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 caparisons a large elephant,
on which he mounts a man who can speak distinctly, and is dressed in
royal robes, to beat a large drum, and make the following proclamation:
"The Bodhisattva, during three Asankhyeya-kalpas, [3] manifested his
activity, and did not spare his own life. He gave up kingdom, city,
wife, and son; he plucked out his eyes and gave them to another; he cut
off a piece of his flesh to ransom the life of a dove; he cut off his
head and gave it as an alms; he gave his body to feed a starving
tigress; he grudged not his marrow and brains. In many such ways as
these did he undergo pain for the sake of all living. And so it was,
that, having become Buddha, he continued in the world for forty-five
years, preaching his Law, teaching and transforming, so that those who
had no rest found rest, and the unconverted were converted. When his
connection with the living was completed, he attained to pari-nirvana
and died. Since that event, for one thousand four hundred and
ninety-seven years, the light of the world has gone out, and all living
things have had long-continued sadness.
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