Thus did he address the Great Being, saying, "You are, as it were, a deadly poison, methinks; who will eat you?" and being anxious to hear those verses he besought him to tell him them, and when in order to produce a due reverence for holy things his prayer was rejected by the Great Being, on the ground that he was no proper recipient of verse of such unexceptionable morality, he said, "In all India there is no sage like this, for when he was released from my hand he went and heard these verses, and after paying due honour to the preacher of the Law he came back again with death written on his forehead. These verses must be of transcendent excellence," and being still more filled with a reverent desire to hear them, he besought the Great Being and repeated this stanza:

Hearing the Truth men soon discern betwixt the good and ill;
Perchance if heard these strains my heart with joy in Truth may fill.

Then the Great Being thought, "The man-eater is now eager to hear: I will reveal them to him," and he said, "Well then, my friend, listen carefully," and having gained his attention he sang the praises of these verses exactly as he was taught them by the brahmin Nanda, while the gods in the six worlds of sense all broke into one loud cry [494], and the angels in heaven shouted applause, and the Great Being thus proclaimed the Truth to the man-eater:

In union with the saints just once, O Sutasoma, be .

Owing to these verses being so well delivered by the Great Being and to the fact that he himself was wise, the man-eater thought, "These stanzas are, as it were, the words of an Omniscient Buddha," and his whole body thrilled with the five kinds of joy, and he felt a tender pity for the Bodhisatta and regarded him in the light of a father that was ready to confer on him the white umbrella of royalty. And he thought, "I see no offerings of yellow gold to give to Sutasoma, but for each stanza I will grant him a boon," and he spoke this verse:

Pregnant with meaning and in accents clear
Thy goodly words, O prince, fall on mine ear,
So glad am I at heart, that I rejoice
Four boons, good friend, to offer thee for choice.

Then the Great Being upbraided him and said, "What boon, forsooth, will you offer me?" and he repeated this stanza:

[495] One his own mortal state that fails to learn,
Or good from evil, heaven from hell discern,
The slave of carnal appetite, how can
A wretch like thee know any boon for man?

Suppose I say "Grant me this boon" and then
Thou shouldst thy promised word take back again,
Who that is wise would knowingly incur
So clear a risk of quarrelling, good sir?

Then the man-eater said, "He does not believe me; I will make him believe," and he repeated this stanza: