Emerging from the temple, we saw the Buddhist monastery (Vihara), which is a series of halls and cells rising one above the other in stories connected by flights of steps, all hewn in the face of the hill at the side of the temple.  We sat down on a fragment of rock near a stream of water with which a spring in the hillside fills a little pool at the entrance of the Vihara.  “Tell me something of Gotama Buddha,” I said.  “Recite some of his deliverances, O Bhima Gandharva!—­you who know everything.”

“I will recite to you from the Sutta Nipata, which is supposed by many pundits of Ceylon to contain several of the oldest examples of the Pali language.  It professes to give the conversation of Buddha, who died five hundred and forty-three years before Christ lived on earth; and these utterances are believed by scholars to have been brought together at least more than two hundred years before the Christian era.  The Mahamangala Sutta, of the Nipata Sutta, says, for example:  ’Thus it was heard by me.  At a certain time Bhagava (Gotama Buddha) lived at Savatthi in Jetavana, in the garden of Anathupindika.  Then, the night being far advanced, a certain god, endowed with a radiant color illuminating Jetavana completely, came to where Bhagava was, [and] making obeisance to him, stood on one side.  And, standing on one side, the god addressed Bhagava in [these] verses: 

    “1.  Many gods and men, longing after what is good, have
    considered many things as blessings.  Tell us what is the
    greatest blessing.

    “2.  Buddha said:  Not serving fools, but serving the wise, and
    honoring those worthy of being honored:  this is the greatest
    blessing.

    “3.  The living in a fit country, meritorious deeds done in a
    former existence, the righteous establishment of one’s self: 
    this is the greatest blessing.

    “4.  Extensive knowledge and science, well-regulated discipline
    and well-spoken speech:  this is the greatest blessing.

    “5.  The helping of father and mother, the cherishing of child
    and wife, and the following of a lawful calling:  this is the
    greatest blessing.

    “6.  The giving alms, a religious life, aid rendered to
    relatives, blameless acts:  this is the greatest blessing.

    “7.  The abstaining from sins and the avoiding them, the
    eschewing of intoxicating drink, diligence in good deeds:  this
    is the greatest blessing.

    “8.  Reverence and humility, contentment and gratefulness, the
    hearing of the law in the right time:  this is the greatest
    blessing.

    “9.  Patience and mild speech, the association with those
    who have subdued their passions, the holding of religious
    discourse in the right time:  this is the greatest blessing.

    “10.  Temperance and charity, the discernment of holy truth, the
    perception of Nibbana:  this is the greatest blessing.