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CHAPTER VII
~The Perilous Crossing of the Indus~
The travellers went on to the southwest for fifteen days at the foot of
the mountains, and following the course of their range. The way was
difficult and rugged, running along a bank exceedingly precipitous,
which rose up there, a hill-like wall of rock, ten thousand cubits from
the base. When one approached the edge of it, his eyes became unsteady;
and if he wished to go forward in the same direction, there was no place
on which he could place his foot; and beneath were the waters of the
river called the Indus. In former times men had chiselled paths along
the rocks, and distributed ladders on the face of them, to the number
altogether of seven hundred, at the bottom of which there was a
suspension bridge of ropes, by which the river was crossed, its banks
being there eighty paces apart. The place and arrangements are to be
found in the Records of the Nine Interpreters, but neither Chang K'een
[1] nor Kan Ying [2] had reached the spot.
The monks asked Fa-hien if it could be known when the Law of Buddha
first went to the east. He replied, "When I asked the people of those
countries about it, they all said that it had been handed down by their
fathers from of old that, after the setting up of the image of Maitreya
Bodhisattva, there were Sramans of India who crossed this river,
carrying with them Sutras and Books of Discipline.
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