XII. The Gospels of the Infancy, the Lalita Vistara, and the Vishnu Purāna: or the Transmission of Religious Legends between India and the West
The Jews were the first in the field; and the earliest Western legends which made their way to the East are taken from the Old Testament. Josephus has told us that the Semites were settled on the Kabul River by the first century a.d.; they may have been there still earlier; and there is an ancient tradition that Jews penetrated about this time into China—a thing not improbable in itself, if it could be authenticated. Now in the year a.d. 75 a Chinese general (Keng) Kong was besieged by the Hiungnu somewhere in the neighbourhood of Kashgar. The Hiungnu cut off the water supply; and the Chinese dug a well 150 feet deep, but found no water. They were reduced to the last extremities by thirst. Kong, lifting up his eyes to Heaven, cried: “I have heard that in olden time the Erh-Shih general drew his sword, and pierced the rock, and straightway a rushing stream gushed out.” Thereupon Kong put on his garments of state, and prostrating himself beside the waterless well, prayed for the army and for himself. Presently the well brimmed over with water.