The stranger begged food, and the
boy pleasantly took a handful of earth and gave it to him. The Buddha
took the earth, and returned it to the ground on which he was walking;
but because of this the boy received the recompense of becoming a king
of the iron wheel, to rule over Jambudvipa. Once when he was making a
judicial tour of inspection through Jambudvipa, he saw, between the iron
circuit of the two hills, a naraka for the punishment of wicked men.
Having thereupon asked his ministers what sort of a thing it was, they
replied, "It belongs to Yama, [1] king of demons, for punishing wicked
people." The king thought within himself:--"Even the king of demons is
able to make a naraka in which to deal with wicked men; why should not
I, who am the lord of men, make a naraka in which to deal with wicked
men?" He forthwith asked his ministers who could make for him a naraka
and preside over the punishment of wicked people in it. They replied
that it was only a man of extreme wickedness who could make it; and the
king thereupon sent officers to seek everywhere for such a bad man; and
they saw by the side of a pond a man tall and strong, with a black
countenance, yellow hair, and green eyes, hooking up the fish with his
feet, while he called to him birds and beasts, and, when they came, then
shot and killed them, so that not one escaped.
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