ollowing rule is laid down for
the Buddha idols: 'Buddha shall be (represented) sitting on a
lotus-seat, like the father of the world.'"]

[Footnote 27: See The Northern Buddhist Mythology in _Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society_, January, 1894.]

[Footnote 28: See The Pictorial Arts of Japan, and Descriptive and
Historical Catalogue, William Anderson, pp. 13-94.]

[Footnote 29: See fylfot in Century Dictionary.]

[Footnote 30: The word _vagra_, diamond, is a constituent in scores of
names of sutras, especially those whose contents are metaphysical in
their nature. The Vajrasan, Diamond Throne or Thunderbolt seat, was the
name applied to the most sacred part of the great temple reared by Asoka
on the site of the bodhi tree, under which Gautama received
enlightenment. "The adamantine truths of Buddha struck like a
thunderbolt upon the superstitious of his age." "The word vagra has the
two senses of hardness and utility. In the former sense it is understood
to be compared to the secret truth which is always in existence and not
to be broken. In the latter sense it implies the power of the
enlightened, that destroys the obstacles of passions."--B.N., p. 88. "As
held in the arms of Kwannon and other images in the temples," the vagra
or "diamond club" (is that) with which the foes of the Buddhist Church
are to be crushed.--S. and H., p. 444. Each of the gateway gods Ni-[=o]
(two Kings, Indra and Brahma) "bears in his hand the tokko (Sanskrit
_vagra_), an ornament originally designed to represent a diamond club,
and now used by priests and exorcists, as a religious sceptre
symbolizing the irresistible power of prayer, meditation, and
incantation."--Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan, p. 31.]

[Footnote 31: Jiz[=o] is the compassionate helper of all in trouble,
especially of travellers, of mothers, and of children. His Sanskrit name
is Kshiugarbha. His idol is one of the most common in Japan. It is
usually neck-laced with baby's bibs, often by the score, while the
pedestal is heaped with small stones placed there by sorrowing
mothers.--S. and H., p. 29, 394; Chamberlain's Handbook of Japan, 29,
101. Hearn's Japan, p. 34, and _passim_.]

[Footnote 32: Sanskrit _arhat_ or _arhan_, meaning worthy or deserving,
i.e., holy man, the highest rank of Buddhist saintship. See Century
Dictionary.]

[Footnote 33: M.E., p. 201. The long inscription on the bell in
Wellesley College, which summons the student-maidens to their hourly