REFORMERS AND THEIR FATE 217
‘Or were they waited upon by women with fringes and furbelows round their loins, as you, and your teacher too, do now?
‘Or did they go about driving chariots, drawn by mares with plaited manes and tails, using long wands and goads the while, as you, and your teacher too, do now?’
‘Not that Gotama.’
‘Or did they have themselves guarded in fortified towns, with moats dug out round them and Crossbars let down before the gates, by men girt with long swords, as you, and your teacher too, do now?’
‘Not that Gotama.’
‘So then, Ambattha, neither are. you a Rishi, nor your teacher, nor do you live under the conditions under which the Rishis lived. But whatsoever it may be, Ambattha, concerning which you are in doubt or perplexity about me, ask me as to that, I will make it clear by explanation.’
Then the Blessed One went forth from his chamber, and began to walk up and down that Ambattha did the same. And as he thus walked up and down, following the Blessed One, he took stock of the thirty-two signs of a great man, whether they appeared on the body of the Blessed One or not. And he perceived them all save only two. With respect to those two—the concealed member and the extent of tongue—he was in doubt and perplexity, not satisfied not sure.
And the Blessed One knew that he was so in doubt. And he so arranged matters by his Wondrous Gift that Ambattha the Brahman saw how that part of the Blessed One that ought to be hidden by clothes was enclosed in a sheath. And the Blessed One so bent round his tongue that he touched and stroked both his ears, touched and stroked both his nostrils, and the whole circumstance of his forehead he covered with his tongue.
And Ambattha, the young Brahman, thought: ‘The Samana Gotama is endowed with the thirty-two signs of a great man, with them all, not only with some of them. [1] And he said to the Blessed One: ‘And now, Gotama, we would fain depart. We are busy and have much to do.’
‘Do Ambattha, what seemed to you fit.’
And Ambattha mounted his chariot drawn by mares, and departed thence.
- Now at that time the Brahman Pokkharasadi had gone forth from Ukkattha with a great retinue of Brahmans, and was seated in his own pleasance waiting there for Ambattha. And Ambattha came on to the pleasance. And when he had come in his chariot as far as the path was practicable for chariots, he descended from it, and came on foot to where Pokkharasadi was, and saluted him, and took his seat