nguished. 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 among them on whom
there is blessing will withdraw from society among the hills; and when
the wicked have exterminated one another, they will again come forth,
and say among themselves, 'The men of former times enjoyed a very
great longevity; but through becoming exceedingly wicked, and doing
all lawless things, the length of our life has been shortened and
reduced even to five years. Let us now unite together in the practice
of what is good, cherishing a gentle and sympathising heart, and
carefully cultivating good faith and righteousness. When each one in
this way practises that faith and righteousness, life will go on to
double its length till it reaches 80,000 years. When Maitreya appears
in the world, and begins to turn the wheel of his Law, he will in
the first place save those among the disciples of the Law left by the
Sakya who have quitted their families, and those who have accepted
the three Refuges, undertaken the five Prohibitions and the eight
Abstinences, and given offerings to the three Precious Ones; secondly
and thirdly, he will save those between whom and conversion there is a
connexion transmitted from the past.'"(10)

(Such was the discourse), and Fa-Hsien wished to write it down as a
portion of doctrine; but the man said, "This is taken from no Sutra,
it is only the utterance of my own mind."

NOTES

(1) Possibly, "and asked the bhikshu," &c. I prefer the other way of
construing, however.

(2) It seems strange that this should have been understood as a
wrapping of the immense pyre with the cloth. There is nothing in
the text to necessitate such a version, but the contrary. Compare
"Buddhist Suttas," pp. 92, 93.

(3) See the description of a funeral car and its decorations in the
Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxviii, the Li Ki, Book XIX. Fa-Hsien's
{.} {.}, "in this (country)," which I have expressed by "our," shows
that whatever notes of this cremation he had taken at the time, the
account in the text was composed after his return to China, and when
he had the usages there