"By Indra's gift a village may he hold,
Rich, choice, possest of all the goods fourfold ,
And may he die with passions uncontrolled,
Brahmin, who stole thy share of food away."

[310] "A village chief, his comrades all around,
His joy in dances and sweet music's sound;
May the king's favour unto him abound:
Brahmin, who stole thy share of food away ."

"May she be fairest of all womankind,
May the high monarch of the whole world find
Her chief among ten thousand to his mind,
Brahmin, who stole thy share of food away ."

"When all the serving handmaidens do meet,
May she all unabashed sit in her seat,
Proud of her gains, and may her food be sweet.
Brahmin, who stole thy share of food away ."

"The great Kajangal cloister be his care,
And may he set the ruins in repair,
And every day make a new window there,
Brahmin, who stole thy share of food away ."

"Fast in six hundred bonds may he be caught,
From the dear forest to a city brought,
Smitten with goads and guiding-pikes, distraught,
Brahmin, who stole thy share of food away ."

"Garland on neck, tin earring in each ear,
Bound, let him walk the highway, much in fear,
And schooled with sticks to serpent kind draw near,
Brahmin, who stole thy share of food away."

[312] When oath had been taken in these thirteen stanzas, the Great Being thought, "Perhaps they imagine I am lying myself, and saying that the food was not there when it was." So he made oath on his part in the fourteenth stanza:

"Who swears the food was gone, if it was not,
Let him enjoy desire and its effect,
May worldly death be at the last his lot.
The same for you, sirs, if you now suspect."

When the sages had made their oath thus, Sakka thought to himself, "Fear nothing; I made these lotus fibres disappear in order to test these men, and they all make oath, loathing the deed as if it were a snot of spittle. Now I will ask them why they loathe lust and desire." This question he put by questioning the Bodhisatta in the next stanza, after having assumed a visible form:

"What in the world men go a-seeking here
That thing to many lovely is and dear,
Longed-for, delightful in this life: why, then,
Have saints no praise for things desired of men?"

By way of answer to this question, the Great Being recited two stanzas:

"Desires are deadly blows and chains to bind,
In these both misery and fear we find:
When tempted by desires imperial kings
Infatuate do vile and sinful things.