"And she asked: 'What medicine do you want? Tell me, that I may hasten in search of it.'
"And the Buddha said: 'I want only a few grains of mustard-seed. Leave here the boy, and go you and bring them to me.'
"The girl refused to part with her baby, but promised to get the seed for him.
"As she was about to set out, the pitiful Buddha, recalling her, said: 'My sister, the mustard-seed that I require must be taken from a house where no child, parent, husband, wife, relative, or slave has ever died.'
"The young mother replied, 'Very good, my lord'; and went her way, taking her boy with her, and setting him astride on her hip, with his lifeless head resting on her bosom.
"Thus she went from house to house, from palace to hut, begging for some grains of mustard-seed.
"The people said to her: 'Here are the seeds; take them, and go thy way.'
"But she first asked: 'In this, my friend's house, has there ever died a child, a husband, a parent, or a slave?'
"And they one and all replied: 'Lady, what is this that thou hast said? Knowest thou not that the living are few, but that the dead are many? There is no such house as thou seekest.'