________________
IV, 6, 59.
OF MILINDA THE KING.
89
onset of the wind, whereas the water in the waterjars neither moves nor makes any noise, because nothing shakes it.'
Well, the sounds given forth by boiling water are the result, in a similar way, [261] of the great heat of the fire.
58. 'Do not people cover over the dried-up mouth of a drum ? with dried cow-leather ?'
. Yes, they do.
"Well, is there any soul or being, O king, in a drum?'
Certainly not, Sir.' *Then how is it that a drum makes sounds?' By the action or effort of a woman or a man.
Well, just as that is why the drum sounds, so is it by the effect of the heat of the fire that the water sounds. And for this reason also you might know, O king, that there is no soul, neither being, in water; and that it is the heat of the fire which causes it to make sounds.
59. 'And I, too, O king, have something yet further to ask of you-thus shall this puzzle be thoroughly threshed out. How is it? Is it true of every kind of vessel that water heated in it makes noises, or only of some kinds of vessels ?' 'Not of all, Sir. Only of some.'
But then you have yourself, O king, abandoned the position you took up. You have come over to my side—that there is no soul, neither being, in water. For only if it made noises in whatever
* Bheri-pokkharam, which the Simhalese renders bherimukha. Compare Vimâna Vatthu 18, 10, where pokkhara is a sort of drum.
• A similar analogy has been used above, vol. I, p. 48.
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