own eyes?" asked the king. "Yes, my lord." The king with a great host went thither, and on the outskirts of the forest he pitched his camp; then with his courtiers around him, went to salute the Great Being, who sat at the door of his hut of leaves, in all the glory of his golden form, and sat on one side; the courtiers also greeted him, and spoke pleasantly to him, and sat on one side. The Bodhisatta on his part invited the king to share his wild fruits, and talked pleasantly with him. Then said the king, "My son, [195] by me you were cast down a deep precipice, and how is it you are yet alive?" Asking which, he repeated the ninth stanza:

"As into hell-mouth, you were cast over a beetling hill,
No succour--many palm-trees deep: how are you living still?"

These are the remaining stanzas, and of the five, taken alternately, three were spoken by the Bodhisatta, and two by the king.

"A Serpent mighty, full of force, born on that mountain land,
Caught me within his coils; and so here safe from death I stand."

"Lo! I will take you back, O prince, to my own home again:
And there--what is the wood to you?--with blessing you shall reign."

"As who a hook has swallowed, and draws it forth all blood,
Drawn forth, is happy: so I see in me this bliss and good."

"Why speak you thus about a hook, why speak you thus of gore,
Why speak about the drawing out? come tell me, I implore."

"Lust is the hook: fine elephants and horse by blood I show;
These by renouncing I have drawn; this, chieftain, you must know."

[196] "Thus, O great king, to be king is nothing to me; but do you see to it, that you break not the Ten Royal Virtues, but forsake evildoing, and rule in righteousness." In those words the Great Being admonished the king. He with weeping and wailing departed, and on the way to his city he asked his courtiers: "On whose account was it that I made a breach with a son so virtuous?" they replied, "The queen's." Her the king caused to be seized, and cast headlong over the thieves' cliff, and entering his city ruled in righteousness.

When the Master had ended this discourse, he said, "Thus, Brethren, this woman maligned me in days of yore, and came to dire destruction;" and then identified the Birth by repeating the last stanza:

"Lady Cinca was my mother,
Devadatta was my father,
I was then the Prince their son:
Sariputta was the spirit,
And the good snake, I declare it,
Was Ananda. I have done."

Footnotes

^116:1 The introductory story, with a brief abstract of the other, is given in Dhammapada, p. 238 ff.

^116:2 Who falsely accused the Buddha of incontinence: Hardy, Manual, p. 275.