Vol. X, No. 7.] Spirit Belief in the Jataka Stories. 263 



[N.S.] 



of water from the trunk. Then the merchants cut off another 

 branch and got savoury food. They cut off a third and fourth 

 branch and got beautiful women * and valuable jewels, etc. 

 Then they wanted to cut down the tree itself in hope of getting 

 more. But the spirit (here called a Nagaraja) was wrath, and 

 as soon as the trunk was cut down there came out a large 

 number of armed warriors who killed all of them except a 

 righteous merchant who had tried to dissuade them from 

 cutting down the tree. 



We now come to the third class of spirits. These are the 

 Tho ™„;* £ spirits of seas and rivers, etc. The spirits 



ine spirits of seas J± .,. 1 * i • * i 



and rivers. °* tbls c l ass are of less importance and 



less numerous than the former ones. In 

 the Samuddavanija Jataka, it has been said that the four great 

 rulers of the four quarters appointed a goddess named Mani- 

 mekhala to watch over the ocean and to rescue those ship- 

 wrecked persons who were righteous and who were believers in 

 the three jewels of Buddhism. In the Silanisamisa Jataka l the 

 sea-god appears before a righteous man and a believer who being 

 ship-wrecked took shelter in an island, and the sea-god and 

 the Nagaraja in that island assuming respectively the shape of 

 a vessel and a pilot carried him safely across the ocean. In the 

 Sammudda Jataka * the sea- god is represented as angrily scar- 

 ing away a crow who wanted to drink the ocean dry. In the 

 Kimcchanda Jataka, 8 a river-god appears before a man who was 

 sitting for seven days without taking any food or drink, look- 

 ing at its water, to have his desire fulfilled. In the Macchud- 

 dana Jataka 4 there is the story of a virtuous man offering rice 

 to the river Ganges and to the fishes living in her. The river 

 goddess was pleased with him. One day the virtuous man's 

 brother wanting to cheat him of a purse containing a thousand 

 coins threw it into the river. The purse was swallowed by a 

 big fish. But the grateful Ganga-devata took the fish out of 

 water and in the guise of a fisherman went to his house with 

 the fish and sold the same for seven Kahapanas. In many 

 places in the stories we find that lakes are inhabited by spirits, 

 but they are seldom good spirits. They are generally Yakkhas 

 or rakkhasas. They used to drag into the lakes the animals 

 that would touch the water, and eat them up. 



* Jataka, Vol. II, p. 111. * Jataka, Vol. II, p. 441. 



s Jataka, Vol. V, p. 3. * Jataka, Vol. II. p. 423. 



