Page:Sagas from the Far East; or, Kalmouk and Mongolian traditionary tales.djvu/295

Rh called king of the four parts of the universe, it will behove him to call together all kings and devas and princes of the earth, with all the countless Bodhisattvas, and all the priests of religion, and prepare for them a great religious banquet. At such a banquet it is well if fifteen thousand waggon-loads of salt suffice for the seasoning. This for your King."

The minister took the message of the child word for word to the Gandharva, who when he heard it clasped his hands in agony and rose up, saying,—

"What is this that I have done! Of a certainty the child was a Bodhisattva. But it is the truth that what I did to him I did in ignorance. Run now swiftly and fetch me back my son." The minister therefore set out on his way without stopping to take breath; but what haste soever he made the King's eagerness was greater, and at the head of a great body of the people Gandarva [sic] himself took his way in all speed to the place in the thick grove where they had laid the child. And since he did not find him at the first, he broke out into loud lamentations, saying,—

"O thou, mine own Bodhisattva! who so young yet speakest words of wisdom, even young as thou art exercise also mercy and forgiveness. O how was I mistaken in thee! Set it not down to me that I knew thee not!"

While he wandered about searching and thus lamenting, the cry of a child made itself heard from the depths