Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/332

216 arrived on his rounds at the door of the house. An attendant took his bowl, and made him sit down in the house. No sooner had he done so, than he asked, "How is the lady devotee?"

"She is sick, reverend Sir, and wishes to see you," was the reply. And he, bound by the lust of taste, broke his observance and his vow, and went to the place where she was lying. Then she told him why she had come, and alluring him, so bound him by the lust of taste, that she persuaded him to leave the Order. And having brought him into her power, she seated him in her palankeen, and returned to Rājagaha with all her retinue.

And this news became the common talk. And the monks, assembled in the hall of instruction, began to say one to another, "A slave-girl has brought back Young Tissa, the keeper of the law concerning food, having bound him with the lust of taste."

Then the Master, entering the chapel, sat down on his throne, and said, "On what subject are you seated here talking?"

And they told him the news.

"Not now only, O mendicants!" said he, "has this monk, caught by the lust of taste, fallen into her power; formerly also he did the same." And he told a story.

Once upon a time, the king of Benares, had a gardener named. Now a swift antelope who had come to the garden took to flight as soon as it saw Sanjaya. But Sanjaya did not frighten it away; and when it had come again and again it began to walk about in the garden. And day by day the gardener used to pluck the various fruits and flowers in the garden, and take them away to the king.