referred were entirely of a spiritual and contemplative character. The
Brahmins, enchanted to get a heretic into their clutches, immediately
seized upon him, and conveyed him to one of their temples. They stripped
him, and perceived with astonishment that not one single weal or scar was
visible anywhere on his person. "Horror!" they exclaimed; "here is a man
who expects to go to heaven in a whole skin!" To obviate this breach of
etiquette, they laid him upon his face, and flagellated him until the
obnoxious soundness of cuticle was entirely removed. They then departed,
promising to return next day and operate in a corresponding manner upon the
anterior part of his person, after which, they jeeringly assured him, his
merits would be in no respect less than those of the saintly Bhagiratha, or
of the regal Viswamitra himself.

Ananda lay half dead upon the floor of the temple, when the sanctuary was
illuminated by the apparition of a resplendent Glendoveer, who thus
addressed him:

"Well, backsliding disciple, art thou yet convinced of thy folly?"

Ananda relished neither the imputation on his orthodoxy nor that on his
wisdom. He replied, notwithstanding, with all meekness:

"Heaven forbid that I should repine at any variety of martyrdom that tends
to the propagation of my master's faith."

"Wilt thou then first be healed, and moreover become the instrument of
converting the entire realm of Magadha?"

"How shall this be accomplished?" demanded Ananda.