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THE QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES
body and limbs lean and rugged and dark, with head swollen, bloated, and full of holes, hungry and thirsty, odd and dreadful in colour and form, his ears all torn, and his eyes ever winking, his limbs a mass of mortifying sores, his whole body the prey of maggots, his stomach all scorching and hot like a fiery furnace blazing in the breeze, yet with a mouth no larger than a needle so that his thirst can never cease, with no place of refuge to fly to, no protector to help him, groaning and weeping and crying out for mercy, shall he wander wailing o'er the earth!
17. Just, O king, as whosoever, being unfit for royalty, without having properly attained to it, being inappropriate to it, unworthy of it, unsuitable for it, a low-born man and base in lineage, should receive the consecration of a king, he would suffer mutilation, having his hands or his feet, or his hands and feet cut off, or his ears or his nose, or his ears and nose cut off, [358] or he would be tortured, being subjected to the Gruel Pot, or to the Chank Crown, or to the Râhu's Mouth, or to the Fire Garland, or to the Hand Torch, or to the Snake Strips, or to the Bark Dress, or to the Spotted Antelope, or to the Flesh Hooks, or to the Pennies, or to the Brine Slits, or to the Bar Turn, or to the Straw Seat 3, or he would be anointed with boiling oil, or be eaten by dogs, or be impaled alive, or be beheaded, or be subjected to punishments of various kinds. And why? Because he being unfit for it, without having properly attained to it, being inappropriate to it, unworthy of it, unsuitable for it, a low-born man
VI, 17.
1 Sûna (for suna). See Kullavagga X, 1, 2, 3. 'Aru-gatto pakka-gatto. See Magghima Nikâya I, 506. On all these see the notes above, I, 276, 277.
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