ere about four spans
round. Although the post was split in the middle, the outer portions
kept hold of the shoot, and people did not remove them. Beneath the tree
there has been built a vihara, in which there is an image of Buddha
seated, which the monks and commonalty reverence and look up to without
ever becoming wearied. In the city there has been reared also the vihara
of Buddha's tooth, in which, as well as on the other, the seven precious
substances have been employed.

The king practises the Brahmanical purifications, and the sincerity of
the faith and reverence of the population inside the city are also
great. Since the establishment of government in the kingdom there has
been no famine or scarcity, no revolution or disorder. In the treasuries
of the monkish communities there are many precious stones, and the
priceless manis. One of the kings once entered one of those treasuries,
and when he looked all round and saw the priceless pearls, his covetous
greed was excited, and he wished to take them to himself by force. In
three days, however, he came to himself, and immediately went and bowed
his head to the ground in the midst of the monks, to show his repentance
of the evil thought. As a sequel to this, he informed the monks of what
had been in his mind, and desired them to make a regulation that from
that day forth the king should not be allowed to enter the treasury and
see what it contained, and that no bhikshu should enter it till after he
had been in orders for a period of full forty years.

In the city there are many Vaisya elders and Sabaean merchants, whose
houses are stately and beautiful. The lanes and passages are kept in
good order. At the heads of the four principal streets there have been
built preaching halls, where, on the eighth, fourteenth, and fifteenth
days of the month, they spread carpets, and set forth a pulpit, while
the monks and commonalty from all quarters come together to hear the
Law. The people say that in the kingdom there may be altogether sixty
thousand monks, who get their food from their common stores. The king,
besides, prepares elsewhere in the city a common supply of food for five
or six thousand more. When any want, they take their great bowls, and go
to the place of distribution, and take as much as the vessels will hold,
all returning with them full.

The tooth of Buddha is always brought forth in the middle of the third
month. Ten days beforehand the king grandly capari