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A NOBLE YOUTH'S CONVERSION.
leaning against her armpit, one had her tabor leaning against her neck, one had her drum leaning against her armpit, and one had dishevelled hair, one had saliva flowing from her mouth, and they were muttering in their sleep. One would think it was a cemetery one had fallen into. When he saw that, the evils of the life he led manifested themselves to him; his mind became weary of worldly pleasures. And Yasa, the noble youth, gave utterance to this solemn exclamation: Alas! what distress; alas! what danger!' So he went on into the night and sought Buddha, who was walking up and down at dawn. To him he expressed his distress. Buddha replied to him, 'Here is no distress, Yasa; here is no danger. Come here, Yasa, sit down; I will teach you the truth' (Dhamma). And Yasa, the noble youth, when he heard that there was no distress, and that there was no danger, became glad and joyful; and he put off his gilt slippers, and went to the place where the Blessed One was; having approached him and having respectfully saluted the Blessed One, he sat down near him. Then the Blessed One preached to him in due course: that is to say, he talked about the merits obtained by almsgiving, about the duties of morality, about heaven, about the evils, the vanity, and the sinfulness of desires, and about the blessings of the abandonment of desire.
"When the Blessed One saw that the mind of Yasa, the noble youth, was prepared, impressible, free from obstacles, elated, and believing, then he preached what is the principal doctrine of the Buddhas, namely, Suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering, the Path." So Yasa became a convert and subsequently a monk; and his father also received the truth, which fact is thus elaborately expressed: "The treasurer, the householder, having seen the truth, having mastered the truth, having penetrated the truth, having overcome uncertainty, having dispelled all doubts, having gained full knowledge, dependent on nobody else for the knowledge of the doctrine of the Teacher, said to the Blessed One: 'Glorious Lord! Glorious Lord! just as if one should set up, Lord, what had been overturned, or should reveal what had
