The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-02-20
A Buddhist Legend.

In the village of Sarvathi there lived a
young wife named Keesah, who, at the
age of fourteen gave birth to a son; and
she loved him with all the love and JOY OF
the possessor of newly-found treasure
for his face was like a golden cloud, his
eyes fair and tender as blue lotus, and
his smile bright and beaming like the
morning light upon the dewy flowers.
But when the boy was able to walk, and
could run about the house, there came a
day when he suddenly fell sick and died.
And Keesah, not understanding what had
happened to her fair lotus-eyed boy,
clasped him to her bosom, and went about
the village from house to house, praying
and weeping, and beseeching the good
people to give her some medicine to cure
her baby. But the villagers and neigh
bors, on seeing her, said:
els the girl mad, that she still bears
about on her breast the dead body of her
child?'
AT length a holy man, pitying the girls
sorrow, said to himself: "Alas this
Khesah does not understand the law of
death 1 will try to comfort her." And
he answered her, and said: "My good
girl, L cannot myself give you any medi-
cine to cure your boy, but know holy
and wise physician who cam"
~ said the young mother, ''do
tell me who it is that l may go at once to
him ~
And the holy man replied: "He is
called the Buddah he alone can cure thy
child"
Then Keesah, on hearing this, was
comforted, and set out to tind.the Buddha,
still clasping to her heart the lifeless body
of her child. And when she found him,
1rD .1c,r h,,f tra nd 1cntI
80 my lord and masterl do you know
of any medicine that will cure my baby?''
And the Buddha replied and said !:
Eyes, know of one, but you must get
it for me-"
And she asked: "What medicine do
you want? Tell me, that l may hasten in
search of it,
And the Buddha said: I" want only a
few grains of mustard-seed. Leave here
the boy, and go you and bring them to
me-"
The girl refused to part with her baby,
but promised to get the seed for him. As
she was about to set out, the pitiful Bud
dha, recalling her, said:
"My sister, the mustard-seed that ]
require must be taken from house where
no child, parent, husband, wife, relative,
or slave has ever died."
The young mother replied, Every good,
my lord )" and went her way, taking her
boy with her, and setting him astride on
her hip, with his Gfeless head resting on
her bosom. Thus she went from house
to house, from palace to hut, begging for
some grains of mustard-seed. The people
said to her; "Here are the seeds take
them, and go thy way." But she first
asked:
"In this, my friends house, has there
ever died child, husband, a parent, or
a slaveT'
And they one and all replied: "Lady.
what is this that thou hast said Knowest
thou not that the living are few, but that
the dead are many? There is no such
house as thou seekest." s.
Then she went to other houses and
begged the grains of mustard-seed, which
they gladly gave her, but to her question
ings one said, 81 have lost son - an
other, 81 have lost parent" and yet an
other 81 have lost a slave" and every
one and all of them made some such reply
AT last, not being able to discover a single
house free from the dead, whence she
could obtain the mustard-seed, and feel
self down upon stone, with her baby in
her lap, and, thinking sadly, said to her.
self, "Alas this is heavy task l have
undertaken. ] am not the only one who
has lost her baby. Everywhere children
are dying, parents are dying, loved ones
are dying, and everywhere they tell me
that the dead are more numerous than the
living. Shall then think only Of my own
sorrOw?''
Thinking thus, she suddenly summoned
courage to put away her sorrow for her
dead baby, and she carried him to the for
est and laid him down to rest under tree,
and having covered him over with tender
leaves, and taken her last look Of his loved
face, she betook herself once more to the
Buddha, and bowed before him.
And he said to her: "Sister, hast thou
found the mustat d-seed%'
81 have not, my lord" she replied; "for
the people in the village tell me there is
no house in which some one has not died;
for the living are few, but the dead are
many"
"And where is your baby?"
81 have laid him under tree in the for
est, my lord" said Keesah gently.
Then said the Buddha to her; "You
have found the grains of mustard-seed
you thought that you alone had lost son,
but now you have learned that the law of
death and of suffering is among all living
creatures. and that here there is no per-
manence."
On hearing this, Keesah was comforted,
and established in the path of virtue, and
was thenceforth called Keesah Godami,
the disciple of the Buddha.-Mrs. Anna II.
Lsonoaoens i!s "THe Romance Of the Hurena."