Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/331

Rh law concerning food," he became as distinguished and famous in Buddhadom as the moon in the vault of heaven.

At that time they were holding festival in Rājagaha, and the parents of the monk put away all the jewelry which had belonged to him in the days of his laymanship into a silver casket; and took the matter to heart, weeping, and saying, "At other festivals our boy used to keep the feast wearing this ornament or this. And now Gotama the Mendicant has taken him, him our only son, away to Sāvatthi! And we know not what fate is falling to him there."

Now a slave-girl coming to the house, and seeing the wife of the lord weeping, asked her, "Why, Lady! do you weep?" And she told her what had happened.

"Well, Lady, what dish was your son most fond of?" said she.

"Such and such a one," was the reply.

"If you grant me full authority in this house, I will bring your son back!" said she.

The Lady agreed, gave her wherewith to pay all her expenses, and sent her forth with a great retinue, saying, "Go now, and by your power bring back my son."

So the girl then went to Sāvatthi in a palankeen, and took up her abode in the street in which the monk was wont to beg. And without letting him see the people who had come from the lord's house, but surrounding herself with servants of her own, she from the very first provided the Elder when he came there with food and drink. Having thus bound him with the lust of taste, she in due course got him to sit down in her house; and when she saw that by giving him to eat she had brought him into her power, she shammed sickness, and lay down in her inner chamber.

Then the monk, when his begging time had come,