Valentyn Calls It 1-1/2 Ell In Length; Knox Says 2
Feet; Herman Bree (De Bry ?), Quoted By Fabricius, 8-1/2 Spans; A Chinese
Account, Quoted Below, 8 Feet.
These discrepancies remind one of the
ancient Buddhist belief regarding such footmarks, that they seemed greater
or smaller in proportion to the faith of the visitor!
(See Koeppen, I.
529, and Beal's Fah-hian, p. 27.)
The chains, of which Ibn Batuta gives a particular account, exist still.
The highest was called (he says) the chain of the Shahadat, or Credo,
because the fearful abyss below made pilgrims recite the profession of
belief. Ashraf, a Persian poet of the 15th century, author of an
Alexandriad, ascribes these chains to the great conqueror, who devised
them, with the assistance of the philosopher Bolinas,[1] in order to
scale the mountain, and reach the sepulchre of Adam. (See Ouseley, I.
54 seqq.) There are inscriptions on some of the chains, but I find no
account of them. (Skeen's Adam's Peak, Ceylon, 1870, p. 226.)
NOTE 2. - The general correctness with which Marco has here related the
legendary history of Sakya's devotion to an ascetic life, as the
preliminary to his becoming the Buddha or Divinely Perfect Being, shows
what a strong impression the tale had made upon him. He is, of course,
wrong in placing the scene of the history in Ceylon, though probably it
was so told him, as the vulgar in all Buddhist countries do seem to
localise the legends in regions known to them.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 620 of 1350
Words from 166240 to 166495
of 370046
