orth from
her womb a ball of flesh. The superior wife, jealous of the other, said,
"You have brought forth a thing of evil omen," and immediately it was
put into a box of wood and thrown into the river. Farther down the
stream another king was walking and looking about, when he saw the
wooden box floating in the water. He had it brought to him, opened it,
and found a thousand little boys, upright and complete, and each one
different from the others. He took them and had them brought up. They
grew tall and large, and very daring and strong, crushing all opposition
in every expedition which they undertook. By and by they attacked the
kingdom of their real father, who became in consequence greatly
distressed and sad. His inferior wife asked what it was that made him
so, and he replied, "That king has a thousand sons, daring and strong
beyond compare, and he wishes with them to attack my kingdom; this is
what makes me sad." The wife said, "You need not be sad and sorrowful.
Only make a high gallery on the wall of the city on the east; and when
the thieves come, I shall be able to make them retire." The king did as
she said; and when the enemies came, she said to them from the tower,
"You are my sons; why are you acting so unnaturally and rebelliously?"
They replied, "Who are you that say you are our mother?" "If you do not
believe me," she said, "look, all of you, towards me, and open your
mouths." She then pressed her breasts with her two hands, and each sent
forth five hundred jets of milk, which fell into the mouths of the
thousand sons. The thieves thus knew that she was their mother, and laid
down their bows and weapons. The two kings, the fathers, hereupon fell
into reflection, and both got to be Pratyeka Buddhas. The tope of the
two Pratyeka Buddhas is still existing.

In a subsequent age, when the World-honored one had attained to perfect
Wisdom and become Buddha, he said to his disciples, "This is the place
where I in a former age laid down my bow and weapons." [2] It was thus
that subsequently men got to know the fact, and raised the tope on this
spot, which in this way received its name. The thousand little boys were
the thousand Buddhas of this Bhadra-kalpa. [3]

It was by the side of the "Weapons-laid-down" tope that Buddha, having
given up the idea of living longer, said to Ananda, "In three months
from this I will attain to pari-nirvana"; and king Mara [4] had so
fascinated and stupefied Ananda, that he was