Note 171 — Chapter V

In a Buddhist work entitled Wæsakára-sataka (a hundred stanzas) is the following: “The evil man is to be avoided, though he be arrayed in the robe of all the sciences, as we flee from the serpent, though it be adorned with the kantha jewel.” The natives of Ceylon, says Spence Hardy, believe that this gem is to be found in the throat of the nayá. “It emits a light more brilliant than the purest diamond; and when the serpent wishes to discover anything in the dark it disgorges the substance, swallowing it again when its work is done. It is thought possible to obtain the jewel by throwing dust upon it when out of the serpent’s mouth; but if the reptile should be killed to obtain it, misfortune would certainly follow.”—Eastern Monachism, p. 316. (See also note, ante, p. 232.)