This is the most extravagant outburst of mycophobia that we 

 have found anywhere, surely the most extravagant to be found 

 in the Indo-European world, which is saying a good deal. The 

 learned Brahman tells us that the simple mushroom-eater is as 

 bad as the murderers of Brahmans! Why such passionate, such 

 exaggerated censure'^ Bareau, in comparing the Hindu eater of 

 mushrooms to one among us w^ho eats dog's flesh, was engaging 

 in understatement. 



^ T T 



Three months before the Last Meal at Pava and before his 

 Mahaparinirvana, the Buddha had been sojourning at Vai'sali 

 and thereabouts. While in the xicinity of Vai'sali he had suffered 

 a grave illness, attributed from ancient times to a chronic gastric 

 upset, probabK dysentery; had felt the weight of his years, had 

 called himself an "octogenarian," and had announced his inten- 

 tion to go to Kusinara and there three months later to expe- 

 rience the M a hapari nirvana, the Final Extinction. He was 

 predicting the time and place of his own end. He made his way 

 to Kusinara with his followers on foot, teaching the doctrine as 

 was his wont, and it took him three months to cover the 140 

 kilometers. To his disciples and the \illagers he made freely 

 known his purpose: he never wavered in his resolution, not did 

 he hide it from anyone. 



The day before the Buddha reached Kusinara he arrived at the 

 nearby village of Pava and passed the night in the mango grove 

 belonging to one Cunda, a metal-worker or blacksmith, and 

 therefore a \udra, the lowest of the four castes in Hindu society. 

 Cunda, appearing almost immediately, inquired what the Bud- 

 dha desired. According to one of the Chinese recensions of the 

 Buddha's life, the Buddha explained that he was to undergo the 

 Mahaparinirvana in Kusinara: lamentations followed. Cunda 

 invited the Buddha and his many followers to take their single 

 meal the next day with him, and by his silence the Buddha 

 accepted. Cunda withdrew to assemble the food and prepare it. 

 In the morning Cunda came to summon the Buddha and his 

 followers to the meal that he had prepared. 



222 



