"For the next three months you must beg your food at our house, and when, after the solemnity of inviting criticism, you wish to depart, come and take leave of us.' The other assented by his silence.

Then the layman went home, and said to his wife, "A certain reverend stranger is in the dwelling I put up, and we must wait on him attentively."

"Very well," said the lay woman in assent, and prepared excellent food, both hard and soft.

At breakfast-time the lad came to the house of his mother and father, but no one recognized him. And he remained three months, and always ate his alms at their house. And when residence was over, he announced to them that he was about to depart.

Then said his mother and father, "Reverend sir, you can go on the morrow." And the next day they fed him in their house, and then filled up a measure of sesamum oil and gave it to him, and also a lump of sugar, and nine cubits' length of cloth, and said, "You can go now, reverend sir." And he returned thanks, and set out in the direction of Rohana.

And his preceptor, after the solemnity of inviting criticism, was coming in the opposite direction, and met him in the place where they had met before. The lad performed his respectful duties to the elder at the foot of a certain tree. Then said the elder,

"Well, my friend, did you see the lay woman?"

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Yes, reverend sir," said he in reply, and told him all the news. And having anointed the feet of the elder with the sesamum oil, and made him a drink with the lump of sugar, and given him the cloth, he did obeisance before him and saying, "Reverend sir, Rohana is the place for me," he departed on his way.

The elder came to the monastery, and on the next day entered the village of Korandaka. And the lay woman, who was always looking up the road, and saying, “Now, now my brother is coming with my son," saw him approaching alone, and fell at his feet, and wept, and lamented, saying, "My son, methinks, must be dead, inasmuch as the elder comes alone."

Then thought the elder, "Surely, the lad, through the

moderateness of his passions, must have gone away without announcing himself." And he comforted her, and told her the whole story, and drawing forth the cloth from the scrip in which he carried his bowl, he showed it to her.

The lay woman was pleased, and lying prostrate, with her face in the direction in which her son had gone, she worshiped, saying,

"Methinks The Blessed One must have had in mind a body of priests like my son when he preached the relay course of conduct, the Nālaka course of conduct, the tuvattaka course of conduct, and the course of conduct customary with the great saints, showing how to take delight in the cultivation of content with the four reliances. This man

ate for three months in the house of the mother who bore him, and never said, 'I am thy son, and thou art my mother.' O the wonderful man!"

For such a one mother and father are no hindrances, much less any other lay devotees.

THE STORY OF VISAKHA

Translated from the Dhammapada, and from

Buddhaghosa's comment

"As flowers in rich profusion piled
Will many a garland furnish forth;
So all the years of mortal man

Should fruitful be in all good works."

66 S flowers in rich profusion piled." This doctrinal in

Å struction was given by The Teacher while dwelling

near Savatthi in Eastern Monastery; and it was concerning Visakhā, a female lay disciple. She was born, we are told, in the city of Bhaddiya, in the kingdom of Bengal. Her father Dhananjaya, son of Mendaka the treasurer, ranked also as treasurer, and her mother was the lady Sumanā, his principal wife.

When Visākhā was seven years old, The Teacher, perceiving that the Brahman Sela, and others of her city, were competent to attain to salvation, went thither on his wanderings, accompanied by a great congregation of priests.

Now at that time Mendaka, who was filling the office of treasurer in that city, was head of a household of five persons of great merit. The five persons of great merit were: Mendaka the treasurer; Paduma, his principal wife; Dhananjaya, his eldest son; the latter's wife, Sumanā; and Mendaka's slave, Punna. Now Mendaka the treasurer was not the only person of illimitable wealth in Bimbisāra's territory. There were five of them: Jotiya, Jatila, Mendaka, Punnaka, Kākavaliya.

When Mendaka the treasurer heard of the arrival of The One Possessing the Ten Forces, he sent for the little maid Visākhā, the daughter of his son Dhanañjaya the treasurer, and said to her:

"Dear girl, this is an auspicious day for you and for me! With your five hundred girl-attendants mount five hundred

chariots, and with these five hundred female slaves as your retinue go to welcome The One Possessing the Ten Forces."

"Very well," said she, and did so. But as she well knew what etiquette required, when she had gone as far in her carriage as was proper for carriages to go, she alighted, and on foot drew near to The Teacher. Then she did him obeisance, and stood respectfully at one side. Pleased with her behavior, The Teacher taught her the Doctrine, and at the end of the discourse, she attained to the fruit of conversion, together with her five hundred maidens.

Also Mendaka the treasurer drew near to The Teacher, and listening to a sermon, attained to the fruit of conversion, and invited him for the morrow to breakfast. On the next day at his own house he served The Buddha and the congregation of the priests with excellent food, both hard and soft; and thus for half a month he gave liberally. And when The Teacher had stopped in the city of Bhaddiya as long as he wished, he departed.

Now at that time Bimbisāra and Pasenadi the Kosalan were connected by marriage, being each of them the husband of the other's sister. And one day it occurred to the Kosalan king: "In Bimbisāra's territory dwell five men of illimitable wealth, while there is not one in mine. Suppose, now, I go to Bimbisāra, and ask him for one of these persons of great merit."

And going to king Bimbisāra, he was received cordially by the latter, who then asked,

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'What was your purpose in coming?"

"In your territory dwell five men of illimitable wealth, persons of great merit. I have come with the intention of taking one of them back with me. Let me have one."

"It would be impossible for me to move one of those great families."

"I will not go without," was the reply.

The king took counsel with his ministers, and then said to him:

"To move such powerful personages as Joti and the others, would be like moving the world. But Mendaka the great treasurer has a son called Dhanañjaya the treasurer: I will consult with him, and then give you my reply."

Then Bimbisāra sent for Dhananjaya the treasurer, and said to him,

"Dear friend, the king of the Kosalans says he will not return home unless you go with him. Therefore, go with him, pray."

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Sire, I will go, if you send me.”

"Then make your preparations, dear friend, and go."

So he got himself ready, and the king was full of kind attentions to him, and at parting formally intrusted him to Pasenadi the king. And Pasenadi the king set out for Sāvatthi, intending to spend one night on the way. And coming to a pleasant spot, they bivouacked there.

Then said Dhananjaya the treasurer,

"Whose territory are we on now?"

"How far is it from here to Savatthi?" ·

"Seven leagues."

"It is very crowded in a city, and my suite is a large one. Sire, if it so please you, I will dwell here."

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Very good," said the king in assent; and mapping out for him a city, he gave it to him, and went away. And from the circumstance that the settlement in that place was made in the evening [sa-yam], the city received the name of Sāketa.

Now there was dwelling at Sāvatthi a young man named Punnavaddhana, who was the son of a treasurer named Migāra, and had just come of age. And his mother and father said to him,

"Son, choose yourself a wife from what family you please."

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"Oh! I have no use for anything of that sort."

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Son, act not so! No family can last without children."

Well, then," said he, when they continually insisted, "if I can have a girl endowed with the five beauties, I will do as you say."

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But, son, what are these five beauties ?"

Beauty of hair; beauty of flesh; beauty of bone; beauty of skin; and beauty of youth."

(The hair of a woman who is experiencing the reward of great merit is like a peacock's tail, and, when it is loosened