[157] The king, hearing this, was much pleased:"'Tis a worthy god this," thought he, "he does not wish that his kinsfolk should lose their dwelling-place because he loses his; he acts for his kinsfolk's good." And he repeated the remaining stanza:

"O Lucky Tree! O woodland king! thy thoughts must noble be:
Thou wouldst befriend thy kindred, so from fear I set thee free."

The king of the gods, having discoursed to this king, then departed. And the king being established according to his admonition, gave gifts and did other good deeds, till he went to fill the hosts of heaven.

The Master having ended this discourse said: "Thus it is, Brethren, that the Tathagata acts so as to do good to his kith and kin;" and then he identified the Birth: "At that time Ananda was the king, the followers of the Buddha were the deities which were embodied in the young saplings of the sal tree, and I was myself Lucky Tree, the king of the gods."

Footnotes

^91:1 No. 536.

^91:2 For the Introductory story see Dhammapada (commentary), pp. 216 ff.

^91:3 A famous female disciple, for whose history see Hardy, Manual, 220 ff.

^92:1 Headquarters of the Sakya clan, and Buddha's birthplace.

^92:2 A Sakya prince: see Hardy, Manual, 227.

^92:3 Khattiya.

^92:4 Vallabha.

^93:1 No. 7.

^94:1 Called Maha-licchavi in Dhammapada (p. 219).

^94:2 This is a variation of a well-known incident. A headsman slices off a man's head so skilfully, that the victim does not know it is done. The victim then takes a pinch of snuff, sneezes, and his head falls off. Another form is: Two men dispute, and one swings his sword round. They go on talking, and by and bye the other gets up to depart, and falls in two parts.

^95:1 Sutta-Nipata 574: "Unseen, unknown, is the life of men here below:" and so forth, for twenty stanzas. This is the Sallasutta.

^95:2 See above, p. 80 note.

^96:1 The quotation should begin at bhagineyyam, since the king was alone.

^97:1 See note in vol. ii. p. 72.