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THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA. IV, 1, 43.
'King Sivi gave his eyes away, O king. Harbour no doubt on that point. And in stead thereof divine eyes were produced for him. Neither on that point should you harbour doubt.'
* But then, Nâgasena, can the divine eye arise when the cause of it has been utterly destroyed, when no cause for it, no basis, remains ?'
Certainly not, O king.'
What then is the reason [120] by which in this case it arose, notwithstanding that its cause had been utterly destroyed, and no cause for it, no basis, remained. Come now. Convince me of the reason of this thing.'
43. What then, o king? Is there in the world such a thing as Truth, by the asseveration of which true believers can perform the Act of Truth??'
Yes, Lord, there is. And by it true believers make the rain to fall, and fire to go out, and ward off the effects of poison, and accomplish many other things they want to do.'
*Then, great king, that fits the case, that meets it on all fours. It was by the power of Truth that those divine eyes were produced for Sivi the king. By the power of the Truth the divine eye arose when no other cause was present, for the Truth itself was, in that case, the cause of its production. Sup
· This paragraph is very different in the Simhalese, and much longer than the Påli.
? See the beautiful story of the Holy Quail (translated in my "Buddhist Birth Stories,' p. 302), where even so weak a creature as a baby quail is able, by such a mystic Act of Truth, to drive back the great and powerful Agni, the god of fire, whom the Brahmans so much feared and worshipped.
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