ether
to hear the Law. The people say that in the kingdom there may be
altogether sixty thousand monks, who get their food from their common
stores. The king, besides, prepares elsewhere in the city a common
supply of food for five or six thousand more. When any want, they take
their great bowls, and go (to the place of distribution), and take as
much as the vessels will hold, all returning with them full.

The tooth of Buddha is always brought forth in the middle of the
third month. Ten days beforehand the king grandly caparisons a large
elephant, on which he mounts a man who can speak distinctly, and is
dressed in royal robes, to beat a large drum, and make the following
proclamation:--"The Bodhisattva, during three Asankhyeya-kalpas,(9)
manifested his activity, and did not spare his own life. He gave up
kingdom, city, wife, and son; he plucked out his eyes and gave them to
another;(10) he cut off a piece of his own flesh to ransom the life
of a dove;(10) he cut off his head and gave it as an alms;(11) he gave
his body to feed a starving tigress;(11) he grudged not his marrow
and his brains. In many such ways as these did he undergo pain for
the sake of all living. And so it was, that, having become Buddha,
he continued in the world for forty-five years, preaching his Law,
teaching and transforming, so that those who had no rest found rest,
and the unconverted were converted. When his connexion with the living
was completed,(12) he attained to pari-nirvana (and died). Since that
event, for 1497 years, the light of the world has gone out,(13) and
all living beings have had long-continued sadness. Behold! ten days
after this, Buddha's tooth will be brought forth, and taken to the
Abhayagiri-vihara. Let all and each, whether monks or laics, who
wish to amass merit for themselves, make the roads smooth and in good
condition, grandly adorn the lanes and by-ways, and provide abundant
store of flowers and incense to be used as offerings to it."

When this proclamation is over, the king exhibits, so as to line both
sides of the road, the five hundred different bodily forms in which
the Bodhisattva has in the course of his history appeared:--here as
Sudana,(14) there as Sama;(15) now as the king of elephants;(16) and
then as a stag or a horse.(16) All these figures are brightly coloured
and grandly executed, looking as if they were alive. After this the
tooth of Buddha is brought forth, and is carried along in the middle
of