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Sambodhito atthama saradasmin 

 Wesakha mase Muni punnamayam 

 Padass' abhinnanamaka 'parayke 

 Sadewake sassamane mahante. 



When noon had pass'd and offerings meet were him presented there 

 By gods and priests and denizens of earth and heaven and air, 

 At full moon of the month of May, when eastwards fell the shade, 

 In his eighth year of Buddhahood the Sage the Foot- print made. 



This Foot-print, to the eye of the unbeliever, is nothing more 

 than a shallow weather-worn hollow, artificially shaped by the aid 

 of the chisel and cement into something that rudely resembles 

 the impression of a foot, five feet seven inches long, and two feet 

 seven inches broad. To the eye of the Buddhist, however, it is 

 the veritable impression of the foot of the Founder of his Faith, 

 whom he believes to have been very gigantically proportioned, 

 measuring, according to some authorities, 18 cubits in height, 

 which at the carpenter's cubit of 2' 3", would give him a stature 

 of 40' 6", while at the old cubit of 2' 9", he would measure a 

 fathom and a half more: feet of the size of the impression would 

 therefore be required to support so gigantic a being.* And this 

 impression is resorted to by, it has been computed, a hundred 

 thousand pilgrims a year ; and is devoutly believed in and wor- 

 shipped by myriads of Buddhists throughout the world, as having 

 been actually made by Buddha on the afternoon of Friday the 6th 

 of May, in the year 580 b. c. 



The origin of such a belief is a subject of interesting inquiry. 



* According to the " Sadbarmmaratnakare," the Foot-print, when originally 

 made, v/as " in length three inches less than the cubit of the carpenter." This 

 would give, according to the old carpenter's cubit, a measure of 2' 6"; but the 

 Foot-print has grown with the growth of ages, like the legends which record its 

 impression. 



