Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/351

Rh he blew into the cane. And the cane became hollow throughout, not a single knot being left in it. In this manner he had another, and then another, brought, and blew into it. Then the Bodisat walked round the pond, and commanded, saying, "Let all the canes growing here be perforated throughout." And thenceforward, since through the greatness of the goodness of the Bodisats their commands are fulfilled, all the canes which grew in that pond became perforated throughout.

There are four miracles in this Kalpa (the period which elapses between the commencement of the formation of the world and its final destruction) which endure throughout a Kalpa — the sign of the hare in the moon will last the whole Kalpa: the place where the fire was extinguished in the Quail-birth will not take fire again through all the Kalpa: the place where the potter lived will remain arid through all the Kalpa: the canes growing round this pond will be hollow through all the Kalpa. These four are called the Kalpa-lasting Wonders.

After giving this command, the Bodisat took a cane and seated himself. So, too, those eighty thousand monkeys took, each of them, a cane, and seated themselves round the pond. And at the same moment as he drew

1 This solemn appeal to a former good action, if it be true, is often represented as working a miracle, and is called saccakiriyā, i.e. "truth-act." Childers properly compares 2 Kings i. 10: "If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven and consumed him and his fifty." But the miracle, said in the Buddhist scriptures to follow on an appeal of this kind, is usually, as in this case, an assistance to some one in distress. On the Perfections, see above, pp. 54 to 58.

2 This seems to be a gloss, as the writer adds, "He could not have stopped at that point; so it should not thus be understood."

3 On this story, see the translator's "Buddhism," pp. 196-198.

4 On this story, see below, Jātaka No. 35.