ON MIRACLES. 61 



they Were expressly intended, — or to elevate his reverence 

 for, or to fall down and worship, the worker of Miracles, 



Miracle No. 11 For the -celebration of another Festival 

 the Fire-Worshippers of U'ruvela attempted to get some fuel 

 ready, and with this object they set about making faggots. 

 But, so long as Gotaina willed it the logs did not yield to 

 the axe, neither did they take fire ; nor was the fire 

 extinguishable. 



Miracle No. 12. It is next recorded that Go tarn a mira- 

 culously produced five hundred mandamukhi, or fire-urns,' 

 which he presented to the 500 Jatilas. Both these miracles 

 are also recorded in the following verses, which are stated 

 to be the interpolation of a subsequent date. 



Bhagavato adhittane na apancakatth satani na 

 paliyinsu na ujjalinsu ujjalinsu navijjayinsu panca 

 manda mukhi satani abhinimmini. 'By the mighty opera- 

 tion of Buddha [was it that] the 500 pieces of firewood 

 were not split, land took no fire : [and it was by the same 

 power that] they did take fire, were not extinguished, 

 and were [afterwards] extinguished ; and that he created 

 500 urns for fuel' — Mahdvagga, Vinayapitaka. 



These two Miracles do not easily come within the cate- 

 gory of iddhi patihariya given in the Kevatta Sutta. They 

 are not, as the exemplified cases are, 4 dumb-shows' or occu- 

 lar deceptions.* One of them, at least,, if true, proves what 

 Buddhism does not claim for its founder, a creative power. 

 As such, therefore, it is clearly a myth ; but it is not im- 

 possible to believe that the fire-urns were produced by Gota- 

 ma's followers ; and by a little jugglery they attributed 

 their exhibition to miraculous power ; and at a time too 



