31. 'What a constancy! What a goodness and a longing for the food of the creatures! Though I witnessed the fact, I can scarcely believe it. 'It is not right, then, that this person of marvellous goodness should endure this great hardship for a long time. I will try to render him his eyesight by showing him the way for it.' * * * * * Afterwards, when time had healed the wounds caused by the operation, and lessened and almost lulled the sorrow of the inhabitants of the palace, the town, and the country, it happened one day that the king, desirous of solitary retirement, was sitting with crossed legs in his garden on the border of a pond of lotuses. That spot was beset by fair and fine trees bent down by the weight of their flowers; swarms of bees were humming; a gentle, fresh, and odoriferous wind was blowing agreeably. Suddenly _S_akra, the Lord of the Devas, presented himself before the king. Being asked who he was, he answered: 32 _a_. 'I am _S_akra, the Lord of the Devas, I have come to you.' Thereupon the king welcomed him and said that he waited for his orders. After being thus complimented, he again addressed the king: 32 _b_. 'Choose some boon, holy prince (râ_g_arshi); say on what thou desirest.' Now the king being ever wont to give, and having never trodden the way of miserable begging, in conformity with his astonishment and his lofty mind spoke to him: 33, 34. 'Great is my wealth, _S_akra, my army is large and strong; my blindness, however, makes death welcome to me. It is impossible for me, after supplying the wants of the mendicants, to see their faces brightened by gladness and joy; for this reason, O Indra, I love death now.' _S_akra said: 'No more of that resolution! Only virtuous persons come in such a state as thine. But this thou must tell me: 35. 'It is the mendicants who have caused thee to come in this state; how is it that thy mind is occupied with them even now? Say on! do not hide the truth from me and thou mayst take the way to immediate cure[33].' [33] This way is the Act of Truth, as Hardy, Manual of Buddhism, 197, calls it. In the Pâli _G_âtaka, Sakka invites the king to it in plain terms. Other instances of the sa_kk_akiriyâ, as it is styled in Pâli, will occur in Stories XIV, XV, XVI. The king replied: 'Why dost thou insist upon my boasting myself? Hear, however, Lord of the Devas. 36. 'As surely as the supplicatory language of begging people both now and before is as pleasing to my ears as the sound of benedictions, so surely may one eye appear to me!' No sooner had the king pronounced these words than by the power of his firm veracity and his excellent store of meritorious actions one eye appeared to him, resembling a piece of a lotus-petal, encompassing a pupil like sapphire. Rejoiced at this miraculous appearance of his eye, the king again spoke to _S_akra: