The Sea-spirit stood on board, crying--"Any passengers for India?" The lay brother said, "Yes, that's where we are bound for." "In with you then--on board with you! "He went aboard, and wanted to call his friend the barber. "You may come," says the helmsman, "but not he." "Why not?" "He is not a man of holy life, that's why," said the other; "I brought this ship for you, not for him." "Very well:--the gifts I have given, the virtues I have practised, the powers I have developed--I give him the fruit of all of them!" "I thank you, master!" said the barber. "Now," said the Sea-spirit, "I can take you aboard." So he conveyed them both oversea, and sailed upstream to Benares. There, by his power, he created a store of wealth for both of them, and bespoke them thus.

"Keep company with the wise and good. If this barber had not been in company with this pious layman, he would have perished in the midst of the deep." Then he uttered these verses in praise of good company:

"Behold the fruit of sacrifice, virtue, and piety:
A serpent in ship-shape conveys the good man o'er the sea.

"Make friendship only with the good, and keep good company;
Friends with the good, this Barber could his home in safety see."

[113] Thus did the Spirit of the Sea hold forth, poised in mid-air. Finally he went to his own abode, taking the Serpent-king along with him.

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The Master, after finishing this discourse, declared the Truths and identified the Birth:--at the conclusion of the Truths the pious layman entered on the Fruit of the Second Path:--"On that occasion the converted lay brother attained Nirvana; Sariputta was the Serpent-king, and the Sea-spirit was I myself."

Footnotes

^77:1 The resemblance to St Peter on the Sea of Galilee is striking.

^78:1 The Three Jewels are Buddha, the Law, the Order. For the seven precious things (or jewels), see Childers, p. 402 b.

^78:2 lakaro or lankuro. I do not know what the word means. Prof. Cowell suggests "anchor," the Mod. Persian for which is langar.

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