This Life Next Life: The Gambler's Tale : หน้า 68/130

This Life Next Life In anger thereat will I keep to it. In guile will I keep to it. In self-respect will I keep to it!! 27. 'Well then, Prince, I will give you a smile, for it is by way of a smile that some intelligent men discern the meaning of what is said. Once upon a time, Prince, two gamesters were playing with dice. One gamester swallowed as it came each adverse die. The other gamester saw him do this and said: - "Look here, friend, you've won outright; give me the dice; I will make a votive offering of them." "Good, friend," said the other, and handed over the dice. Then the second gamester smeared over the dice with poison, and proposed to the former: - "Come along, friend, let's play." "Good, friend," replied the other. Again, therefore, they played, and again that gamester swallowed each adverse die. The second gamester saw him doing so and said: - The man knows not the swallowed die. With sharpest burning is smeared o'er. Swallow, you false cheat, swallow now! Bitter the hour at hand for you! 8 This story is also in the Jataka Book, I, 380. The modus operandi of the cheat is rendered obscure by our ignorance of the game played. Lieders in his 'Wurfespiel der alten Inder' has shown that the dice were seeds of a tree called the Vibhitaka, and that the usual game was probably to throw a number of seeds on a board, having previously fixed on a certain number. The seeds fell some upright, some on their sides. Only the upright ones counted. If they were less than the agreed number it was a draw; if equal the thrower won and threw again; if more he lost, and lost the throw. An extra seed was called the kali, 'the unlucky die.' This the cheat seems to have managed to pick up, and swallow.