ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 91 



and having worshipped Bagawa, and passed by his right side, 

 departed, and went to his parents, and said to them, Father 

 and mother, as far as I understand the doctrines preached by 

 Bagawa, it is difficult for one residing in a family to preserve 

 in a perfectly complete holy and unsullied manner that course 

 of purity. I desire to cut off my hair and beard, and putting 

 on yellow clothes to forsake family life, and become a house- 

 less priest. Permit me to forsake the house and become a 

 houseless priest. When he had thus spoken, his parents said 

 to him, Rattapala, you are our only son, pleasing and beloved, 

 in affluent circumstances and tenderly' educated ; you have 

 never, Rattapala, known any sorrow. Come, Rattapala, eat, 

 drink, associate with your women ; and eating drinking, asso- 

 ciating with your women, enjoying the pleasures of sense, and 

 performing acts of merit, dwell content. We will not consent 

 to your forsaking the house and becoming a houseless priest. 

 We are not willing to be separated from you even by death ; 

 why, while you are alive, should we permit you to leave the 

 house and become a houseless priest ? 



A second and a third time he preferred his request in the 

 same words, and received the same answer. 



Then the honorable Rattapala not obtaining the per- 

 mission of his parents to become a priest, threw himself down 

 where he was on the bare ground, and said, Either here death 

 shall happen to me or the priesthood. His parents said to 

 him, Dear Rattapala, you are our only son, pleasing and be- 

 loved, in affluent circumstances and tenderly educated. You 

 have never, Rattapala, known any sorrow. Get up, dear Rat- 

 tapala, eat, drink, enjoy your women ; and eating, drinking, 

 attended by your women, enjoy the pleasures of sense, per- 

 form acts of merit, and dwell contented : we will not consent 

 to your forsaking the house and becoming a priest. We are 



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