It also describes a scene which took place after the taxes had been paid.
Vasudeva, an acquaintance of Nanda's, "went to the wagon of Nanda, and found Nanda there, rejoicing that a son (Crishna) had been born to him.
"Vasudeva spoke to him kindly, and congratulated him _on having a son in his old age_.[158:4]
"'Thy yearly tribute,' he added, 'has been paid to the king . . . why do you delay, now that your affairs are settled? Up, Nanda, quickly, and set off to your own pastures.' . . . Accordingly Nanda and the other cowherds returned to their village."[158:5]
Now, in regard to _Buddha_, the same myth is found.
Among the thirty-two signs which were to be fulfilled by the mother of the expected Messiah (Buddha), the fifth sign was recorded to be, "_that she would be on a journey at the time of her child's birth_." Therefore, "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets," the virgin Maya, in the tenth month after her heavenly conception, was on a journey to her father, when lo, the birth of the Messiah took place under a tree. One account says that "she had alighted at an _inn_ when Buddha was born."[159:1]
The mother of _Lao-tsze_, the Virgin-born Chinese sage, was away from home when her child was born. She stopped to rest _under a tree_, and there, like the virgin Maya, gave birth to her son.[159:2]
_Pythagoras_ (B. C. 570), whose real father was the Holy Ghost,[159:3] was also born at a time when his mother was away from home on a journey. She was travelling with her husband, who was _about his mercantile concerns_, from Samos to Sidon.[159:4]
_Apollo_ was born when his mother was away from home. The Ionian legend tells the simple tale that Leto, the mother of the unborn Apollo, could find no place to receive her in her hour of travail until she came to Delos. The child was born like Buddha and Lao-tsze--_under a tree_.[159:5] The mother knew that he was destined to be a being of mighty power, ruling among the undying gods and mortal men.[159:6]
Thus we see that the stories, one after another, relating to the birth and infancy of Jesus, are simply old myths, and are therefore not historical.
[154:3] Eusebius's Life of Constantine, lib. 3, chs. xl., xli. and xlii.