Page:Sagas from the Far East; or, Kalmouk and Mongolian traditionary tales.djvu/280

256 made up their minds to deceive the King by false testimony. Such conduct is most unworthy of all in great men of the King's court."

Then he ordered the two false witnesses and the man named Dsük to be secured and taken to the King, all three confessing their crime; and he sent with them this declaration, written in due form of law:—

"According to the principles of earthly might and the sacred maxims of religion hast thou not decided. Ardschi-Bordschi! thus should not an upright and noble ruler deal. Unless it is given thee to discern good from evil, truth from falsehood, it were better thou shouldst lay aside thy kingly dignity. But if thou desirest to remain king, then judge nothing without duly investigating the matter, even as I."

With such a letter the Boy-king sent the prisoners to Ardschi-Bordschi.

When the King read the letter, he exclaimed, "What manner of boy is this who writes thus to the King? He must be a being highly endowed with wisdom. If it was the same boy who appeared every day so gifted, I should hold him to be a Bodhisattva, or indeed a very Buddha; but as on different days different boys attain to the same sagacity, the source must remain one and the same for all. Shall it not be that in the foundations of their hill or mound is some stupa, where Buddhas or Bodhisattvas have propounded sacred teaching to men? Or shall it be that there lies hidden