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Impressions
VASSA AND PUBLIC READINGS. 185 the eight principal hells of Buddhism, in which evildoers are represented being torn asunder by red-hot tongs, or sawn in two, or crushed between rocks, or fixed on redhot spikes. Thus does the spirit of gentle Buddhism find place for practical threats of horrible torture.
Next to the relics in regard are impressions of Buddha's foot. The most celebrated is on Adam's Peak in Ceylon, annually visited by 100,000 pilgrims. Im It is a depression or excavation over five feet of Buddha's long, and three-quarters of a yard wide. Re- foot. presentations of it are divided into 108 compartments, each containing a design or figure, with a wheel in the centre.
The Vassa, or residence in a fixed abode during the rainy season, celebrated by reading the Buddhist scriptures to the people, is well kept up in Ceylon. Vassa and The reading takes place in a temporary build- public ing of pyramidal form, with successive plat- readings. forms, built near a vihara. In the centre is an elevated platform for the monks, and the people sit around on mats. Lamps and lanterns of great variety and gay colour are held by the people in their hands or on their heads during the reading. Sometimes the scene is a very attractive one.The females are arrayed in their gayest attire, their hair being combed back from the forehead and neatly done up in a knot, fastened with silver pins and small ornamental combs. The usual dress of the men is of white cotton. Flags and streamers, figured handkerchiefs and shawls, float from every convenient receptacle. At intervals, tom-toms are beaten; the rude trumpet sends forth its screams; and the din of the music, the murmur of the people's voices, the firing of musketry and jinjalls, and the glare of the lamps, produce an effect not much in consonance with an act of worship" (Hardy). Usually only the Pali text is read, so that the people do not understand a word, and many fall asleep or chew betel. Whenever the name of Buddha is repeated by the reader, the people call out simultaneously “Sadhu," an exclamation of joy. In many ways these readings are observed as festival occasions; they
