Page:A Record of the Buddhist Religion as practised in India and the Malay Archipelago.djvu/101

 are left in it. If there is a river or a pond in the neighbourhood, take the jar there and throw away the water containing insects; then put in fresh filtered water. If there a well, use its water, after filtering it, according to the usual manner. In examining well-water, after some has been drawn, observe it in a water-vessel, taking about a handful of it in a bronze cup, as stated above. If there is no insect, then the water can be used through the night, and if any be found it must be filtered according to the process mentioned above. As to the examining of the water of a river or pond, details are found in the Vinaya.

The Indians use fine white cloth for straining water; and in China fine silk may be used, after having slightly boiled it with rice-crcam; for small insects casily pass through the meshes of raw silk. Taking a piece of softened silk about four feet of the Hu-ch‘ih (name of a common measure), lay it lengthwise by taking its edges, then double it by taking both ends, and sew them together so as to form them into the shape of a net. Then attach cords to its two corners, and loops to both sides; and put across it a stick about one foot and six inches long, in order to stretch it wide. Now fasten its two ends to posts, while placing a basin under it. When you pour water into it from a pot, its bottom must be inside the strainer, lest some insects drop off together with the drops of water, and should hardly escape destruction by falling on the ground or into the basin. When water comes out through the strainer, scoop and examine it, and, if it contains some insects, then return the water, and, if it is clean enough, use it. As soon as enough water has been obtained, turn up the strainer, which is to be held at both ends by two persons, put it into the 'life-preserving vessel,' rinse it with water three times, and again pour water over it outside. Pour in water once more in order to see, by means of straining it, whether some insects still remain in it. If no insects be found, remove the strainer in any manner. Even after being thus filtered, the water, when a night has passed, is liable to need examining again; for one who neglects to examine the water that has stood through a night, whether it contains insects or not, is said, in the Vinaya, to be guilty.