The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-12-14
Mindoo Legend.

There is a beautiful and touching
story told in the books ofthe Buddhists
about the founder of their religion
story that has moral for people of all
ereess and countries. Among che i'm.
mediate followers of Buddha was a
young girl named Coshagautami. She
was a simple, artless creature, married
to an Indian youth like herself; and the
pair dwelt together in woodland
country near the city of the famous
Oriental teacher. They had little
child, of which Koshagautami was pass
ionately fond, as is the wont Of Eastern
mothers. But it happened that the lit
tie one sickened and died, much to the
establishment of the young aud ignor-
ant parents, who had been brought up
in q life so solitary that they knew moth
thing whatever about death. The moth
or was especially grieved to find that her
child looked so still and pale, and felt
so Cold;althsugh she pressed 1t constant
" TO her bosom and tempted it with de-
licate food She rocked and shook it to
make it speak once more-she would
have been even glad to hear it cry, al
though in pain; for the silence and
deadly heavinsss of the little body fill
ed her with a vague misery. She went
about the woods with the baby upon
her hip, as Indian women always
carry their children, asking rybody
whom she met 10 tell her what would
be good for the badly, and why it was so
quiet and so chill. The people whom
she met looked very strangely at the
tiny corpse, and shook their heads, say
ing that no medicine would do it good +,
and more. This disappointed the moth
er so much that she determined to seek
out Buddha, and to ask him, who was
never at loss, for something that
would bring back the warmth and
laughter to the small cheeks. The mas
ter was seated under banyan tree with
his disciples, and when the mother came
near with the child, beseeching him to
say if he knew what would make it
we'll again, he looked at her weepin g
countenance with great pity and an
swered that he did. Go" he said, "and
bring me hither handful of mustard
sc ed from house where nobody has ever
died, and then / will heal your son."
Koshagautami repaired to the town
with the child, and asked at the first
mouse lot llJJle mubIdEu-Setu, "ulCD
was readily given, because of her gentle
AID sOrrowful leok. Friend" she said
to the good man, lever any die in this
household for then the seed would not
do ~ The householder shook his head
mournfully, and replied that his eldest
son had died there during the last moon.
She went TO the next residence; and to
the next; and so on right through the
town; but, to her surprise she found that
into every house had entered that same
disease of which her little one was sick
even death Ashamed to have been
so passionate aud importunate, when
all the rest of the world suffered and
submitted, she dared not take the child
back to Buddha, but buried it tenderly
in the forest, under the shade of an
asoka tree, and then returned to the
spot where the mf ser was still teaching.
There was no one" she moaned, "who
had mustard-seed to give me, of the
kind you bade me bring" And Buddha
answered, "No, Koshagautami; it does
not grow in this world of pain and illu-
sion. The living are very few the dead
are very many, my daughterp