s horses were frightened by the
sight of a dead man whose rotting body lay sprawling in the ditch beside
the road. The young prince, who had never been allowed to see such
things, was frightened, but Channa told him not to mind such trifles.
The world was full of dead people. It was the rule of life that all
things must come to an end. Nothing was eternal. The grave awaited us
all and there was no escape.

That evening, when Siddhartha returned to his home, he was received with
music. While he was away his wife had given birth to a son. The people
were delighted because now they knew that there was an heir to the
throne and they celebrated the event by the beating of many drums.
Siddhartha, however, did not share their joy. The curtain of life had
been lifted and he had learned the horror of man's existence. The sight
of death and suffering followed him like a terrible dream.

That night the moon was shining brightly. Siddhartha woke up and began
to think of many things. Never again could he be happy until he should
have found a solution to the riddle of existence. He decided to find
it far away from all those whom he loved. Softly he went into the room
where Yasodhara was sleeping with her baby. Then he called for his
faithful Channa and told him to follow.

Together the two men went into the darkness of the night, one to find
rest for his soul, the other to be a faithful servant unto a beloved
master.

The people of India among whom Siddhartha wandered for many years were
just then in a state of change. Their ancestors, the native Indians,
had been conquered without great difficulty by the war-like Aryans
(our distant cousins) and thereafter the Aryans had been the rulers
and masters of tens of millions of docile little brown men. To maintain
themselves in the seat of the mighty, they had divided the population
into different classes and gradually a system of "caste" of the most
rigid sort had been enforced upon the natives. The descendants of the
Indo-European conquerors belonged to the highest "caste," the class of
warriors and nobles. Next came the caste of the priests. Below these
followed the peasants and the business men. The ancient natives,
however, who were called Pariahs, formed a class of despised and
miserable slaves and never could hope to be anything else.

Even the religion of the people was a matter of caste. The old
Indo-Europeans, during their thousands of years of wandering, had met
with many