They did not know how to manage it; so they determined to ask the hermit how they might sully the crystal. To him therefore they came, and after respectful greeting, they sat down beside him, and gave utterance to these two verses:

"Seven summers we have been
Thirty in a crystal grot.
Now we are keen to dull the sheen--
But dull it we can not.

"Though we try with all our might
To obscure its brilliancy,
Still more bright shines forth the light,
What can the reason be?"

The Bodhisatta listened. Then he repeated the third stanza:

"'Tis precious crystal, spotless, bright, and pure;
No glass--its brilliancy for ever sure.
Nothing on earth its brightness can impair.
Boars, you had best betake yourselves elsewhere."

And so they did, on hearing this answer. The Bodhisatta lost himself in rapturous ecstasy, and became destined to Brahma's world.

_____________________________

After this discourse was ended, the Master identified the Birth: "At that time, I was the hermit."

Footnotes

^283:1 Cf. Morris, Folk-lore Journal, iv. 58.

^283:2 This story is given in Udanam, iv. 8 (p. 43). Khandhakam seems to mean the Vinaya (Childers s. v., J. P. T. S. 1888 s. v.), but I cannot find the story there.

^284:1 Dhammapada, v. 306; Sutta Nipata, v. 661.

[j286]