[19] There Is Difficulty In Construing The Text Of This Last Statement.

Mr. Beal had, no doubt inadvertently, omitted it in his first translation.

In his revised version he gives for it, I cannot say happily, "As well as at the pool, the water of which came down from above for washing (the child)."

[20] See chap. xvii, note 8. See also Davids' Manual, p. 45. The latter says, that "to turn the wheel of the Law" means "to set rolling the royal chariot wheel of a universal empire of truth and righteousness;" but he admits that this is more grandiloquent than the phraseology was in the ears of Buddhists. I prefer the words quoted from Eitel in the note referred to. "They turned" is probably equivalent to "They began to turn."

[21] Fa-hien does not say that he himself saw any of these white elephants, nor does he speak of the lions as of any particular colour. We shall find by-and-by, in a note further on, that, to make them appear more terrible, they are spoken of as "black."

CHAPTER XXIII

RAMA, AND ITS TOPE.

East from Buddha's birthplace, and at a distance of five yojanas, there is a kingdom called Rama.[1] The king of this country, having obtained one portion of the relics of Buddha's body,[2] returned with it and built over it a tope, named the Rama tope. By the side of it there was a pool, and in the pool a dragon, which constantly kept watch over (the tope), and presented offerings to it day and night. When king Asoka came forth into the world, he wished to destroy the eight topes (over the relics), and to build (instead of them) 84,000 topes.[3] After he had thrown down the seven (others), he wished next to destroy this tope.

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