Proceeding from this
place for three days, they again crossed the Indus, where the country on
each side was low and level.
[Footnote 1: Lo-e, or Rohi, or Afghanistan; only a portion of it can be
intended.]
[Footnote 2: We are now therefore in A.D. 404.]
CHAPTER XV
~Sympathy of Monks with the Pilgrims~
After they had crossed the river, there was a country named Pe-t'oo,
where Buddhism was very flourishing, and the monks studied both the
mahayana and hinayana. When they saw their fellow-disciples from Ts'in
passing along, they were moved with great pity and sympathy, and
expressed themselves thus: "How is it that these men from a border-land
should have learned to become monks, and come for the sake of our
doctrines from such a distance in search of the Law of Buddha?" They
supplied them with what they needed, and treated them in accordance with
the rules of the Law.
CHAPTER XVI
~Condition and Customs of Central India~
From this place they travelled southeast, passing by a succession of
very many monasteries, with a multitude of monks, who might be counted
by myriads. After passing all these places, they came to a country named
Ma-t'aou-lo. They still followed the course of the P'oo-na river, on the
banks of which, left and right, there were twenty monasteries, which
might contain three thousand monks; and here the Law of Buddha was still
more flourishing.
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