1 8 The Diamond 



of Pseudo-Aristotle in Khorasan, etc. No ancient Sanskrit or Pali 

 version of the story has as yet become known; and the weight of evidence 

 is in favor of the Arabs having propagated it farther eastward in the 

 ninth and tenth centuries, while it was known in China long before 

 that time. The snakes and eagles, of course, could be translated into 

 Indian thought as Naga and Garucja; 1 but, again, the Indians do not 

 tell us of such a tradition in connection with these two mythical crea- 

 tures. Even granted that the addition of the snakes in Pseudo- Aristotle 

 might be due to a secondary influence or to some latent undercurrent 

 of Indian conception which possibly penetrated into Syria, the Indian 

 origin of the legend would not be proved, either: for Epiphanius has 

 no snakes; and the old Chinese version lacks them too, and has "birds" 

 instead of eagles. We remember, however, that the Chinese text 

 winds up with an allusion to a Buddhist notion, the Devaraja of the 

 Rupadhatu; but neither is this evidence of an Indian provenience of the 

 legend, which, as unambiguously stated in the text of Chang Yue, 

 hailed from Fu-lin. This additional annotation, certainly not devised 

 in Fu-lin, was derived by the author from another tradition, which we 

 now propose to examine, and which will shed unexpected light on the 

 position held by India in the diffusion of this tale. 



A contribution to the question whether the legend of the Diamond 



that interval. The counterpart of this sacred site may be viewed in China on the 

 Island of P'u-t'o, in the so-called "P'an-t'o Rock," which is styled "Diamond Pre- 

 cious Stone," on which, according to local legend, the Bodhisatva Avalokitecvara 

 (Kuan-yin) sat enthroned; this Diamond-Seat, however, is nothing but a rocky 

 bowlder, the top of which is reached by means of a ladder, where contemplative 

 monks may often be seen absorbed by the religious practice of meditation (dhydna; 

 compare R. F. Johnston, Buddhist China, p. 313, London, 1913). The Vajrasana 

 of Buddha, accordingly, has as much to do with the diamond in its quality of stone 

 as, for instance, Dante's diamond throne on which the angel of God is seated (L'angel 

 di Dio, sedendo in su la soglia, Che mi sembiava pietra di diamante. — Purgatorio, 

 ix, 104-105). Here also it is a metaphor, referring, according to the one, to the 

 firmness and constancy of the confessor, or, according to others, to the symbol of 

 the solid fundament of the Church (Divina Commedia, ed. Scartazzini, p. 371). 

 In a text of the Japanese Shin sect, the question is of a "heart strong as the diamond " 

 in the sense of a diamond-hard faith (H. Haas, Amida Buddha, p. 122). Also the 

 heart of the hardened sinner is compared with the diamond in Buddhist literature 

 (H. Wenzel, Nagarjuna's Friendly Epistle, p. 24, stanza 83; S. Beal, The Suhril- 

 lekha or Friendly Letter, p. 31, stanza 85, London, 1892). The Manicheans used 

 the word in a similar manner by way of illustration, when it is said in one of their 

 writings that the Messenger of Light is the precious diamond pillar supporting the 

 multitude of beings (Chavannes and Pelliot, Trait6 manicheen, p. 90). 



1 Marco Polo (/. c.) explains the presence of the serpents in a natural manner: 

 "Moreover in those mountains great serpents are rife to a marvellous degree, besides 

 other vermin, and this owing to the great heat. The serpents are also the most 

 venomous in existence, insomuch that any one going to that region runs fearful 

 peril; for many have been destroyed by these evil reptiles." 



