deep and solemn words, having his large eyes opened wide with wonder:
60. ‘This is indeed worthy of thee, great-souled as thou art, fond of guests, liberal and a lover of duty,—that thy mind should be thus kind towards me, in full accordance with thy nature, family, wisdom, and age.
61. ‘This is the true way in which those seerkings of old, rejecting through duty all trivial riches[1], have ever flung them away as was right,—being poor in outward substance but rich in ascetic endurance.
62. ‘But hear now the motive for my coming and rejoice thereat; a heavenly voice has been heard by me in the heavenly path, that thy son has been born for the sake of supreme knowledge.
63. ‘Having heard that voice and applied my mind thereto, and having known its truth by signs, I am now come hither, with a longing to see the banner of the Sâkya race, as if it were Indra’s banner being set up[2].’
64. Having heard this address of his, the king, with his steps bewildered with joy, took the prince, who lay on his nurse’s side, and showed him to the holy ascetic.
65. Thus the great seer beheld the king’s son with wonder,—his foot marked with a wheel, his fingers and toes webbed, with a circle of hair between his eyebrows, and signs of vigour like an elephant.
66. Having beheld him seated on his nurse’s side,
