[254] When the daily meal was to be served in the house of some layman, all the monks invited went there as soon as the time was announced by the “call of refection” being set up, and sat themselves down in the order of their seniority. [255] Little Roadling has now become an Elder, a monk of the higher of the two grades. [256] With this story compare Kathā Sarit Sāgarā, Book VI. vv. 29 and foll. [257] Pronounce Choollacker with the accent on the first syllable. [258] ‘Uluŋka,’ half a cocoa-nut shell, the common form of cup or ladle among the Indian poor. [259] So called ironically, from the apt way in which he had learnt the lesson taught him by Chullaka. [260] Literally, “with a threefold knock,” which I take to mean that the outside attendant announced them to another attendant, he to a third, and the third attendant to their master. The latter thus appeared to be a man of great consequence, as access to him was so difficult, and attended with so much ceremony. [261] That is, twice a thousand pieces from each of the hundred merchants. But of course he should have paid out of this sum the price of the cargo. It can scarcely be intended to suggest that his acuteness led him to go off without paying for the cargo. The omission must be a slip of the story-teller’s. [262] Compare Léon Feer in the _Journal Asiatique_, 1876, vol. viii. pt. ii. pp. 510-525. [263] The Bhatt’ Uddesika, or steward, was a senior monk who had the duty of seeing that all the brethren were provided with their daily food. Sometimes a layman offered to provide it (_e.g._ above, p. 162); sometimes grain, or other food belonging to the monastery, was distributed to the monks by the steward giving them tickets to exchange at the storehouse. The necessary qualifications for the stewardship are said to be: 1. Knowledge of the customs regulating the distribution. 2. A sense of justice. 3. Freedom from ignorance. 4. Absence of fear. 5. Good temper. [264] I am not sure that I have understood rightly the meaning of _vassagga_,--a word of doubtful derivation, which has only been found in this passage. Possibly we should translate: “The turn for the better rice has come to the monk whose seniority dates from such and such a year, and the turn for the inferior kind to the monk whose seniority dates from such and such a year.” [265] These lines are not in the printed text. But see the Corrigenda; and Léon Feer, in the _Journal Asiatique_ for 1876, p. 520. [266] It was on the occasion related in the Introductory Story of this Jātaka, and after he had told the Birth Story, that the Buddha, according to the commentator on that work (Fausböll, pp. 302-305), uttered the 141st verse of the Dhamma-padaŋ. The Introductory Story to No. 32, translated below in this volume, is really only another version of this tale of the luxurious monk. [267] The elder brother is more advanced in his theology.