Petavatthu(Ghost stories)1.7

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1.7 The Devourer of Seven Children

While the Teacher was staying at Savatthi, he told this story of a peti naked and ugly in form and a devourer of seven children. In a certain village not far from Savatthi, a lay disciple had two sons, handsome and gifted and good in character. Because of them their mother despised her husband. In disgust at being slighted by his wife, he brought home another one, a young girl, who became pregnant with child. The elder wife, moved by jealousy, persuaded a certain physician, in return for a fee, to cause miscarriage in her rival. Questioned by both the kinsfolk and her husband, she denied it and swore falsely that if it was true, she would become ugly & naked in form and a devourer of seven sons. She thus invited the doom that actually befell her. After her death, she became a peti , ugly & naked in form , she would give birth to seven sons and then eat them every day.

At that time many elder monks, who had kept the retreat of the rainy season(vassa) in an abode in the village, were going to Savatthi to see the Blessed One : on that occasion they spent the night near that village. Then the peti appeared to these elders. The chief among them asked her in a stanza :

1. "You are naked and ugly in form; an ill-smelling and rotten odour you breathe out. You are all covered with flies. Now who are you that are standing here?

The peti said :

2. " I, reverend sir, am a peti, a wretched dweller of Yama's world. Since I have done an evil deed, I went from here to the world of petas(ghosts)."

3. " At daybreak I give birth to seven children, in the evening again to seven others, all of whom I devour even these are not enough for me."

4."My heart is scorched and smokes with hunger ; I do not attain serenity of mind. As though burnt with fire. I suffer torture. "

Then the chief elder(monk) asked her :

5. "Now what wicked deed was done by body, speech, and mind? Through what offence do you devour the flesh of children ? "

The peti said:

6. "I had two sons; both had attained, adolescence. But I, having witnessed the strength of the sons, despised my husband."

7. "Then my husband was angry and married another wife. And when she became with child, I planned evil against her."

8. "And I with mind corrupted, caused the fall of her unborn child. This fell in the third month, foul and bloody."

9. "Then her mother in anger brought her relatives to me. And she administered an oath to me and had me reviled. I, even I, took the terrible oath falsely: ' May I eat the flesh of my children if it was done by me.' "

10. " In consequence of both the deed and the lie, I devour the flesh of my children, since I am stained with the blood of my past."

(Rest of the story is just like the previous one, no.6 Pancch-Putta-Khadak-Petavatthu-Vannanna )