Now Brahmadatta followed the sprite, but saw not by what way she went; and baulked of his desire he set his face again for the hut. Asitabhu saw him coming, and rose up in the air; and poised upon a plane in the air of the colour of a precious stone, she said to him--"My young lord! 'tis through you that I have attained this ecstatic bliss!" and she uttered the first stanza:--

"Now desire has gone,
Thanks to you, and found its ending:
Like a tusk, once sawn,
None can make it one by mending."

So saying, as he looked, she rose up and departed to another place. And when she had gone, he uttered the second stanza, lamenting:--[231]

"Greed that knows no stay,
Lust, the senses all confusing,
Steals our good away,
Even as now my wife I'm losing."

And having made his moan in this stanza, he dwelt alone in the forest, and at his father's death he received the sovereignty.

_____________________________

After this discourse was ended, the Master identified the Birth:--"These two people were then the prince and princess, and I was the hermit."

[j235]