THE TRAVELS OF FA-HIEN 267
those substances, and having an appearance of solemn dignit>
which words cannot express. In the palm of the right hand
there is a priceless pearl. Several years had now elapsed since
Fa-hien left the land of Han ; the men with whom he had been
in intercourse had all been of regions strange to him ; his eyes
had not rested on an old and familiar hill or river, plant or
tree : his fellow-travellers, moreover, had been separated from
him, some by death, and others flowing off in different directions
; no face or shadow was now with him but his own, and
a constant sadness was in his heart. Suddenly one day, when
by the side of this image of jade, he saw a merchant presenting
as his offering a fan of white silk;^ and the tears of sorrow involuntarily
filled his eyes and fell down.
A former king of the country had sent to Central India and
got a slip of the patra tree, which he planted by the side of the
hall of Buddha, where a tree grew up to the height of about
two hundred cubits. As it bent on one side towards the south-
east, the king, fearing it would fall, propped it with a post eight
or nine spans around. The tree began to grow at the very
heart of the prop, where it met the trunk; a shoot pierced
through the post, and went down to the ground, where it
entered and formed roots, that rose to the surface and were
about four spans round. Although the post was split in the
middle, the outer portions kept hold of the shoot, and people
did not remove them. Beneath the tree there has been built
a vihara, in which there is an image of Buddha seated, which
the monks and commonalty reverence and look up to without
ever becoming wearied. In the city there has been reared also
the vihara of Buddha's tooth, in which, as v/ell as on the other,
the seven precious substances have been employed.
The king practises the Brahmanical purifications, and the
sincerity of the faith and reverence of the population inside the
city are also great. Since the establishment of government in
the kingdom there has been no famine or scarcity, no revolution
or disorder. In the treasuries of the monkish communi-
ties there are many precious stones, and the priceless manis.
One of the kings once entered one of those treasuries, and
when he looked all round and saw the priceless pearls, his covetous
greed was excited, and he wished to take them to him-
•We naturally suppose that the mer- as Fa-hien had seen and used in his
chant-offerer was a Chinese, as indeed native land,
the Chinese texts say, and tlie fan such