e, took his place in front of the cavern,
and frightened the disciple. Then Buddha, by his mysterious,
supernatural power, made a cleft in the rock, introduced his hand, and
stroked Ananda's shoulder, so that his fear immediately passed away.
The footprints of the bird and the cleft for (Buddha's) hand are still
there, and hence comes the name of "The Hill of the Vulture Cavern."

In front of the cavern there are the places where the four Buddhas
sat. There are caverns also of the Arhats, one where each sat and
meditated, amounting to several hundred in all. At the place where in
front of his rocky apartment Buddha was walking from east to west
(in meditation), and Devadatta, from among the beetling cliffs on the
north of the mountain, threw a rock across, and hurt Buddha's toes,(3)
the rock is still there.(4)

The hall where Buddha preached his Law has been destroyed, and only
the foundations of the brick walls remain. On this hill the peak is
beautifully green, and rises grandly up; it is the highest of all the
five hills. In the New City Fa-Hsien bought incense-(sticks), flowers,
oil and lamps, and hired two bhikshus, long resident (at the place),
to carry them (to the peak). When he himself got to it, he made his
offerings with the flowers and incense, and lighted the lamps when
the darkness began to come on. He felt melancholy, but restrained his
tears and said, "Here Buddha delivered the Surangama (Sutra).(5) I,
Fa-Hsien, was born when I could not meet with Buddha; and now I only
see the footprints which he has left, and the place where he lived,
and nothing more." With this, in front of the rock cavern, he chanted
the Surangama Sutra, remained there over the night, and then returned
towards the New City.(6)

NOTES

(1) See chap. xxviii, note 1.

(2) See chap. xxv, note 9. Pisuna is a name given to Mara, and
signifies "sinful lust."

(3) See M. B., p. 320. Hardy says that Devadatta's attempt was "by the
help of a machine;" but the oldest account in the Sacred Books of the
East, vol. xx, Vinaya Texts, p. 245, agrees with what Fa-Hsien implies
that he threw the rock with his own arm.

(4) And, as described by Hsuan-chwang, fourteen or fifteen cubits
high, and thirty paces round.

(5) See Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio's "Catalogue of the Chinese Translation
of the Buddhist Tripitaka," Sutra Pitaka, Nos. 399, 446. It was the
former of these that came on this occasion to the thought