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IV, 1, 47.
KING SIVI.
183
harlot, in this city of Pataliputta, by the sale of my body do I gain my livelihood, I follow the meanest of vocations. Let the king behold the power of an Act of Truth performed even by such as I." And she performed an Act of Truth! And that moment the mighty Ganges, roaring and raging, rolled back, up stream, in the sight of all the people !
• Then when the king heard the din and the noise of the movement of the waves of the whirlpools of the mighty Ganges, amazed, and struck with awe and wonder, he said to his officers : “How is this, that the great Ganges is flowing backwards ?”
"And they told him what had happened. Then filled with emotion the king went himself in haste and asked the courtesan : “Is it true what they say, that it is by your Act of Truth that this Ganges has been forced to flow backwards ?” ""Yes, Sire," said she.
And the king asked: “How have you such power in the matter? Or who is it who takes your words to heart and carries them out)? By what authority is it that you, insignificant as you are?, have been able to make this mighty river flow backwards ?"
And she replied: “It is by the power of Truth, great king."
But the king said: “How can that power be in you—you, a woman of wicked and loose life,
* That is to say, in the words of the Quail story (loc. cit. p. 305), she called to mind the attributes of the Buddhas who had passed away, and made a solemn asseveration of the faith' that she had in the truth they had taught.
? Anummatto, which the Simhalese translates as a feminine.
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