Dharma cut off his own eyelids, because he
could not keep awake.[28] Throwing the offending flesh upon the ground,
he saw the tea-plant arise to help holy men to keep vigil. Daruma, as
the Japanese spell his name, has a temple in central Japan. It is
related that when Sh[=o]toku, the first patron of Buddhism, was one day
walking abroad he found a poor man dying of hunger, who refused to
answer any questions or give his name. Sh[=o]toku ordered food to be
given him, and wrapped his own mantle round him. Next day the beggar
died, and the prince charitably had him buried on the spot. Shortly
afterward it was observed that the mantle was lying neatly folded up, on
the tomb, which on examination proved to be empty. The supposed dying
beggar was no other than the Indian Saint Dharma, and a pagoda was built
over the grave, in which images of the priest and saint were
enshrined.[29] Yet, alas, to-day Daruma the Hindoo and foreigner,
despite his avatar, his humility, his vigils and his self-mutilation,
has been degraded to be the shop-sign of the tobacconists. Besides being
ruthlessly caricatured, he is usually pictured with a scowl, his lidless
eyes as wide open as those upon a Chinese junk-prow or an Egyptian
coffin-lid.
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