When the teacher had eaten food, and they sat down for a kindly talk together, said he, "Brahmin, your son young Dhammapala, when full of wisdom, and a perfect master of the Three Vedas and the Eighteen Accomplishments, by an unhappy chance has lost his life. All component things are transitory; grieve not for him!" The brahmin clapt his hands, and laughed loudly. "Why do you laugh, brahmin?" asked the other. "Because," said he, "it is not my son who is dead; it must be some other." "No, brahmin," was the answer, "your son is dead, and no other. Look on his bones, and believe." So saying, he unwrapt the bones. "These are your son's bones," said he."A wild goat's bones, perhaps," quoth

the other, "or a dog's; but my son is not dead. In our family for seven generations no such thing has been, as a death in tender years; and you are speaking falsehood." Then they all clapt their hands, and laughed aloud.

The teacher, when he beheld this wonderful thing, was much pleased, and said, "Brahmin, this custom in your family line cannot be without cause, that the young do not die. Why is it then that you do not die young?" And he asked his question by repeating the first stanza:

"What custom is it, or what holy way,
Of what good deed is this the fruit, I pray?
Tell me, O Brahmin, what the reason is,
Why in your line the young die never--say!"

[53] Then the brahmin, to explain what virtues had the result that in his family no one died young, repeated the following stanzas:

"We walk in uprightness, we speak no lies,
All foul and wicked sins we keep afar,
We do eschew all things that evil are,
Therefore in youth not one among us dies.

"We hear the deeds of foolish and of wise;
Of what the foolish do no heed we take,
The wise we follow, and the fools forsake;
Therefore in youth not one among us dies.

"In gifts beforehand our contentment lies;
Even while giving we are well content;
Nor having given, do we then repent:
Therefore in youth not one among us dies.

"Priests, brahmins, wayfarers we satisfy,
Beggars, and mendicants, and all who need,
We give them drink, and hungry folk we feed:
Therefore the young among us do not die.

"Wedded, for others' wives we do not sigh,
But we are faithful to the marriage vow;
And faithful are our wives to us, I trow:
Therefore the young among us do not die.

"The children that from these true wives are sprung
Are wise abundantly, to learning bred,
Versed in the Vedas, and all perfected;
Therefore none dies of us while he is young.