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

THE TRAVELS OF FA-HIEN 271
meal of rice, and presenting his offerings on the occasion, he
selected a pair of first-rate oxen, the horns of which were
grandly decorated with gold, silver, and the precious substances.
A golden plough had been provided, and the king
himself turned up a furrow on the four sides of the ground
within which the building was to be. He then endowed the
community of the monks with the population, fields, and
houses, writing the grant on plates of metal, to the effect that
from that time onwards, from generation to generation, no
one should venture to annul or alter it.
In this country Fa-hien heard an Indian devotee, who was
reciting a Sutra from the pulpit, say : " Buddha's alms-bowl
was at first in Vaisali, and now it is in Gandhara. After so
many hundred years (he gave, when Fa-hien heard him, the
exact number of years, but he has forgotten it), it will go to
Western Tukhara ; after so many hundred years, to Khoten
after so many hundred years, to Kharachar ; after so many
hundred years, to the land of Han ; after so many hundred
years, it will come to Sinhala ; and after so many hundred years,
it will return to Central India. After that, it will ascend to the
Tushita heaven ; and when the Bodhisattva Maitreya sees it,
he will say with a sigh, ' The alms-bowl of Sakyamuni Buddha
is come " ; and with all the devas he will present to it flowers
and incense for seven days. When these have expired, it will
return to Jambudvipa, where it will be received by the king
of the sea nagas, and taken into his naga palace. When
Maitreya shall be about to attain to perfect Wisdom and become
Buddha, it will again separate into four bowls, which
will return to the top of mount Anna, whence they came.
After Maitreya has become Buddha, the four deva kings will
again think of the Buddha with their bowls as they did in the
case of the previous Buddha. The thousand Buddhas of this
Bhadra-kalpa, indeed, will all use the same alms-bowl ; and
when the bowl has disappeared, the Law of Buddha will go on
gradually to be extinguished. After that extinction has taken
place, the life of man will be shortened, till it is only a period of
five years. During this period of a five years' life, rice, butter,
and oil will all vanish away, and men will become exceedingly
wicked. The grass and trees which they lay hold of will
change into swords and clubs, with which they will hurt, cut,
and kill one another. Those amonsr them on w^hom there is
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