asked his teacher's permission to leave. The master thinking himself much indebted to his pupil for his kindness to him, took him away into a forest to present him with a charm, and instructed him as follows: -"Ghatesi Ghatesi kim kārana? tava karmam aham gānāmi. Repeat this charm constantly so as never to forget it. It will always provide you with a living. Wherever you may happen to be, you have only to utter the charm."

On the young man's return to Benares, he went to live with his parents.

About this time the king of Benares, disguising himself, went out one night to discover whether the actions of his subjects were good or evil. Coming to the house of the young man who had learned the charm, he placed himself close up against the wall and began to listen. It happened that some thieves having dug a mine in the space between this house and the next, were just about to rob the house. At this moment the young man who had returned from the Takkasila country awoke and began to recite the charm, "Ghatesi Ghatesi kim kārana? tava karmam aham gānāmi." The thieves as soon as they heard the charm, said, "This young man has found us out," and ran away. The king seeing the thieves running away, and knowing that this was in consequence of their hearing the charm, carefully noted the position of the young man's house, and returned home.

When daylight came, the king called some of his people, and told them to go to such a place and find out the young man who had returned from the Takkasilā country, and bring him to him. When they had

'Why are you busy? Why are you busy? I know your design.

brought the young man before him, he said, "Young man, give me the charm you were repeating last night.”—“Take it, your Majesty," he replied, and he recited it to the king, who repeated it till he knew it. After learning it the king gave him a present worth a thousand (pieces of gold), as a teacher's fee.

At this time the prime minister, having formed the design of taking the king's life, went to his Majesty's barber and said to him, "When you shave the king's beard, take a very sharp razor and cut his throat. When I am king I will give you the post of prime minister." He made the barber a present worth a thousand [pieces of gold], and the man agreed to do it. Accordingly, after he had soaked the king's beard with perfumed water before shaving it, he took the razor and was just going to cut his throat when at that moment, the king thinking of the charm, began to recite, "Ghafesi, Ghatesi kim kārana? tava karmam aham gānāmi." The barber no sooner heard this than he said, "The king has discovered my intention;" then he dropped the razor and fell trembling at the king's feet. The king exclaimed, "Oh, you barber! do you not know I am the king?"-"Your Majesty," said the barber, "it was no plot of mine; the prime minister gave me a present worth a thousand [pieces of gold] to cut your Majesty's throat while I was shaving you; it was he who induced me to attempt it." The king said to himself, "It is owing to this young man who taught me the charm, that my life has been saved." Then he sent for the prime minister and banished him from the country, saying, "Since you have plotted against my life, you can no longer live within my territory." After this, he called

the young man who had given him the charm, and making him a very handsome present as an acknowledgment of his services, conferred on him the post of prime minister.

That young man is now Kulla-Panthaka, and the teacher Disāpamokkha is now I the Para.

When he had finished preaching the law, the whole of the assembly who listened to it were settled in the reward of Sotapatti.

END OF THE STORY OF KULLA-PANTHAKA.

CHAPTER VII.

STORY OF THE PROBATIONER TISSA.

ON another occasion Para Taken, while residing in the Getavana monastery, preached a discourse with reference to the probationer Tissa.

In the country of Ragagaha there lived a Brahmin named Mahāsena, who was a friend of the Brahmin Vanga, the father of Sariputta.

Sariputta, taking pity on the Brahmin Mahāsena, came and stood at the door of his house with the intention of assisting him. Mahasena said to himself, "Here is Sariputta, the son of my friend Vanga, who is evidently waiting to receive rice, and I have nothing of which I can make him an offering." And he went and hid himself.

Then

One day, Mahasena went to a Thuthe's house and received a cloth and a cup of cow's milk. he thought he would make an offering to Sāriputta.

1 The word rice used in the text here and elsewhere means any kind of food offered to a priest, though its literal meaning is cooked rice.

2 The printed text and manuscript vary greatly here: the former says, "after presenting grass he received a cloth," etc.; the latter says, "Going to a Thuthe's house to obtain alms of food for the day, he received," etc.

Sariputta at that very moment, rising from the performance of Samapatti, was looking to see whom he should deliver, and knowing that Mahasena, having an offering to make, wished to come to him, he went to the Brahmin's house and stood at the door. As soon as the Brahmin saw him, he invited him to come up into his house and poured into his thabet some rice cooked in milk. Sariputta, after taking half of the rice, closed his thabet. The Brahmin said, "Lord and master, save me in my life to come; give me no help in this life;" saying this, he poured the rest of the rice into the thabet. Sariputta then

ate the rice; when he had finished, Mahāsena made him an offering of a coarse cloth with this invocation, "Lord and master, the law which you know may I also know." Sariputta, after having preached the law, took his departure.

The Brahmin Mahasena dying in natural course, became an embryo in the womb of one of the congregation of Sariputta in the Savatthi country. The young girl, from the day that she became pregnant, was very desirous to supply food to Sariputta and all his priests, and to wear herself the thingan,' and to drink milk prepared as for priests, out of a golden cup. Now the girl wishing to wear the thingan from the time that she was in the family-way, was the sign that the child in her womb would become a Rahan in the church. The girl's parents, thinking that if their daughter wished to be a Rahan, it was in accordance with the sacred law, supplied Sariputta and his priests with cow's milk, and dressing the girl in a thingan, placed her after all the priests, and gave 1 Priest's garment.