Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/447

Rh persuade him to forgive me, and give me back my dwelling-place."

"What is it you said to him?"

"'Henceforth give no support to the Buddha, or to the Order of Mendicants, and forbid the mendicant Gotama the entry into your house.' This, Sir, is what I said."

"You said wrong. It was a blow aimed at religion. I can't undertake to go with you to the Merchant!"

Getting no help from him, she went to the four Archangels, the guardians of the world. And when she was refused by them in the same manner, she went to Sakka, the King of the Gods, and telling him the whole matter, besought him urgently, saying, "O God! deprived of my dwelling-place, I wander about without a shelter, leading my children by the hand. Let me in your graciousness be given some place where I may dwell!"

And he, too, said to her, "You have done wrong! You have aimed a blow at the religion of the Conqueror. It is impossible for me to speak on your behalf to the Merchant. But I can tell you one means by which the Merchant may pardon you."

"It is well, O God. Tell me what that may be!"

"People have had eighteen thousands of thousands of money from the Merchant on giving him writings. Now take the form of his manager, and without telling anybody, take those writings, surround yourself with so many young ogres, go to their houses with the writings in one hand, and a receipt in the other, and stand in the centre of the house and frighten them with your demon power, and say, 'This is the record of your debt. Our Merchant said nothing to you in byegone days; but now he is fallen into poverty. Pay back the moneys which you had from him.' Thus, by displaying your demon power, recover all those thousands of gold, and pour them into the Merchant's empty treasury. There was other wealth of his buried in the bank of the river Aciravatī,