Gods. None of these practices have had hitherto any good result." Then Soga no Oho-omi answered and said:—"The 'Mahāyāna Sutra' ought to be read by way of extract[1] in the temples, our sins repented of, as Buddha teaches, and thus with humility rain should be prayed for."
27th day. In the South Court of the Great Temple, the images of Buddha and of the Bosatsu,[2] and the images of the four Heavenly Kings, were magnificently adorned. A multitude of priests, by humble request, read the "Mahāyāna Sutra." On this occasion Soga no Oho-omi held a censer in his hands, and having burnt incense in it, put up a prayer.
28th day. A slight rain fell.
29th day. The prayers for rain being unsuccessful, the reading of the "Sutra" was discontinued.
8th month, 1st day. The Emperor made a progress to the river-source of Minabuchi. Here he knelt down and prayed, worshipping towards the four quarters, and looking up to Heaven.[3] Straightway there was thunder and a great rain, which eventually fell for five days, and plentifully bedewed the Empire. [One writing has:—"For five days there was continuous rain, and the nine grains ripened."]
(XXIV. 6.) Hereupon the peasantry throughout the Empire cried with one voice, "Bansai," and said, "An Emperor of exceeding virtue!"
6th day. The Pèkché Envoys, viz. the Associate Official and the rest, took their departure. They were given a large ship and three boats.
This day at midnight it thundered in the south-west corner, and there was wind and rain. The ship in which the Associate Official and his companions were embarked ran ashore and was wrecked.
- ↑ The tendoku (轉讀) is the reading of passages of a book to represent the whole. I have seen a dozen priests each with a pile of books on his right, of which he took one, read a few words at the beginning, made the pages defile rapidly before him, and then reading a few words at the end, passed it to a gradually increasing pile on his left. In this way a volume takes only a few seconds to dispose of, and although the Buddhist scriptures are pretty voluminous, an hour or two of this sort of thing makes some impression on them.
- ↑ Boddhisatwa.
- ↑ This is the Chinese as opposed to the Buddhist styles, which had been without result.
