and neck deprived of their glossy look, whinnying as he went on with grief, he refused night and day his grass and water, because he had lost his lord, the deliverer of men.  Returning thus to Kapilavastu, the whole country appeared withered and bare, as when one comes back to a deserted village; or as when the sun hidden behind Sumeru causes darkness to spread over the world.  The fountains of water sparkled no more, the flowers and fruits were withered and dead, the men and women in the streets seemed lost in grief and dismay.  Thus Kandaka with the white horse went on sadly and with slow advance, silent to those inquiring, wearily progressing as when accompanying a funeral; so they went on, whilst all the spectators seeing Kandaka, but not observing the royal Sakya prince, raised piteous cries of lamentation and wept; as when the charioteer returned without Rama.

Then one by the side of the road, with his body bent, called out to Kandaka:  “The prince, beloved of the world, the defender of his people, the one you have taken away by stealth, where dwells he now?” Kandaka, then, with sorrowful heart, replied to the people and said:  “I with loving purpose followed after him whom I loved; ’tis not I who have deserted the prince, but by him have I been sent away; by him who now has given up his ordinary adornments, and with shaven head and religious garb, has entered the sorrow-giving grove.”

Then the men hearing that he had become an ascetic, were oppressed with thoughts of wondrous boding; they sighed with heaviness and wept, and as their tears coursed down their cheeks, they spake thus one to the other:  “What then shall we do?” Then they all exclaimed at once, “Let us haste after him in pursuit; for as when a man’s bodily functions fail, his frame dies and his spirit flees, so is the prince our life, and he our life gone, how shall we survive?  This city, perfected with slopes and woods; those woods, that cover the slopes of the city, all deprived of grace, ye lie as Bharata when killed!”

Then the men and women within the town, vainly supposing the prince had come back, in haste rushed out to the heads of the way, and seeing the horse returning alone, not knowing whether the prince was safe or lost, began to weep and to raise every piteous sound; and said, “Behold!  Kandaka advancing slowly with the horse, comes back with sighs and tears; surely he grieves because the prince is lost.”  And thus sorrow is added to sorrow!

Then like a captive warrior is drawn before the king his master, so did he enter the gates with tears, his eyes filled so that he said nought.  Then looking up to heaven he loudly groaned; and the white horse too whined piteously; then all the varied birds and beasts in the palace court, and all the horses within the stables, hearing the sad whinnying of the royal steed, replied in answer to him, thinking “now the prince has come back.”  But seeing him not, they ceased their cries!