After the lesson, the Master said, "So wise omen of old gave gifts with discrimination," and identified the Birth: "At that time the paccekabuddha reached nirvana, Samuddavijaya was the mother of Rahula, and the king Bharata was myself."

Footnotes

^281:1 The higher heavens in the Buddhist Cosmogony.

No. 425.

ATTHANA-JATAKA.

"Make Ganges calm," etc.--The Master told this tale while dwelling in Jetavana, concerning a backsliding Brother. The Master asked him, "Is the story true, Brother, that you are backsliding?" "Yes, lord." "What is the cause?" "The power of desire." "Brother, womankind are ungrateful, treacherous, untrustworthy: of old wise men could not satisfy a woman, even by giving her a thousand pieces a day: and one day when she did not get the thousand pieces she had them taken by the neck and cast out: [475] so ungrateful are womankind: do not fall into the power of desire for such a cause," and so he told an old tale.

Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, his son, young Brahmadatta, and young Mahadhana, son of a rich merchant of Benares, were comrades and playfellows, and were educated in the same teacher's house. The prince became king at his father's death: and the merchant's son abode near him. There was in Benares a certain courtesan, beautiful and prosperous. The merchant's son gave her a