"There we stood on either shore,
Each on other gazing o'er.
How we laughed and cried together!
Ah! that night we suffered sore.

"Morning came, the sun was high
And soon we saw the river dry.
Then we crossed, and close embracing
Both at once we laugh and cry.

"Seven hundred years but three
Since we were parted, I and he.
When two loving hearts are severed
Seems a whole long life to be."

"What the limit of your years?
If this by rumour old appears.
Or the teaching of the elders,
Tell it me, and have no fears."

"A thousand summers, strong and hale,
Never deadly pains assail,
Little sorrow, bliss abundant,
To the end love's joys prevail."

[442] The king thought as he listened, "These creatures, who are less than human, go weeping for seven hundred years for one night's parting: and here am I, lord of a realm of three hundred leagues, leaving all my magnificence and wandering about the forest. It is a great mistake." He returned immediately. Arrived at Benares, the courtiers asked him whether he had seen any marvellous thing in the Himalayas. [443] He told them the whole story, and thenceforward gave alms and enjoyed his wealth.

Explaining this matter, the Master repeated this stanza:

"Thus instructed by the fays
The King returned upon his ways,
Ceased to hunt, and fed the needy,
And enjoyed the fleeting days."

Two more stanzas he added:

"Take a lesson from the fays:
And quarrel not, but mend your ways.
Lest you suffer, like the fairy,
Your own error all your days.

"Take a lesson from the fays:
And bicker not, but mend your ways.
Lest you suffer, like the fairy,
Your own error all your days."

Now rose the Lady Mallika from her couch, when she heard the Tathagata's admonition, and joining hands she made reverent obeisance, while she repeated the last stanza:

"Holy man, with willing mind
I hear thy words so good and kind.
Blessings on thee! thou hast spoken,
All my sorrow's left behind."

[444] Ever afterwards the King of Kosala lived with her in harmony.

This discourse ended, the Master identified the Birth: "At that time the King of Kosala was the fairy, Lady Mallika was his mate, and I myself was King Bhallatiya."

Footnotes

^271:1 The pretty story of King Pasenadi and this "beggar-maid" is told in Hardy's Manual, p. 285. For this introduction cf. no. 306 in vol. iii.

^273:1 The names given are Mallamgiri, Tikuta, Pandaraka.

^273:2 Reading ti for va with one MS.