Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 1.djvu/170

56 people, and always keeping open house. He built places of refuge everywhere, wishing that people should everywhere eat of his food.

2. Once in the night some Hamsas (flamingoes) flew over his house, and one flamingo said to another: 'Hey, Bhallâksha, Bhallâksha (short-sighted friend). The light (glory) of Gânasruti Pautrâyana has spread like the sky. Do not go near, that it may not burn thee.'

3. The other answered him: 'How can you speak of him, being what he is (a râganya, noble), as if he were like Raikva with the car ?'

4. The first replied: 'How is it with this Raikva with the car of whom thou speakest?'

The other answered: 'As (in a game of dice) all the lower casts belong to him who has conquered with the Krita cast, so whatever good deeds other people perform, belong to that Raikva. He who knows what he knows, he is thus spoken of by me.

5. Gânasruti Pautrâyana overheard this conversation, and as soon as he had risen in the morning, he said to his door keeper (kshattri): 'Friend, dost thou speak of (me, as if I were) Raikva with the car?'

He replied: 'How is it with this Raikva with the car?'

6. The king said: 'As (in a game of dice), all the lower casts belong to him who has conquered with the Krita cast, so whatever good deeds other people perform, belong to that Raikva. He who knows what he knows, he is thus spoken of by me.'