Page:Sacred Books of the Buddhists Vol 1.djvu/111

 and the chiefs of the townsmen, making hubbub went into the presence of king Samgaya. Owing to their agitation, resentment, and anger, they neglected the restraint imposed on them by the respect due to their monarch, and spoke: 'Why do you overlook in this manner, Your Majesty, the fortune of your kingdom being carried off? Your Majesty ought not to overlook that in this way you are fostering the misfortune of your realm.' When the king, alarmed, asked them what they meant by this, they replied: 'Why, are you not aware of what has happened, Your Majesty?

12, 13. 'That splendid animal, whose face, being fragrant with the scent of the flowing juice, intoxicates crowds of humming bees hovering about, and likewise impregnates the cherishing wind with its perfume, so as to induce him to wipe off gladly and easily the smell caught from the fluid of other haughty elephants; that war-elephant, whose brilliant vigour subdued the strength and the power of your enemies, and abated their pride even unto the motionlessness of sleep—see, that embodied victory has been given away by Visvantara and is now being carried off abroad.

14. 'Kine, gold, clothes, eatables, such are the goods fit to give to Brâhmans, but parting with our foremost elephant, the pledge of glorious victory, is an excess of charity, and goes too far.

15. 'How should success and might ever join this prince who acts up to this point contrary to the maxims of policy? In this matter forbearance from your side is out of place, Your Majesty, lest he should before long afford matter of rejoicing to your enemies.'

On hearing this, the king, who loved his son, was not very kindly disposed towards them; but submitting to necessity, he told them hastily, they were right; after which he tried to appease the Sibis. 'I know,' he said, 'that Visvantara indulges in his disproportionate passion for charity so as to neglect for it the rules of political wisdom, which behaviour is not suitable for a person appointed to the royal charge. But as he has resigned his own elephant, as if it were