The Brahmin's Spell

Once on a time w r hen Brahmadatta was reigning in
Benares, the Bodhisatta came to life as the child of the
Queen-consort. When he grew up, he mastered every
accomplishment ; and when, at his father's death, he came
to be king, he proved a righteous king. Now he used to
play at dice with his family priest, and, as he flung the
golden dice upon the silver dice-board, he would sing this
catch for luck :

'Tis nature's law that rivers wind;
Trees grow of wood by law of kind;
And, given opportunity,
All women w r ork iniquity.

As these lines always made the king win the game, the
priest was in a fair way to lose every penny he had in the
world. And, in order to save himself from utter ruin, he
resolved to seek out a little maid that had never seen
another man, and then to keep her under lock and key in
his own house. " For," thought he, " I couldn't manage to
look after a girl who has seen another man. So I must
take a new-born baby girl, and keep her under my thumb
as she grows up, with a close guard over her, so that none
may come near her and that she may be true to one man.
Then I shall win of the king, and grow rich." Now he was
skilled in bodily signs; and seeing a poor woman who
was about to become a mother, and knowing that her
child would be a girl, he paid the woman to come and be
confined in his house, and sent her away after her confine-
ment with a present. The infant was brought up entirely
by women, and no men other than himself were ever
allowed to set eyes on her. When the girl grew up, she
was subject to him and he was her master.

Now, while the girl was growing up, the priest forbore
to play with the king ; but when she was grown up and
under his own control, he challenged the king to a game.
The king accepted, and play began. But, when in throwing
the dice the king sang his lucky catch, the priest added,
-"always excepting my girl." And then luck changed,
and it was now the priest who won, while the king lost.

Thinking the matter over, the Bodhisatta suspected
the priest had a virtuous girl shut up in his house ; and
enquiry proved his suspicions true. Then, in order to
work her fall, he sent for a clever scamp, and asked
whether he thought he could seduce the girl. " Certainly,
sire," said the fellow. So the king gave him money, and
sent him away with orders to lose no time.


With the king's money the fellow bought perfumes
and incense and aromatics of all sorts, and opened a per-
fumery shop close to the priest's house. Now the priest's
house was seven stories high, and had seven gateways, at
each of which a guard was set, a guard of women only,
and no man but the brahmin himself was ever allowed to
enter. The verv baskets that contained the dust and
sweepings were examined before they were passed in.
Only the priest was allowed to see the girl, and she had
only a single waiting-woman. This woman had money
given her to buy flowers and perfumes for her mistress,
and on her way she used to pass near the shop which the
scamp had opened. And he, knowing very well that she
was the girl's attendant, watched one day for her coming,
and, rushing out of his shop, fell at her feet, clasping her
feet tightly with both hands and blubbering out, " O my
mother ! where have you been all this long time ? "

And his confederates, who stood by his side, cried,
" What a likeness ! Hand and foot, face and figure, even
in style of dress, they are identical ! " As one and all
kept dwelling on the marvellous likeness, the poor woman
lost her head. Crying out that it must be her boy, she
too burst into tears. And with weeping and tears the
two fell to embracing one another. Then said the man,
"Where are you living, mother?"

"Up at the priest's, my son. He has a young wife
of peerless beauty, a very goddess for grace ; and I'm her
waiting-woman." "And whither away now, mother?" "To
buy her perfumes and flowers." " Why go elsewhere for
them ? Come to me for them in future," said the fellow.
And he gave the woman betel, bdellium, and so forth, and
all kinds of flowers, refusing all payment. Struck with the
quantity of flowers and perfumes which the waiting-woman
brought home, the girl asked why the brahmin was so
pleased with her that day. " Why do you say that, my
dear?" asked the old woman. "Because of the quantity
of things you have brought home." " No, it isn't that the
brahmin was free with his money," said the old woman ;
" for I got them at my son's." And from that day forth she
kept the money the brahmin gave her, and got her flowers
and other things free of charge at the man's shop.

And he, a few days later, made out to be ill, and took
to his bed. So when the old Avoman came to the shop
and asked for her son, she was told he had been taken ill.
Hastening to his side, she fondly stroked his shoulders,
as she asked what ailed him. But he made no reply.
" Why don't you tell me, my son ? " " Not even if I were
dying, could I tell you, mother." " But, if you don't tell
me, whom are you to tell?" "Well then, mother, my
malady lies solely in this that, hearing the praises of your
young mistress's beauty, I have fallen in love with her.
If I win her, I shall live ; if not, this will be my death-bed."
" Leave that to me, my boy," said the old woman cheerily ;
" and don't worry yourself on this account," Then with
a heavy load of perfumes and flowers to take with her
she went home, and said to the brahmin's young wife,
" Alas ! here's my son in love with you, merely because
I told him how beautiful you are ! What is to be done ? "

" If you can smuggle him in here," replied the girl,
" you have my leave."

Hereupon the old woman set to work sweeping together
all the dust she could find in the house from top to
bottom ; this dust she put into a huge flower-basket, and
tried to pass out with it. When the usual search was
made, she emptied dust over the woman on guard, who
fled away under such ill-treatment. In like manner she
dealt with all the other watchers, smothering in dust each
one in turn that said anything to her. And so it came to
pass from that time forward that, no matter what the old
woman took in or out of the house, there was nobody bold
enough to search her. Now was the time ! The old
woman smuggled the scamp into the house in a flower-
basket, and brought him to her young mistress. He
succeeded in wrecking the girl's virtue, and actually stayed
a day or two in the upper rooms, hiding when the priest
was at home, and enjoying the society of his mistress when
the priest was off the premises. A day or two passed and
the girl said to her lover, " Sweetheart, you must be going
now." " Very well ; only I must cuff the brahmin first."
" Certainly," said she, and hid the scamp. Then, when the
brahmin came in again, she exclaimed. "Oh, my dear
husband, I should so like to dance, if you would play the
lute for me." " Dance away, my dear," said the priest, and
struck up forthwith. " But I shall be too ashamed, if
you're looking. Let me hide your handsome face first
with a cloth ; and then I will dance." " All right," said
he ; " if you're too modest to dance otherwise." So she
took a thick cloth and tied it over the brahmin's face so
as to blindfold him. And, blindfolded as he was, the
brahmin began to play the lute. After dancing awhile,
she cried, " My dear, I should so like to hit you once
on the head." " Hit away," said the unsuspecting dotard.
Then the girl made a sign to her paramour ; and he softly
stole up behind the brahmin and smote him on the head.
Such was the force of the blow, that the brahmin's eyes
were like to start out of his head, and a bump rose up on
the spot. Smarting with pain, he called to the girl to give
him her hand ; and she placed it in his. " Ah ! it's a soft
hand," said he ; " but it hits hard ! "

Now, as soon as the scamp had struck the brahmin, he
hid ; and when he was hidden, the girl took the bandage
off the priest's eyes and rubbed his bruised head with oil.
The moment the brahmin went out, the scamp was stowed
away in his basket again by the old woman, and so carried
out of the house. Making his way at once to the king, he
told him the whole adventure.

Accordingly, when the brahmin was next in attendance,
the king proposed a game with the dice ; the brahmin was
willing; and the king caused the gaming-circle to be
drawn 1 . As the king made his throw, he sang his old catch,
and the brahmin ignorant of the girl's naughtiness added
his "always excepting my girl," -and nevertheless lost!

Then the king, who did know what had passed, said to
his priest, " Why except her ? Her virtue has given way.
Ah, you dreamed that by taking a girl in the hour of her
birth and by placing a sevenfold guard round her, you
could be certain of her. Why, you couldn't be certain of
a woman, even if you had her inside you and always
walked about with her. No woman is ever faithful to one
man alone. As for that girl of yours, she told you she
should like to dance, and having first blindfolded you as
you played the lute to her, she let her paramour strike
you on the head, and then smuggled him out of the house.
Where then is your exception ? " And so saying, the king
repeated this stanza :

Blindfold, a-luting, by his wife beguiled,
The brahmin sat, who tried to rear

A paragon of virtue uudeflled!
Learn hence to hold the sex in fear.

In such wise did the Bodhisatta expound the Truth to
the brahmin. And the brahmin went home and taxed the
girl with the wickedness of which she was accused. " My
dear husband, who can have said such a thing about me?"
said she. " Indeed I am innocent ; indeed it was my own
hand, and nobody else's, that struck you ; and, if you do
not believe me, I will brave the ordeal of fire and swear that
no man's hand has touched me but yours ; and so I will
make you believe me." "So be it," said the brahmin.
And he had a quantity of wood brought and set light to
it. Then the girl was summoned. " Now," said he, " if you
believe your own story, brave these flames ! "

Now before this the girl had instructed her attendant
as follows: "Tell your son, mother, to be there and to
seize my hand just as I am about to go into the fire."
And the old woman did as she was bidden ; and the fellow
came and took his stand among the crowd. Then, to
delude the brahmin, the girl, standing there before all the
people, exclaimed with fervour, " No man's hand but thine,
brahmin, has ever touched me ; and, by the truth of my
asseveration I call on this fire to harm me not." So saying,
she advanced to the burning pile, when up dashed her
paramour, who seized her by the hand, crying shame on
the brahmin who could force so fair a maid to enter the
flames ! Shaking her hand free, the girl exclaimed to the
brahmin that what she had sworn w r as now undone, and
that she could not now brave the ordeal of fire. "Why
not?" said the brahmin. "Because," she replied, "my
asseveration was that no man's hand but thine had ever
touched me ; and now here is a man w r ho has seized hold
of my hand!" But the brahmin, knowing that he was
tricked, drove her from him with blows.

Such, we learn, is the wickedness of women. What
crime will they not commit ; and then, to deceive their
husbands, what oaths will they not take aye, in the light
of day that they did it not ! So false-hearted are they !
Therefore has it been said :

A sex composed of wickedness and guile,
Unknowable, uncertain as the path
Of fishes in the water, womankind
Hold truth for falsehood, falsehood for the truth !
As greedily as cows seek pastures new,
Women, unsated, yearn for mate on mate.
Thievish and cruel as a sweet-voiced snake,
They know all tricks wherewith to gull mankind.