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VI, 2, 7.
ON DWELLINGS AND FURNITURE.
169
They covered the bedsteads and chairs without putting a cloth beneath them', and the stuffing came out from below.
I allow you, O Bhikkhus, first to spread out a cloth under the bedsteads or chairs, and then to upholster them.'
They tore off the coverings ?, and took them away.
'I allow you, O Bhikkhus, to bespatter (the coverings with dye) 8.'
They still took them away.
I allow you, O Bhikkhus, to use coverings coloured in patches ^.'
They still took them away.
I allow you, O Bhikkhus, to colour the coverings in patches only the size of a man's hand ?
1 Ullokam akaritvå hetthâ kilimikam adatvå (B.). The word occurs again at Mahavagga I, 25, 15 = Kullavagga VIII, 1, 3, where cobwebs are to be removed with a cloth (ulloka I).
* Khavim; but perhaps not necessarily of leather. See the commencement of this section.
So that the coverings would be useless for other purposes. The Pali word is positum, which Buddhaghosa explains thushesitun ti (so the Berlin MS.) raganena vâ haliddhâya va upari pusitani datum. The word is evidently connected not with the root push, but with the roots prish and prush, 'to bespatter;' and is the same as phositun at Mahâvagga VI, 14, 5, which is probably the better reading of the two.
• Bhatti-kammam. The meaning is doubtful, because the reading is uncertain. Buddhaghosa says, Bhitti-kamman ti (sic) bhisi-khaviya upari bhitti-kammam. The word is probably analogous in formation to our English patchwork,' though the
patches' are not of pieces of different coloured stuffs, but of bits of different colour spread over the same stuff, and whatever its meaning, it is probably the same word as bhati-kamma at V, 9, 2.
Again both reading and interpretation are open to question. Hattha-bhittin ti pankangula-bhittim is all that Buddhaghosa
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