12 



the expiation of their former evil deeds, "expanding their 

 majestic spirit, they made heaven and earth shake ; they raised the 

 clouds and caused the rain to faW '. And vs^hen Devadatta v^as a 

 terrible Naga, "he expanded all his force; lightning and thunder 

 flashed and rattled'" ^. 



The Kiu tsah f%-yu ling ^ "Old (version of the) Samyuktava- 

 dana sutra" (miscellaneous metaphors), translated in the third 

 century A. D. by the same Seng-hwui (Nanjo's Catalogue, nr. 1359) 

 in some of its apologues mentions the Nagas as bringers of rain. 

 Such a being by its rain made the dike, along which a (jramanera 

 carried his master's rice, so slippery that the man repeatedly 

 tumbled down and dropped the rice into the mud. His master 

 summoned the Naga, who in the shape of an old man prostrated 

 himself before the Arhat and invited him to dine in his palace 

 all the days of his life. The Arhat accepted this offer and daily 

 flew with his bed to the Naga's palace, after having entered 

 abstract contemplation. But his pupil, anxious- to know- from 

 where his master had got the splendid rice grains which he 

 discovered in his almsbowl, hid himself under the bed and 

 clinging to one of its feet arrived with the Arhat at the Naga's 

 abode. The latter, his wife and the whole crowd of beautiful 

 women respectfully saluted the (jramana and the Qramanera, but 

 the latter was warned by his master not to forget, that he, the 

 (jramanera himself, was a must higher being than the Naga, 

 notwithstanding all the latter's treasures and beautiful women. 

 "The Naga", said he, "has to endure three kinds of sufferings: 

 his delicious food turns into toads as soon as he takes it into 

 his mouth; his beautiful women, as well as he himself, change 

 into serpents when he tries to embrace them ; on his back he 

 has scales lying in a reverse direction, and when sand and 

 pebbles enter between them, he suffers pains which pierce his 

 heart. Therefore do not envy him". The pupil, however, did not 

 answer; day and night he thought of the Naga and forgot to 

 eat. He fell ill, died and was reborn as the Naga's son, still more 

 terrible than his father, but after death became a man again *. 



^ W^Mil$^R^^^^:^#I^M- Great Jap. ed. of Leiden, nr 

 143, Ch. V, p. 196; Chavannes, Vol. I, Ch. V, p. 181, nr 48; Trip. VI, 5, p. 71. 



2 



*i 



f I KP e^ ^ » S.'^mm- ^^'^^ ''^P" ^^- °^ Leiden, nr 143, Ch. VI, p. 

 27a; Ohavannes, Vol. I, Ch. VI, p. 254, nr 70; Trip. VI, 5, p. 78. 



4 Chavannes, 1.1., Vol. I, nr 94, pp. 358 sqq. (Trip. XIX, 7, p. 19; great Jap. ed. of 



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