DEATH OF HWUY-KING IN THE LITTLE SNOWY MOUNTAINS. LO-E. POHNA. CROSSING
THE INDUS TO THE EAST.
Having stayed there till the third month of winter, Fâ-Hien and the two
others,(1) proceeding southwards, crossed the Little Snowy
mountains.(2) On them the snow lies accumulated both winter and summer.
On the north (side) of the mountains, in the shade, they suddenly
encountered a cold wind which made them shiver and become unable to
speak. Hwuy-king could not go any farther. A white froth came from his
mouth, and he said to Fâ-Hien, “I cannot live any longer. Do you
immediately go away, that we do not all die here;” and with these words
he died.(3) Fâ-Hien stroked the corpse, and cried out piteously, “Our
original plan has failed;—it is fate.(4) What can we do?” He then again
exerted himself, and they succeeded in crossing to the south of the
range, and arrived in the kingdom of Lo-e,(5) where there were nearly
three thousand monks, students of both the mahayana and hinayana. Here
they stayed for the summer retreat,(6) and when that was over, they
went on to the south, and ten days’ journey brought them to the kingdom
of Poh-na,(7) where there are also more than three thousand monks, all
students of the hinayana. Proceeding from this place for three days,
they again crossed the Indus, where the country on each side was low
and level.(8)
NOTES
(1) These must have been Tao-ching and Hwuy-king.
(2) Probably the Safeid Koh, and on the way to the Kohat pass.
(3) All the texts have Kwuy-king. See chapter xii, note 13.
(4) A very natural exclamation, but out of place and inconsistent from
the lips of Fâ-Hien. The Chinese character {.}, which he employed, may
be rendered rightly by “fate” or “destiny;” but the fate is not
unintelligent. The term implies a factor, or fa-tor, and supposes the
ordination of Heaven or God. A Confucian idea for the moment overcame
his Buddhism.
(5) Lo-e, or Rohi, is a name for Afghanistan; but only a portion of it
can be here intended.
(6) We are now therefore in 404.
(7) No doubt the present district of Bannu, in the
Lieutenant-Governorship of the Punjâb, between 32° 10′ and 33° 15′ N.
lat., and 70° 26′ and 72° E. lon. See Hunter’s Gazetteer of India, i,
p. 393.
(8) They had then crossed the Indus before. They had done so, indeed,
twice; first, from north to south, at Skardo or east of it; and second,
as described in chapter vii.