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LIFE OF MAHÁVÍRA.
61
the bull and lion among men, lovely to behold* as the moon after emerging from a large white cloud, shining among the surrounding stars and planets, and came outside to the place where the hall of audience was, and sat down upon his throne, which was placed so as to face the east. In the northeast quarter were placed eight seats of honour, covered with cloth, white as the flowers of the white mustard plant. Beyond these again, at a respectful distance, there was drawn a curtain fringed with jewels, and of the finest city manufacture, embroidered with images of stags, bulls, horses, men, crocodiles, birds, serpents, heavenly choristers, eight-legged deer, Tibetan cows, and elephants, with forest flowers and water lilies, forming a perfect screen from the multitude. Within this was set a throne, covered with the purest white cloth, and fringed with gold and jewels, for Queen Trišalá, soft and easy to sit on. Having then called the royal messengers, King Siddhartha thus addressed them :-"O beloved of the gods, go quickly and call a sage skilled in the Institute of the eight kinds of prognosticst, learned
* This is the famous epithet fechu that occurs so frequently in the ancient inscriptions, and wbich we have here met with several times before.
+ According to the Annotator, the eight kinds of prognostics are, those derived from the body, dreams, sounds, the earth,
