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



spirits you took salt, so I mixed salt with it." " You fool,* you 

 have spoilt such excellent liquor as this !" Thus reproaching him, 

 each in turn got up and went away. 



The spirit-seller came back, and seeing not one man, asked. 

 " Where are the spirit-drinkers gone ?" He told him the fact. 

 Then his master reproached him : " You fool, you have spoilt such 

 spirits as this !" and told this thing to Anathapindika. Anatha- 

 pindika, thinking " I have got a good story to tell" (a present in 

 the form of a story to offer to the Buddha), went to J etavana, and, 

 after obeisance to the teacher, told this case. The teacher said : 

 " This is not the first time, householder, that he has been a liquor- 

 spoiler ; formerly also he was a liquor-spoiler ;" and at his request 

 he told the story of the past. 



In past time, when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the 

 Bodhisat was a nobleman in Benares. Near him there lived a 

 spirit-seller. He made some strong spirits, and saying to his 

 apprentice, " sell this," went to bathe. The moment he was gone, 

 the apprentice put in salt and destroyed the liquor in the same 

 way. Then his master came, and on learning the thing told the 

 nobleman. The nobleman said : ' 1 Fools and blunderers, meaning 

 to help harm ;" and uttered this stanza : — 



"A blunderer's good intentions to no good can lead : 

 A fool spoils business as Kandanna did the mead (spirits)." 



The Bodhisat preached religion by this stanza. And the 

 teacher having said : " This is not the first time, householder, 

 that lad has been a liquor-spoiler ; formerly also he was a liquor- 

 spoiler" ; made the connection, and summed up the birth-story 

 thus : " Then the liquor-spoiler was he who is liquor-spoiler now, 

 and the nobleman of Benares was I myself." 



(End of " Liquor" Birth-Story.) 



48. — THE " VED ABBHA" BIRTH-STORY. 

 " Who seeks gain the wrong ivay" fyc. 

 This the teacher told when residing in Jetavana on occasion of 

 an obstinate mendicant. To this mendicant (too) the teacher 

 said : " This is not the first time, mendicant, you have been 

 obstinate ; formerly also you were obstinate and thereby,! not 

 doing what the wise told you, you got cut in two with a sharp 

 sword, and flung in the road, and on your single account a thousand 



* Bald : read Bala. 



f Ten 3 eva vacakdranena ; read ten 3 eva ca kdranena; or, possibly, B. suggests, 

 dubbacakdranena. There is no such combination as vacakdr. 



