Then the ascetic, not seeing his beautiful Serpent-King again, became thinner and thinner still; he grew more squalid, lost his colour worse than before, and grew more yellow, and the veins rose thicker on his skin!

The elder brother thought he would go and see how his brother was getting on. He paid him a visit, and found him yellower than he had been before.

"Why, how is this? worse than ever!" said he.

His brother replied, "It is because I never see the lovely King of Serpents!"

"This hermit," said the elder, on hearing his answer, "cannot live without his Serpent-King; "and he repeated the third verse:--

"Importune not a man whose love you prize,
For begging makes you hateful in his eyes.
The brahmin begged the Serpent's gem so sore
He disappeared and never cane back more."

Then he counselled his brother not to grieve, and with this consolation, left him and returned to his own hermitage. And after that [286] the two brothers cultivated the Faculties and the Attainments, and became destined for the heaven of Brahma.

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The Master added, "Thus, Brethren, even in the world of serpents, where are the seven precious stones in plenty, begging is disliked by the serpents: how much more by men!" And, after teaching them this lesson, he identified the Birth:--"At that time, Ananda was the younger brother, but the elder was I myself."

Footnotes

^197:1 I think this Jataka is represented on the Stupa of Bharhut. In pl. XLII. 1 we see a man sitting before a hut, apparently conversing with a great five-headed cobra. The story is also told in the Vinaya Pitaka, Suttavibhanga, VI. 1. 3.

^197:2 The introductory story occurs in the Vinaya, Suttavibhanga, Samghudisesa, vi. 1. The sin was importunity.

^197:3 Reading samyacikaya (as in Suttavibhanga).

^197:4 Reading patipajjisu.

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