[298] This solemn appeal to a former good action, if it be true, is often represented as working a miracle, and is called saccakiriyā, i.e. “truth-act.” Childers properly compares 2 Kings i. 10: “If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.” But the miracle, said in the Buddhist scriptures to follow on an appeal of this kind, is usually, as in this case, an assistance to some one in distress. On the Perfections, see above, pp. 54 to 58.
[299] This seems to be a gloss, as the writer adds, “He could not have stopped at that point; so it should not thus be understood.”
[300] On this story, see the translator’s “Buddhism,” pp. 196-198.
[301] On this story, see below, Jātaka No. 35.
[302] This verse is quoted by the Dhammapada Commentator, Fausböll, p. 147.
[303] The Commentator on the “Scripture Verses” (p. 331), says that it was at the end of this story that the Buddha uttered the 162nd verse of that Collection—“He who exceeds in wickedness makes himself such as his enemy might desire, (dragging himself down) as the creeper the tree which it has covered.”
[304] Literally, of the Agatis (things of which a judge, and especially a king, sitting as judge, ought not to be guilty); they are four in number, partiality, ill-will, ignorance, and fear.
[305] See the last Introductory Story.
[306] A title of honour given to Sāriputta.
[307] This is verse No. 285 of the ‘Scripture Verses,’ àpropos of which the commentator tells the same story as is told here.