fell out betwixt the king and the stag became clear as a face reflected in a well-polished mirror. He knocked at the door with his finger-tips. "Who is there?" the king asked. "It is I, my lord, your chaplain." "Come in, teacher," quoth the king, and opened the door. He entered, and prayed victory for the king, and stood on one side. Then he said, "O great king! I know what happened to you in the forest. As you chased a stag you fell into a pit, and the stag resting upon the stone sides of the pit , [271]. drew you out of it. So you remembering his magnanimity chanted a hymn." Then he recited two stanzas:

"The stag that on a mountain steep thy quarry was of late,
He bravely gave thee life, for he was free from greed and hate.

"Out of the horrid pit, out of death's jaws,
Leaning upon a rock (a friend-at need)
The great stag saved thee: so thou saidst with cause,
His mind is far aloof from hate or greed."

"What!"thought the king, on hearing this--"the man did not go a-hunting with me, yet he knows the whole matter! How can he know it? I will ask him"; and he repeated the ninth stanza:

"O brahmin! wast thou there upon that day?
Or from some other witness didst thou hear?
The veil of passion thou hast rolled away:
Thou seest all: thy wisdom makes me fear."

But the brahmin said, "I am no Buddha all-knowing; only I overheard the hymn that you sang, without missing the meaning, and so the fact became clear before me." To explain which he repeated the tenth stanza:

"O lord of men! I neither heard that thing,
Nor was I there to see that day:
[272] But from the verses thou didst sweetly sing
Wise men can gather how the matter lay."

The king was delighted, and gave him a rich present.

From thenceforward the king was devoted to almsgiving and good deeds, and his people being also devoted to good deeds as they died went to swell the hosts of heaven.

Now one day it happened that the king went into his park with the chaplain to shoot at a mark. At that period Sakka had been pondering whence came all the new sons and daughters of the gods, whom he beheld so numerous about him. Pondering, he perceived the whole story: how the king had been rescued from the pit by that stag, and how he had become stablished in virtue, and how by the power of this king, multitudes did good deeds and heaven was being filled; and now the king had gone into his park to shoot at a mark. Then he also went thither, that with the