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the town.' So he ordered a wall to be built at the door of the merchant's house, and in a short time all the human beings in it, beginning with the father and mother of the family, died of the plague. But Dámannaka was spared by the plague, on account of the compassion that he had shown in a previous birth; but he could not get out of the house. However, in course of time, he got out by the passage made by the dogs, which came in to eat the dead bodies. Roaming about to beg alms, he entered the house of a merchant named Sagarapota. While he was standing at the door of the house, a couple of hermits came on their begging round. The elder of the two ascetics, when he saw Dámannaka, said.:
'Hear my words: I infer from the marks on his body,
This boy shall one day become a merchant, the master of this house.' The merchant Ságarapota, being separated by a wall, heard this speech, and said to himself: 'Hermits do not say what is false even at the crack of doom, for
'Hermits who are free from attachment and hatred, who look impartially on jewels, straws, friends and enemies, Do not, like ordinary men, speak an inconsiderate speech.
So shall my family become extinct? Shall my son Samudradatta be destroyed, since, though my family is so numerous and flourishing, this beggar is to be lord in my house? However, what a hermit says cannot prove false.' The merchant was miserable. He said: 'Out on this drama of the universe! Shall this beggar become master of this wealth, which my father and grandfather and other ancestors so long cherished? So I will devise some scheme. What is the use of lamenting? I will think of a plan for killing him. If he is overlooked, he will be fatal like a disease.' Having thus deliberated with his own heart, he took a sweetmeat, and said to that Dámannaka: Come here, my darling, that I may give you a sweetmeat.' When Dámannaka heard this, he went with him. The merchant went to the quarter of the Chandálas. There was a chief of the Chandálas named Khangila. He called him aside and gave him money, and said to him: 'Come, do me this
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