Deva to come; but all their subtle devices were ineffectual to move
Bodhisattva's heart.

At last commingling together they join and look astonished and in fear,
silent without a word. Then there was a Brahmaputra, whose name was
called Udayi (Yau-to-i). He, addressing the women, said, "Now all of
you, so graceful and fair, see if you cannot by your combined power hit
on some device; for beauty's power is not forever. Still it holds the
world in bondage, by secret ways and lustful arts; but no such
loveliness in all the world as yours, equal to that of heavenly nymphs;
the gods beholding it would leave their queens, spirits and Rishis would
be misled by it; why not then the prince, the son of an earthly king?
why should not his feelings be aroused? This prince indeed, though he
restrains his heart and holds it fixed, pure-minded, with virtue
uncontaminated, not to be overcome by power of women; yet of old there
was Sundari (Su-to-li) able to destroy the great Rishi, and to lead him
to indulge in love, and so degrade his boasted eminence; undergoing long
penance, Gautama fell likewise by the arts of a heavenly queen;
Shing-kue, a Rishi putra, practising lustful indulgences according to
fancy, was lost. The Brahman Rishi Visvamitra (Pi-she-po), living
religiously for ten thousand years, deeply ensnared by a heavenly queen,
in one day was completely shipwrecked in faith; thus those enticing
women, by their power, overcame the Brahman ascetics; how much more may
ye, by your arts, overpower the resolves of the king's son; strive
therefore after new devices, let not the king fail in a successor to the
throne; women, though naturally weak, are high and potent in the way of
ruling men. What may not their arts accomplish in promoting in men a
lustful desire?" At this time all the attendant women, hearing
throughout the words of Udayi, increasing their powers of pleasing, as
the quiet horse when touched by the whip, went into the presence of the
royal prince, and each one strove in the practice of every kind of art.
They joined in music and in smiling conversation, raising their
eyebrows, showing their white teeth, with ogling looks, glancing one at
the other, their light drapery exhibiting their white bodies, daintily
moving with mincing gait, acting the part of a bride as if coming
gradually nearer, desiring to promote in him a feeling of love,
remembering the words of the great king, "With dissolute form and
slightly clad, f