"During all the time that elapsed after the rain, Buddha travelled through the country, engaged in his usual benevolent errand, and converting many amongst men and angels. In the country of Gaurint, in a village of Pounhas, called Magoulia, the head man, one of the richest in the place, had a daughter whose beauty equalled that of a daughter of the angels. She had been in vain asked in marriage by princes, nobles, and Pounhas. The proud damsel had rejected every offer. On the day that her father saw Gautama he was struck with his manly beauty and deportment. He said within himself, 'This man shall be a proper match for my daughter.' On his return home he communicated his views to his wife. On the following day, the daughter having put on her choicest dress and richest apparel, they all three went with a large retinue to the Dzetawon monastery. Admitted to the presence of Buddha, the father asked for his daughter the favour of being allowed to attend on him. Without returning a word or reply, or giving the least sign of acceptance or refusal, Buddha rose up and withdrew to a small distance, leaving behind him on the floor the print of one of his feet. The Pounha's wife, well skilled in the science of interpreting wonderful signs, saw at a glance that the marks on the print indicated a man no longer under the control of passions, but a sage emancipated from the thraldom of concupiscence." The story goes on to relate how the father made a further offer of his daughter to Buddha, and how the saint preached to the parents a sermon that stilled their longings to possess him for a son-in-law. They returned home with their still unmarried daughter. She never forgave the man who had refused her love, and cherished for him a lively and life-long hatred. The other story tells of a visit paid by the saint Kathaba to the pile upon which Buddha was laid for his cremation. "Standing opposite to the feet, he made the following prayer, 'I wish to see the feet of Buddha whereupon are imprinted the marks that formerly prognosticated his future glorious destiny. May the cloth and cotton they are wrapt with be unloosened, and the coffin as well as the pile be laid open, and the sacred feet appear out, and extend so far as to lie on my head.' He had scarcely uttered this prayer when the whole suddenly opened, and there came out the beautiful feet, like the full moon emerging from the bosom of a dark cloud." CHAPTER XX. THE ELEPHANTS.