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V, 6, 1.
ON THE DAILY LIFE OF THE BHIKKHUS.
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Take them, O Bhikkhus, and eat. I allow you, O Bhikkhus, to eat fruit which has become allowable to Samanas in any one of these five ways-when it has been injured by fire-or by sword 2-or by nails—when it has not yet had any seed in it-and fifthly, when it has no more seed in it s. I allow you, O Bhikkhus, to eat fruit which has become allowable to Samanas in any one of these five
ways.'
1. Now at that time a certain Bhikkhu died of the bite of a snake. They told the matter to the Blessed One.
1 Buddhaghosa gives in the Samanta Påsâdikâ on the 11th Pâkittiya the following explanations of these terms. Aggi-parigitan ti aggina parigitam abhibhůtam daddham phuthan ti attho. The reading parigitam is correct and should be inserted in the text for parikitam.
Sattha-parigitan ti satthena parigitam abhibhatam khinnam viddham và ti attho. Esa nayo nakha-parigite (B., loc. cit.).
* These last two clauses have already occurred at Mahâvagga VI, 21. The principle of the injunction throughout its five divisions is one and the same-the seed, or the capacity of fructification, must either have never existed, or have passed away, or have been destroyed.
This ancient legend has been expanded into a Gâtaka story, under the title of Khandha-vatta Gataka, No. 203 in Professor Fausböll's edition (vol. ii, pp. 144-148), in which recur all the verses here given as a snake-charm. The names of the serpents are derived from the ancient mythology, and are not to be supposed to refer to actual breeds of real snakes. Below, Kullavagga VI, 2, 5, where a Bhikkhu is bitten by a snake, the simple precaution enjoined is the use of a higher bedstead.
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