Part 5 (1/2)

”You, yourselves, offered to carry the mountain-top to us. Your words are stronger than your deeds. You say you will aid us, then ask us to help you,” the people replied. This they said, thinking to goad the giants on to the labor of bringing the mountain-top to the desired place.

”We offered to aid you,” retorted the giants, ”but you sit and watch while we do all. Had you done your part, we would have done ours. Now, you shall labor, and we, from our high mountain, will laugh at you.”

Thereupon they left the work and sought their homes, and wearily did the men of the plains dig the earth, carrying it in small loads into one place to build the mound, and sadly did they look toward the East, where they could see the mountain-top the giants had carried such a distance to them, and most bitterly did they repent not having done their share.

The temple is builded now, and from afar the people can see the gleam of the spire when the eye of day first opens in the East, or closes in the West, and, to this day the mountain-top lies there far distant from the mountain range and equally far distant from the city of the plains, and the people point it out to strangers, saying, ”If you ask aid from others, it is well to put your own heart into the work.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Group of Buddhist Priests.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Interior of a Buddhist Temple.]

Cheating the Priest

Upon a time a man and his wife went a day's journey from their village to the bazaar to sell their wares, and it fell upon the day of their return that it rained heavily, and as they hurried along the highway, they sought shelter from the head priest of a temple. He, however, would not even let them enter. They begged to be permitted to sleep in the sheltered place at the head of the stairs, but this also the priest refused. Angered, they went under the temple and there rested.

When the priest had lain down on his mat in the room just over the place where the man and his wife were hidden, he heard the man say to his wife, ”It will be good to be again with our young and beautiful daughter. I trust all is well with her.”

Having heard these words, the priest arose hastily and called, ”Come up, good people, and sleep in the temple. Here, too, are mats to rest upon.”

And, as they talked of their beautiful daughter, the priest asked, ”When I am out of the temple, released from my vows, will you give me your daughter to wife?”

Looking at his wife, the husband replied, ”It is good in our sight.”

When the morning came and they wished to steam some rice for their breakfast, they had no pot, but the priest freely offered the use of his pot and insisted upon their using of the sacred wood for their fire, the wood which was used in propping the branches of the Po tree.[13]

Being ready to go on their way, the priest presented them with gifts of food, silver and gold, saying, ”I will soon leave the priesthood and come to marry your beautiful daughter.”

But three days had pa.s.sed, when the man and his wife came again to the temple and told the priest that their daughter was dead, and a long time they all mourned together.

”I will ever remain true to my love for your daughter. Never will I leave the priesthood,” vowed the priest, while the man and his wife returned to their home, spent the silver and gold the priest had given them, and cheerfully laughed at him, for never had they had a daughter!

13: The sacred tree of Buddhists.

The Disappointed Priest

In a temple of the north lived a priest who had great greed for the betel nut.[14] One day, compelled by his appet.i.te, he inquired of a boy-priest if no one had died that day, but the boy replied he had heard of no death.

A man, while wors.h.i.+pping in the temple, overheard the priest's words, and on his return to his home, said, ”The priest wants some one to die so he can have betel to eat. Let us punish him, because he loves the betel nut better than the life of a man. Make me ready for the grave, then wail with a loud voice and the priest will come.”

When all was ready, they wailed with a loud voice and the priest, filled with cheerful thoughts of satisfying his appet.i.te, came quickly.

The people all said, ”We must hasten to the grave with our dead brother.

As it is already evening, we will not have the feast until we return.”

All hastened to the place of burning, and, upon reaching it, they took one end of the cloth covering the body and placed it in the hands of the priest, while the other end they left on the body of the supposed dead man.

”While you ask blessings on our dead brother, we will go prepare wood for the burning,” said the people, and, leaving the priest praying, they returned as they had come, cut thorns and briars and placed them on and about the path, so the priest could not escape unhurt. Then they hid themselves.