510 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



another with their lips.) The dog was reborn in the world of the 

 Thirty-three with a retinue of -o, thousand celestial nymphs. (If you 

 ask, " Of what was this the consequence ? " it was because he barked 

 so affectionately at the Private Buddha.) (171-3) 



In consequence of having devoted himself to sensual pleasures, he 

 fell from the world of the Thirty -three, and was conceived in the womb 

 of a harlot of Kosambi. When the child was born, and the harlot 

 learned that it was a boy, she had him cast away on a dust-heap. A 

 man who happened to pass by took a fancy to the child, and saying to 

 himself, " I have gained a son," took him home with him. (173-4) 



That day there was a conjunction of the moon with a certain lunar 

 mansion ; and a treasurer of Kosambi, meeting an astrologer, asked 

 him what the sign betokened. The astrologer said, " This day is born 

 in Kosambi a child who will become the principal treasurer of the 

 city." It so happened that the treasurer's wife was at that very time 

 great with child ; and he immediately sent word to find out whether 

 she had been delivered or no. When the messenger brought back 

 word that she had not, the treasurer summoned a female slave and 

 said to her, " Here are a thousand pieces of money ; scour the city and 

 find a boy that was born to-day and bring him hither to me." The 

 slave returned with the foundling. The treasurer thought to himself : 

 " If a daughter is born to me I will marry her to this boy and make 

 him treasurer ; but if a son is born to me, I will kill this boy." A few 

 days later his wife gave birth to a son. The treasurer then set about 

 to carry out his plan. (174-5) 



[The reader will bear in mind that the adopted son of the treasurer 

 was none other than the harlot's son who had been cast away on the 

 dust-heap, and that he must needs be cast away six times more in 

 consequence of the evil deed he committed when, in his existence as 

 Kotuhalaka, he cast away his own son ; that he must needs be rescued 

 through the effect of the merit he earned in his existence as a dog by 

 barking so affectionately at the Private Buddha ; and that, inasmuch 

 as all the hosts of heaven and earth cannot interfere with the operation 

 of the law of cause and effect, the astrologer's prophecy concerning 

 him was at last to be fulfilled. The boy's name was Ghosaka.] 



First the treasurer had Ghosaka laid at the door of the cattle-pen, 

 hoping that he would be trampled to death. But the bull stood over 

 him, allowing the cows to pass out on either side of him, and the herds- 

 man took him home. (175) 



The treasurer recovered Ghosaka, and then had him placed on the 

 caravan trail, expecting that he would either be trampled by the oxen, 

 or crushed by the wheels of the carts. But when the oxen saw the 



