Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/510

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. iv. DEC. 23, 1911.

For my part, recently making a general rummage among the several Chinese trans- lations of the Buddhist Canon, I have come across an Indian story which was evi- dently contemporary with the Buddha, and was recorded, at the latest, within a few cen- turies of his death, and bears a striking appearance of having been the main source which gave rise to all the versions that exist in Europe and Persia. As the narration is too lengthy for insertion, I translate it, with some omissions, as follows :

" In times of yore there dwelt an opulent man in a village. Not very long after marriage his wife bore him a son, when he resolved to make a voyage for acquiring immense riches. Fearing that to leave her with abundance might cause her ruin by a luxurious life, he gave his wife & very limited sum, secretly entrusting most of his money to a fellow-trader on condition that he should relieve her in all emergencies. Thus he went on the ocean, was shipwrecked, and was heard of no more. Thenceforth his trustee became absolutely heedless of the contract ; his wife and son lived in poverty, succoured now and again by her relatives. When the son had grown up, he inquired of his mother what had been his forefathers' business. ' Trade,' she replied. He asked her to get funds sufficient for him to start in trade. The mother answered, ' I have now nothing left, after having so hardly reared you up with the frequent help of our relatives. But,' continued she, ' So-and-so, a trader in this village, was formerly a bosom friend of your father ; so you may obtain certain aid if you only call upon him for it.' The son followed the advice and went to see him.

"When the lad came close to the trader's dwelling, it happened that the master was violently rebuking a numskull who had three times lost the money which the former had lent him. Now out of the house there came a maidservant carrying sweepings with a dead rat in them. Glancing his eye thereon, the master asked the much-confounded debtor this offhand question : ' Know you not that a clever fellow could make himself rich even with this dead rat as the only means to set himself up ? ' Overhearing this, the lad thought it contained a great truth. He followed the maidservant to a distance, saw her throw the rat in a pit, picked it up, and kept it by him. Thence he went to a city, where he found a cat chained by the neck to a pillar, and apparently very hungry. He showed the rat to the cat which began to spring towards it. Now the keeper of the cat appeared, and after a brief bargaining with the lad bartered two handfuls of pease for the dead rat, with which to feed his pet animal. The lad baked the pease upon a heated tile. After eating but a small portion, he put the remnants in his sleeves, and carried them with a potful of cool water into an outlying part of the city where woodcutters used to halt on their way home. After waiting there till the evening, he saw them return from their work, and accosted them, saying, ' Brothers it was very hot to-day ; rest yourselves here for a while.' He entertained them with his pease and cool water, and was

given by everyone of them a faggot with thanks. He made them into a bundle, took them into the market, and sold them for cowries. With all the money-shells he thus earned he bought a quantity of pease, baked them, and took them with water as before to the woodcutters' halting -place. By daily pursuing the same course he became at length possessed of a not inconsiderable fortune. One day he told them, ' Do not weary yourselves any more by going each of you to the market for vending firewood : it Will be far better for you to put up all your Wood in my hut and let me transact the sales for you all.' Their consent was unanimous ; ever after they used every day to bring in firewood and receive the price from him. Another time, it incessantly rained for a whole week, which immensely raised the value of fuel, so that his gain was very extraordinary.

"Now the lad considered it unwise to remain in such a paltry occupation as that of a fuel-seller, so he turned himself into a dealer in miscellaneous Wares, then into a perfumer, then into a money- broker, every change of his business being imme- diately attended with rapid multiplication of his fortune. As the last-named business of his prospered so greatly as to overshadow the fame of all other money-brokers, the latter used to give vent to their anger by calling him the Bat- Money-Broker, holding in derision his riches, which had risen from a single rat's carcass. Further, full of raging envy, they met together and deliberated upon how to overturn the estab- lishment of this marvellous parvenu. The deci- sion they came to was that they should somehow urge the lad to go for great profits on the ocean, where he might meet an untimely death, as was the fate of his father. So they assembled within earshot of his office, when one of them broke forth loudly into this speech : ' Know you not this worldwide principle, The more the generation proceeds, the more degradation obtains ? Thus, even in a single man's life, the gradual abasement of his status compels him to alter his means of travelling, from elephant to horse, from horse to sedan, from sedan to shanks's mare. And it is a good example you are now witnessing in this Bat-Money-Broker, who is ever toiling in such a trivial vocation as the exchange of coins and cowries, whereas all his fathers were renowned for their success in oceanic trade.' The Bat-Money- Broker, after hearkening to this speech, went home and questioned his mother : ' Is it true that my ancestors were very rich because of bringing home a great many rarities from the ocean ? She replied, ' Yes, it is true,' for she rightly suspected from his words that somebody had already disclosed it to her son.

"The mother's answering in this way in- stantly stirred up in his mind such a fervent desire to seek for treasures over the ocean that he would thenceforward never desist from entreat- ing her permission to do so. Finally, her assent was given, though very reluctantly. He prepared a large vessel, gathered skilful sailors and well- natured companions, and departed from the harbour under propitious gales, which, after a comparatively short time, made the vessel reach the Jewellery Land (Batnadvlpa). Then he formed a vast collection of valuables and returned home with it. Such successful voyages in safety he made seven times altogether, whereby he became peerlessly rich. Then his mother advised him to get married, but he answered, * Well, I \vill