And the next day, as Naravahanadatta was in the apartments of Rat- naprabha, talking over various subjects with his ministers, he suddenly heard a sound, which appeared to be like that of a man weeping outside in the court-yard of the palace. And when some one asked " What is that ?" the female attendants came and said, " My lord, the chamberlain Dharmagiri is weeping here. For a foolish friend of his came here just now, and said that his brother, who went on a pilgrimage to holy places, was dead in a foreign land. He, bewildered with grief, forgot that he was in the court and began to lament, but he has been just now taken outside by the servants and conducted to his own house." When the prince heard this, he was grieved, and Ratnaprabha moved witli pity said in a despondent tone " Alas ! the grief which is produced by the loss of dear relatives is hard to bear ! Why did not the Creator make men exempt from old age and death ?" When Marubhuti heard this speech of the queen's, he said ; " Queen, how can mortals ever attain this good for- tune ? For listen to the following story, which I will tell you, bearing on this question."

In the city of Chirayus there was in old time a king, named Chira- yus,* who was indeed long-lived, and the home of all good fortune. He had a compassionate, generous and gifted minister, named Nagarjuna, who was sprung from a portion of a Bodhisattva, who knew the use of all drugs, and by making an elixir he rendered himself and that king free from old age, and long-lived. One day an infant son of that minister Nagarjuna, whom he loved more than any of his other children, died. He felt grief on that account, and by the force of his asceticism and knowledge proceed- ed to prepare out of certain ingredients the Water" of Immortality,f in order to prevent mortals from dying. But while he was waiting for the auspicious moment in which to infuse a particular drug, Indra found out what was going on. And Indra, having consulted with the gods, said to the two Asvins " Go and give this message to Nagarjuna on the earth from me ' Why have you, though a minister, begun this revolutionary proceed- ing of making the Water of Life ? Are you determined now to conquer the Creator, who indeed created men subject to the law of death, since you

• /. e. long-lived.

t Sco the IVth chapter of Ralston' s Russian Folk -Talcs, Weckcnstcdt's Wendis- cho Murckcn page 221, Bombard >3diuudt'd Uricchischc Miircliun p. 125.