At last, not being able to find a single house where no one had died, her mind began to clear, and, summoning up resolution, she left the dead body of her child in a forest, and returning to the Buddha paid him homage. He said to her: “Have you the mustard-seed?” “My Lord,” she replied, “I have not; the people tell me that the living are few, but the dead are many.” Then he talked to her on that essential part of his system—the impermanency of all things, till her doubts were cleared away, and, accepting her lot, she became a disciple and entered the first Path.
The following lines, ascribed to some of her Sisters in the Order and given in the _Psalms_ (translated by Mrs. Rhys Davids), would apply to Kisāgotamī:—
“Lo! from my heart the hidden shaft is gone, The shaft that nestled there hath he removed; And that consuming grief for my dear child, Which poisoned all the life of me, is dead. To-day my heart is healed, my yearning stayed, Perfected the deliverance wrought in me.”
The following notes are intended for teachers who may wish to use this collection as a class text book. In all these stories we have the idea of the Indian God in various re-incarnations until he has attained full Buddhahood. Beyond occasionally mentioning the fact of Re-birth in introducing the story (so as to preserve the Oriental flavor) I do not insist on this, nor do I introduce the name of the Buddha into the actual table of contents at the beginning of the book, as it might seem abstruse to the younger readers. But because I wish to appeal to scholars in the higher sense as well as to boys and girls, I have tried in many instances to preserve the language as given in the translation from the Pali. I have also tried to avoid cutting out any important episodes; this sometimes happens in the popular adaptation of these deeply ethical stories. I have tried to keep as far as possible the Eastern point of view, since the book is sponsored by one of the foremost of Oriental Scholars, Dr. Rhys Davids, who has helped me with his advice, and taught me the spirit of the whole conception.
This is the only story I have completely re-adapted for quite small children, and I have found it among the most popular. I often tell it in connection with Hans C. Andersen’s story of the “Scandal in the Poultry Yard,” of which the subject is practically the same: the first being simple and direct, the second veiled in gentle satire.