Note 3 — Chapter LXV

And his wife wandered about hither and thither, carrying that maimed man, who was her paramour, on her back,3 without fear of her husband, whom she supposed to have been swept away by the river. And she begged from village to village, and city to city, saying, “This husband of mine has had his hands and feet cut off by his enemies; I am a devoted wife and support him by begging, so give me alms. At last she reached the town in which that husband of hers was king. She begged there in the same way, and, as she was honoured by the citizens as a devoted wife the fame of her virtue reached the ears of the king. And the king had her summoned, with the maimed man on her back, and, when she came near, he recognized her and said; “Are you that devoted wife?” And the wicked woman, not recognizing her husband, when surrounded by the splendour of the kingly office, said, “I am that devoted wife, your Majesty.” Then that incarnation of a Bodhisattva laughed, and said; “I too have had practical experience of your wifely devotion. How comes it that, though I your own husband, who possess hands and feet, could not tame you, even by giving you my own flesh and blood, which you kept feeding on like an ogress in human form, this maimed fellow, though defective in his limbs, has been able to tame you and make you his beast of burden? Did you carry on your back your innocent husband, whom you threw into the river? It is owing to that deed that you have to carry and support this maimed man.” When her husband in these words revealed her past conduct, she recognized him, and fainting from fear, became like a painted or dead woman. The ministers in their curiosity said, “Tell us, king, what this means.” Then the king told them the whole story. And the ministers, when they heard that she had conspired against her husband’s life, cut off her nose and ears, and branded her, and banished her from the country with the maimed man. And in this matter Fate shewed a becoming combination, for it united a woman without nose and ears with a man without hands and feet, and a man who was an incarnation of a portion of a Bodhisattva, with the splendour of royalty.