to lead the way with singing in order to conduct him thither. The Bddhisatva got up and followed, and when thirty paces from the tree a god gave him the kus'a grass. Having accepted this, he went on fifteen paces farther, when five hundred dark-coloured birds came and flew three times round him, and departed. The Bodhisatva went on to the Bo tree, and laying down his kus'a grass, sat down with his face to the east. Then Mara, the king of the devils, sent three beautiful women to approach from the north and tempt him ; he himself approaching from the south with the same object. The Bodhisatva pressed the ground with his toes, whereupon the infernal army retreated in confusion, and the three women became old. At the above-mentioned place where Buddha suffered mortification for six years, and on all these other spots, men of after ages have built pagodas and set up images, all of which are still in existence. Where Buddha, having attained perfect wisdom, contemplated the free for seven days, experiencing the joys of emancipation ; where Buddha walked backwards and forwards, east and west, under the Bo tree for seven days ; where the gods produced a jewelled chamber and worshipped Buddha for seven days ; where the blind dragon Muchilinda enveloped Buddha for seven days ; where Buddha sat facing the east on a square stone beneath the nyagrodha tree, and Brahma came to salute him ; where the four heavenly kings offered their alms-bowls ; where the five hundred traders gave him cooked rice and honey ; where he converted the brothers Kasyapa with their disciples to the number of one thousand souls on all these spots stupas have been raised."
The following passage refers to Ceylon, called by Fa Hsien the Land of the Lion, that is, Singhala, from
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