Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/241

Rh considered, "How then did the former Buddhas go on their begging rounds in their native town? Did they go direct to the houses of the kings, or did they beg straight on from house to house?" Then, not finding that any of the Buddhas had gone direct, he thought, "I, too, must accept this descent and tradition as my own; so shall my disciples in future, learning of me, fulfil the duty of begging for their daily food." And beginning at the first house, he begged straight on.

At the rumour that the young chief Siddhattha was begging from door to door, the windows in the two-storied and three-storied houses were thrown open, and the multitude was transfixed at the sight. And the lady, the mother of Rāhula, thought, "My lord, who used to go to and fro in this very town with gilded palanquin and every sign of royal pomp, now with a potsherd in his hand begs his food from door to door, with shaven hair and beard, and clad in yellow robes. Is this becoming?" And she opened the window, and looked at the Blessed One; and she beheld him glorious with the unequalled majesty of a Buddha, distinguished with the Thirty-two characteristic signs and the eighty lesser marks of a Great Being, and lighting up the street of the city with a halo resplendent with many colours, proceeding to a fathom's length all round his person.

And she announced it to the king, saying, "Your son is begging his bread from door to door;" and she magnified him with the eight stanzas on "The Lion among Men," beginning —

291. Glossy and dark and soft and curly is his hair; Spotless and fair as the sun is his forehead; Well-proportioned and prominent and delicate is his nose; Around him is diffused a network of rays;— The Lion among Men!