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|| This tree is 100 yojanas high, and when the people require anything, it is not necessary that they should go to it to receive it, as the tree extends its branches, and gives • It is BUpposed that the legends respecting square-fiBced or square-headed animals (Herod, it. 109), have had their origin in the appearance of the sea- doffs (phocse vitulins) that inhabit the lakes of Siberia. t In speaking of the four points, the people of India, like the Hebrews, suppose themselTes to be looking towards the rising sun. Hence the same woid, both in Sanscrit and Hebrew, signifies alike the front, the eastern quarter, and aforetime. X There is a resemblance, in position and general character, between the inhabitants of Uturukuru and the Hyperboreans. This happy people, dwell- ing beyond the influence of Boreas, never felt the cold north wind. Their females were deliyered without the sense of pain. The songs and dances at their festirals were accompanied by innumerable flocks of swans. They lired to the age of a thousand years, and yet without any of the usual accompaniments of seniUty. " Neither disease nor old age is the lot of this sacred race, while they live apart from toil and battles, undisturbed by the revengeful Nemesis." — Find. Pyth. x. When tired of their long existence, they leapt, crowned with garlands, from a rook into the sea. This custom of leaping from high rocks occurs, in precisely the same manner, in Scandi- navian legends. — Muller's Dorians. The reader will remember, in connexion with this rite, the annual festival at the promontory of Leukate, where a criminal was cast down, with birds of all lunds attached to his person, to break his fiedl. The opinion that the northern regions of the earth were for- merly warm and pleasant, has been confirmed by the investigations and dis- coveries of geologists. § According to Zoroaster, in the reign of Jemshid, the ancient sovereign of Ir^, men appeared until death to retain the age of fifteen. ~ >f Amal - - The horn of Amaltheia, given by Zeus to the daughters of Melisseus, was endowed with such power, that whenever the possessor wished, it in- stantaneously became filled with whatever was desired. I. THE SYSTEM OP THE UNIVERSE. 15 whatever is desired. When they wish to eat, food is at that instant presented ; and when they wish to lie down, conches at once appear. There is no relationship, as of father, mother, or brother. The females are more beantifnl than the dewas. There is no rain, and no houses are reqairecl. In the whole region there is no low place or valley. It is like a wilderness of pearls ; and always free from all impurities, like the court of a temple or a wall of crystal. The inhabitants live to be a thousand years old ; and all this time they enjoy themselves like the d6was, by means of their own merit and with the assistance of the kalpa tree. When they die they are wrapped in a fine kind of doth, procured from the tree, far more exquisite in its fabric than anything ever made by man. As there is no wood of which to form a pyre, they are taken to the cemetery and there left. There are birds^ more powerful than elephants, which convey the bodies to the Yngandhara rocks ; and as they sometimes let them fall when flying over Jambudwipa, these precious cloths are occasionally found by men. When the people of this region pass away, they are always born as d^was or us men, and never in any of the four hells.* (Pujdwaliya*) 8. The Great Forest The great forest is in the northern part of Jambud wipa,t which, from the southern extremity, gradually increases in height, ;]; until it attains an elevation of 500 yojanas, in the mountains of Oand* ham^ana, Kailasa,§ Chitraktita, and others, there being in all 84,000. II These mountains are inhabited by an infinite number * On the erection of tho great th^pa at Anudldhapura, B.C. 157, two sd- man^ra prieste repaired to UturUkura, whence they brought six beautiful doud-eoloured BtoneB, in length and breadth 80 cubits, of the tint of the ganthi flower, without flaw, and resplendent like the sun. — Tumour's Maha- wanso, cap. xxx. During a period of famine, Mugalan, one of the principal priests of GtStama Budha, proposed to invert the earth, and requested per- mission to take the whole of the priests meanwhile to Uturukuru.— Gogerly, Essaj on Budhism, "No, 2, Joum. Cejlon Branch Kojal As. Soc. t The whole diameter of Jambu-dwfpa has been said to be 100,000 yojanas. — ^Wilson's Vishnu Pur&na. X The most northern parts of the earth are always regarded by the natiyes of India as the highest. This was also the opinion of the Hebrews, and of the ancients generally. Hence the expression to go down, or descend, is frequently used of gomg to the south. — 1 Sam. xxy. 1 ; xxx. 15. § The source of the principal stream of the Indus is said to be at the north of this mountain. II In other places it is said that the principal mountain in the forest of Him 41a is Sw^ta. By modem geographers Dhawalagiri is reckoned as the highest mountain in this range. Both sweta and dhawala signify white, and 16 A MANUAL OF BUDHISM. of d^was and yakAs, and are beautified by 500 rivers, filled with the most delicious water, and by the seven great lakes, among which is the An6tatta-wila.* This lake is 800 miles long, and as many broad and deep ; and there are four places in it in which the Bndhas, Pas6-Badhas, rahats, and rishis are accnstomed to bathe ; and six other places where the dewas from the six inferior heavens bathe. The bath of tbe supreme Budhas is adorned witb gems, and is exceedingly splendid ; and to the other places the beings that have been named resort for refreshment and pleasure. There are mountains of gold on each of the four sides, 800 miles high ; and the water is overshadowed by the mountain Sudarsana, in shape like the bill of a crow, so that the rays of the sun never fall upon it. On the other three sides are Chitraktita, enriched with all kinds of gems ; Kdlaktita, of the colour of antimony ; and Grandhamadana, of a red colour. In the last-named moun- tain there is a golden cave, and there are two others of silver and gems, provided with seats, which the Budhas and others fre- quently visit. Near the entrance to the cave of gems, about a yojana high, is the tree called manjusaka, upon which are found all the flowers that grow, whether in water or on land. When the Pas6-Budhas approach it, a breeze springs up to purify it, and another arises to strew it with sand like the dust of gems, whilst a third sprinkles it with water from the Andtatta-wila, and a fourth scatters around all kinds of sweet-scented flowers. The Pase- Budhas here perform the rite of abstract meditation called dhyana. On the four sides of Andtatta are four mouths or doors, whence proceed as many rivers ;t they are, the lion- mouth, the elephant, the horse, and the bull. The banks of these rivers abound with the animals from which they take their name. The rivers that pass to the north-east and west flow three times round the lake without touching each other, and after passing through countries not inhabited by man, fall into the sea. The river that runs to the south also passes three times we might take it for granted that both names refer to the same eminence, were it not that all the peaks in this region are white, from their crown of everlasting snow. * This lake is called in Tibetan Ma-dros, and is identified as the great lake ManassaroT&ra. t By Csoma K5rosi these rivers are called the Gttnga, Sindhu, Pakshu, and Sita. They are said by the Brahmans to encircle the city of Brahma, upon the summit of M6ru, and are the Sita, Alakanandi, Chakshu, and Bhadri, flowing from the G-anges as their source. Mr. Faber, in his Pagan Idolatry, thinks that they represent the four rivers of Eden. I. THE SYSTEM OF THE UNIVERSE. 17 round the lake, then rushes from the midst of a rock, and flows in a straight line 60 jojanas. It then strikes against another rock, and rises into the skj^, like a mount of gems 12 miles in size, flows through the sky for the space of 60 yojanas, and strikes against the rock TijaggaU. This rock it has broken by its immense force ; and after this it violently rushes on a further space of 50 yojanas, after which it flows on an inclined plane, strikes and breaks the ponderous Pdnsu-parwata or Five Moun- tains, and again passes on 60 yojanas.