Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 4 1886.djvu/183

 FOLK-TALES OF INDIA. 175

placed upon your head because you are virtuously disposed, but in order to fill your belly." Then he spake the following gdthd : —

" For virtue's sake thy skill thou usest not. To eat and fill thy paunch thou dost us count ; No tails thou'lt leave I fear, O holy sage. So get thee hence, methinks thou'st had enough."

The Sattubhasta Jataka.* TJie old Brahman and his Wife.

In olden times, when Janaka reigned at Benares, the Bodhisat was re-born in a brtihman family, and received the name of Senaka Kumara.

On reaching years of discretion, he studied all sciences at Takkasila, and on his return to Benares he met with the king, who made him one of his ministers. He instructed the king in temporal and spiritual matters. Being a preacher of pleasant speech he established the king in the five moral practices, in almsgiving, observance of the fast-days, and the ten modes of virtuous action. Throughout the realm it seemed as if the Buddhas had made their appearance at this particular time.

Once a fortnight the king, his viceroys and others, used to assemble together, and adorn the service-hall. The Bodhisat in the decorated hall used to preach the law with all the grace of a Buddha, and his discourse was like that of the Buddhas.

At that time a certain old brahman going on his rounds for alms obtained a thousand kahapanas^ and when he had deposited them (for safety) with a certain brahman-friend of his family, he departed for the purpose of again seeking alms. But after he had gone the un- faithful brahman appropriated and spent the kahdpanas (entrusted to his care), and was unable to produce them on the return of the old brahman, so he gave him (as compensation) his daughter to wife. He received her, and took up his abode in a brahman village not far from Benares. It came to pass that his wife, being young and lasci-


 * Jataka Booh, vol. iii. No. 402, p. 34L