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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [Vol. VIII. 



that country-village seven times paid a fine to the king, seven 

 times their houses were burnt up, seven times the dam of their 

 tank bur3t. They said to themselves : " Before this Mittavindaka 

 came, it was not so with us ; but now, since his coming, we are being 

 ruined ; " and thereupon they beat him and turned him out. As he 

 was going with his family to another place, he came to a demon - 

 haunted forest. There the demon killed and devoured his wife 

 and children. He fled, and wandered from place to place till he 

 came to a port named Gambhira, on the very day when a ship was 

 sailing, and took service (as a sailor) and went on board. The 

 ship, after going se ven days over the sea, on the seventh day stood 

 still in mid-sea as if nailed to the spot. They threw the ill-luck 

 lot. Seven times it came to Mittavindaka. The men gave him a 

 little bundle of bamboos, and took him by the hand and threw him 

 into the sea. The moment he was thrown out the ship went on. 

 Mittavindaka, leaning on the bundle of bamboos, travelled over 

 the sea, till, by fruit of his observance of precept in the time of 

 Kassapa Buddha, he found on the sea in a crystal palace four god- 

 desses, and with them he lived in the enjoyment of bliss for seven 

 days. Now, these palace nymphs live in bliss for seven days. 

 When they departed for the seven days of suffering, they said to 

 him, " Stay here till we come back." But when they were gone, 

 Mittivindaka went further, leaning on the bundle of bamboos, till 

 he found eight goddesses in a palace of silver. Thence he went 

 again and found sixteen goddesses in a palace of gems, and thirty- 

 two in a palace of gold. He disregarded their advice ^also, and 

 went on till he saw ou an island, in mid-sea, a demon city. There 

 a she-demon was roaming in the form of a goat. Mittivindaka not 

 perceiving that she was a demon, aud feeling a wish for a meal of 

 goat's flesh, caught her by the leg. By her demon power she 

 kicked up and flung him away. On her thus flinging him,* he 

 passed over the sea to Benares, and fell into a thorn-bush behind a 

 tank, and rolled down and rested on the ground. At that time 

 thieves had been carrying off the king's goats which roamed behind 

 that tank ; and goatherds were stationed in hiding on one side, 

 hoping to catch the thieves. Mittavindaka, when he had rolled 

 down to the ground and stood up and saw the goats, said to him- 

 self : a On an inland at sea I caught a goat by the leg and was 

 flung by her and fell here ; so, if I now catch a goat by the leg, 

 she will fling me off over the sea to the place where the palace 

 nymphs are" ; and with this foolish idea he caught a goat by the 



* Tdya khitte, B. tells me this is correct, or I should have wished to road 

 tdya khitto, as eight lines below. 



