ccount in the eyes of
any of the saints, save only of Buddha, whose compassion is inexhaustible.

The fame of his achievement, nevertheless, was bruited about the whole
country, and soon reached the ears of the king, who sent for him, and
inquired if he had actually expelled the demon.

Ananda replied in the affirmative.

"I am indeed rejoiced," returned the king, "as thou now wilt without doubt
proceed to heal _my_ son, who has lain in a trance for twenty-nine days."

"Alas! dread sovereign," modestly returned Ananda, "how should the merits
which barely suffice to effect the cure of a miserable Pariah avail to
restore the offspring of an Elephant among Kings?"

"By what process are these merits acquired?" demanded the monarch.

"By the exercise of penance," responded Ananda, "in virtue of which the
austere devotee quells the winds, allays the waters, expostulates
convincingly with tigers, carries the moon in his sleeve, and otherwise
performs all acts and deeds appropriate to the character of a peripatetic
thaumaturgist."

"This being so," answered the king, "thy inability to heal my son
manifestly arises from defect of merit, and defect of merit from defect of
penance. I will therefore consign thee to the charge of my Brahmins, that
they may aid thee to fill up the measure of that which is lacking."

Ananda vainly strove to explain that the austerities to which he had
referred were entirely of a spiritual and contemplative character. The
Brahmins, enchanted to get a heretic into their clutches, immediately
seized upon him, and conveyed him to one of their temples. They stripped
him, and perceived with astonishment that not one single weal or scar was
visible anywhere on his person. "Horror!" they exclaimed; "here is a man
who expects to go to heaven in a whole skin!" To obviate this breach of
etiquette, they laid him upon his face, and flagellated him until the
obnoxious soundness of cuticle was entirely removed. They then departed,
promising to return next day and operate in a corresponding manner upon the
anterior part of his person, after which, they jeeringly assured him, his
merits would be in no respect less than those of the saintly Bhagiratha, or
of the regal Viswamitra himself.

Ananda lay half dead upon the floor of the temple, when the sanctuary was
illuminated by the apparition of a resplendent Glendoveer, who thus
addressed him:

"Well, backsliding disciple, art thou yet convinced of thy folly?