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It then flows 60 yojanas farther, through a cave, strikes the four-sided rock Wijja, and is lastly divided into five streams, like five fingers, that are the five great rivers (GaiUga, Yamuna, Achirawati, Sarabhu, and Mahi), which, after watering Jambudwipa, fall into the sea. During its course round the lake, until it turns off towards the south, it is called Awarttha ; from that place, until it begins to ascend into the sky, it is called Kanha ; in its passage through the sky it is called Ak^a-ganga ; for the next 50 yojanas it is called TiyaggaU, and afterwards Bahala ; and during its passage underground it is called Ummaga-ganga. Its whole course, from the place in which it turns towards the south, to the place where it flows against the rock Wijja, is 4540 miles. (Suryddganiana-sutra'sanne,) The seven great lakes are An6tatta, Kamamunda, Bathak&ra, Chaddanta, Kunila, Sihapratdpa, and Mandakini. In the centre of the Chaddanta lake, 12 yojanas in extent, is water as clear as a mirror. Next to this water there is a space, one yojana in breadth, covered with white water lilies, called Kalhara, around which there are other spaces, and in each of them flourishes a different kind of flower. Further still there is a space covered by a par- ticular kind of rice, called rat-hel, so plenteous that all the people in Jambudwipa would be insufficient to exhaust it ; adjoining this space there is a garden in which are all kinds of small and delicate flowers ; then spaces covered with mung, gourds, &c, ; and afterwards a space in which the sugar-cane flourishe&in rich luxuriance. In all there are 24 spaces, each of which is a yojana in breadth, surrounding each other, in concentric circles. In like manner, around Mandakini, each half a yojana in breadth, are 12 different spaces or floral belts. In the forest of Himala are lions, tigers, elephants, horses, bulls, buffaloes, yaks, bears, panthers, deer, hansas,* peafowl, kokilas, * This is regarded aa the king of birds, and by Europeans is gonerallj C 18 A MANUAL OF BUDHISH. kinduras, golden eagles, and many other kinds of animals and birds ; bat the lions and kokilas are the most abundant. There are foar different species, or castes, of lions, called trina, k41a, panda, and kesara. The first is dove-colonred, and eats grass. The second is like a black ball, and this also eats grass. The third is like a brown ball, and eats flesh. The k6sara lion,* which also eats flesh, has its mouth, tail, and the soles of its feet, of a red colour, like a wagon laden with red dye. From the top of the head proceed three lines, two of which turn towards the sides, and the third runs along the centre of the back and tail. The neck is covered with a mane, like a rough mantle worth a thousand pieces of gold.t The rest of the body is white, like a piece of pure lime. When he issues forth from his golden cave, and ascends a rock, he places his paws towards the east, breathes through his nostrils with a noise like the thunder, shakes himself like a young calf at its gambols, that he may free his body from dust, and then roars out amain. His voice may be heard for the space of three yojanas around. All the sentient beings that hear it, whether they be apods, bipeds, or quadrupeds, become alarmed, and hasten to their separate places of retreat. He can leap upwards, in a straight line, four or eight isubus, each of 140 cubits; upon level ground he can leap 15 or 20 isubus ; from a rock, 60 or 80. When the kokila begins to sing all the beasts of the forest are beside themselves. The deer does not finish the portion of grass it has taken into its mouth, but remains listening. The tiger that is pursuing the deer remains at once perfectly still, like a painted statue, its uplifted foot not put down, and the foot on the ground not uplifted. The deer thus pursued forgets its terror. The wing of the flying bird remains expanded in the air, and the fin of the fish becomes motionless. Prakrama Bahu, who reigned at Polonnaruwa, in supposed to be the golden-winged swan. It is said the Nile-Ibis (Ibis reli- giosa) is still called Aba Hansa by the Arabs of Egypt. I bare sometimes thought that there may be some connexion between the haosa of the Hindus and the (vy( of the Greeks. lynx was the daughter of Pan, or of Echo, me- tamorphosed by Hera, out of reyenge, into the bird called iynx (iynx tor- qoilla). * It has been supposed that the word Csesar is deriyed from the Sanskrit kesa, hfur, and that the future emperor was so called because he had much hair on his bead when he was bom. t It is said b^ Ctesias that " there is an animal in India, of prodigious strength, surpassing in size the largest lion, of a colour red as yermiilion, with a thick coat of hair like a dog." I. THE SYSTEM OF THE UNIVERSE. 19 Cejlon, from hearing of the fame of this great forest, wished to see it; and at his death, in consequence of the merit he had acquired, he was bom there as a bhiimata-d^wat^, or terrestrial deity, and he will, in the same place, see the next Budha who will appear, Maitrir In the same forest there is a damba tree, one hundred yojanas high, which has four branches ; and the whole space that the tree oovers is 300 yojanas in circumference.* From the trunk and the four branches large rivers continually flow. During the whole of the kalpa in which the world is renovated, it bears an inmortal fruit resembling gold, as large as the water- vessel called maha- kala (said to be sixteen times larger than the kalas used in Ceylon, which hold about 4 gallons each). This fruit falls into the rivers, and from its seeds are produced grains of gold, that are carried to the sea, and are sometimes found on the shore.f This gold is of immense value, as there is no other equal to it in the world. From this damba, or jambu, tree, Dambadiwa or Jambudwipa, derives its name.^ (SuryddgaTncmarsutra-sanTi^,) * This fable may have had ite origin in an exaggerated account of the deodar or Himalayan cedar, oednu dei^dara. ** Its botanical range extends from 7000 to 12,000 feet aboTe the level of the sea, and in its most congenial locality it attains a great height and a circumference of 80 feet. When young it closisly resembles the i*eal cedar, but neyer sends forth spreading branches. Tho oone resembles that of the cedar, and is preceded by a catkin of a bright yellow colour, so that the tree when in full blossom appears covered with a rich mantle of gold. These catkins are loaded with a golden dust, which the wind shakes from the branches in such quantity that the ground for a considerable distance, about the tree, becomes as it were sheeted with gold." — ^Thornton's Gazetteer. ** Several Indian trees have been enimierated as likely to be the almug of the Scriptures. ... If one of the pine tribe be required, none is more deserving of selection than the deodar (deo, god, dar, wood)."— Dr. J. P. Koyle. t Oold is found in some of the mountain streams of the Himalayas, but the natives forbear to gather it, as they suppose that it belongs to certain demons, who would be displeased if they were to attempt to take it away, and inflict on them some punishment. — Thornton's Qtaetteer. Philostratus, in his Life of ApoUonius, mentions griffins as among the fabulous animals that guarded the gold of India. X In the native authorities there usually follows, after the above state- ments, a list of the names of the principal places in Jambudwipa, which with slight variations is frequently repeated ; but it is evidently a modern compilation, and must have been made by some one who had not visited the continent of India. There are several countries known to the Singhalese that are not mentioned ; but they have great difficulty in distinguishing the character of places, though with the names they may be familiar ; they call the same place at one time a city and at another a county, and seldom remember to what particular class any given place belongs. Their rahats could fly through the air, and visit at will any part of the world ; but they have given us no information relative to any region beyond India, or the countries adjacent, exclusive of their accounts of M^ru and the continents c 2 20 A MANUAL OF BUDHISM. 9. The Sun, Moon, and Pla/nets. The disk of tlie sun is 50 jojanas in diameter, and 150 in circum- ference; within, it is composed of coral, and its surface is of gold; so that both its snrface and inner material are extremely hot.