THE THREE CHARACTERISTICS 
73
a family of Nats in a big tree at A nuradhapura 
had a little stranger, very  welcome to Mamma 
and Papa Nat. 
“Blessed indeed was the fam
ily.  Five-
and-forty feet1 away stood a most ancient a nd 
holy dagoba: and the children of light would 
gather round it in the cool of the evening, or 
in the misty glamour of dawn, and turn f orth 
in love and pity  towards all mankind—nay , 
to the smallest grain of dust tossed on the 
utmost storms of the Sahara ! 
“Blessed and more blessed !  For one day 
came a holy Bikkhu from the land of the 
Peacock,2 and would take up his abode in t he 
hollow of their very  tree.  And little Perdu’ 
R Abu us ed to keep the mosquitoes away 
with the gossamer of his wings, so that the 
good man might be at peace. 
“Now the British Governm ent abode in 
that land, and when it heard that there was a 
Bhikkhu living in a tree, and that the v
illage 
folk brought him rice and onions and gramo-
phones, it saw that it must not be. 
“And little Perdu’ R Abu heard 
them 
talk; and learnt the great s
ecret of Imper-
manence, and of Sorrow, and the my stery of 
Unsubstantiality. 
“And the Government evicted 
the 
Bhikkhu ; and set guard, quite like the end 
of Genesis iii., and cut down the tree, and all 
the Nats perished. 
“Jehjaour heard and trembled.  Perdu’ R 
Abu was only three years old. 
VIII. 
“It really seemed as if fate was  agains t 
him.  Poor Jehjaour !  In despair he cried to 
his partner, ‘O Ganesha, in the 
world of 
Gods only we shall be safe.  Let him be born 
as a flute-girl before Indra’s throne !’ 
 
‘Difficult is the task,’ replied the alarm
ed 
deity, ‘but I will use all m
y influence.  I 
 
1 The Gover nment, in th e intersts of Bud- 
dhists themselves, r eserves all gr
ound within  
50 feet of a dagoba.
  The incident described  
in this section actually occurred in 1901. 
2 Siam. 
know a thing or two about Indra, for 
example——’ 
“It was done.  Beautiful 
was the young 
girl’s face as  s he s prang mature from the 
womb of Matter, on her life-journey
 of an 
hundred thousand y ears.  Of all 
Indra’s 
flute-girls she played and sang the sweetest.  
Yet ever some remembrance, dim as a pallid 
ghost that fleets down the long avenues of 
deodar and moonlight, stole in her brain; 
and her song was ever of 
love and death  
and music from beyond. 
“And one day as she sang thus the deep 
truth stole into being and she knew the 
Noble Truths.  So she turned her flute to 
 
the new song, when—horror !—there was a 
mosquito in the flute.  ‘Tootle !  Tootle !’ 
she began.  ‘Buzz!  
Buzz!’ went the 
mosquito from the very vitals of her delicate 
tube. 
“Indra was not unprovided with a disc.1 
Alas !  Jehjaour, art thou already in the toils ?   
She had only lived eight months. 
IX. 
“ ‘How y ou bungle !’ growled Ganesha.  
‘Fortunately we are better off 
this time.  
Indra has been guillotined for his dastardly  
murder; so his place is vacant.’  ‘Eurekas  !’ 
yelled the m agus, ‘his very  virtue will save 
him from his predecessor’s fate.’ 
“Behold Perdu’ R Abu then as Indra ! 
 
But oh, dear m e! what a m emory he was  
getting !  ‘It seems to me,’ he mused, ‘that 
I’ve been changing a lot lately .  W ell, I am  
virtuous—and I read in 
Crowley’s new 
translation of the Dhammapada 2 that virtue 
is the thing to keep one steady.  So I think   I 
may look forward to a tenure of my
 
mahakalpa in alm ost Arcadian sim plicity.  
Lady Bhavani, did you say, boy ?  Yes, I am 
at home.  Bring the betel!’ 
 ‘Jeldi !’ he 
added, with some dim recollection of 
the 
 
1 A whirling disc is Indra’s symoblic weapon. 
2 He abandoned this.   A few fr
agments are 
reprinted in his Oracles.