"Yes, do so," said the Queen. So she dressed up her son, and laid him in a fine linen cloth; after which she with all the court came down from the palace and entered the Elephant's stable. There she laid the babe at the Elephant's feet, [22] saying, "Master, your comrade is dead, but we feared to tell it you lest you might break your heart. This is your comrade's son; the king of Kosala has run a leaguer about the city, and is making war upon your son; the army is losing ground; either kill your son yourself, or else win the kingdom back for him!"

At once the Elephant stroked the child with his trunk, and lifted him upon his own head; then making moan and lamentation he took hies down and laid him in his mother's arms, and with the words--"I will master the king of Kosala!" he went forth hastily.

Then the courtiers put his armour and caparison upon him, and

unlocked the city gate, and escorted him thither. The Elephant emerging trumpeted, and frightened all the host so that they ran away, and broke up the camp; then seizing the king of Kosala by his topknot, he carried him to the young prince, at whose feet he let him fall. Some rose to kill him, but them the Elephant stayed; and he let the captive king go with this advice: "Be careful for the future, and be not presumptuous by reason that our Prince is young."

After that, the power over all India fell into the Bodhisatta's own hand, and not a foe was able to rise up against him. The Bodhisatta was consecrated at the age of seven years, as King Winheart; just was his reign, and when he came to life's end he went to swell the hosts of heaven.

_____________________________

When the Master had ended this discourse, having become perfectly enlightened, he repeated this couple of verses:--

"Prince Winheart took king Kosala ill pleased with all he had;
By capturing the greedy king, he made his people glad."

"So any brother, strong in will, who to the Refuge flies,
Who cherishes all good, and goes the way Nirvana lies,
By slow degrees will bring about destruction of all ties."

[23] And so the Master, bringing his teaching to a climax in the eternal Nirvana, went on to declare the Truths, and then identified the Birth: after the Truths, this backsliding Brother was established in sainthood:--"She who now is Mahamaya was then the mother; this backslider was the Elephant who took the kingdom and handed it over to the child; Sariputta was the father Elephant, and I myself was the young Prince."

Footnotes

^13:1 No. 462.

^15:1 Compare Hesiod, Op. 753: mede pot' en proxoei potamun alade proreontun, med' epi krenaun oyrein. Hdt. i. 138 (the Persians) es potamon de oyte enoyreoysi.....

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