[289] He led forth that smooth-gliding chariot,
blazing like burnished ware,
its pole wrought of jambonada gold, lustrous as refined (tapaneyya) gold,
adorned, and overspread with figured work of gold.
Upon it many moons of gold were inlaid;
elephants, cattle and horses, kiṃpurisas, tigers and leopards,
and eṇeyya antelopes were figured there; birds there were, fashioned as though springing aloft;
and deer there, made of beryl, marshalled in herds.
There they yoked royal steeds of tawny gold,
a thousand of them, like young elephants,
adorned, with breast-covers of golden netting,
garlanded, moving at the word of command, never balking.
Mounting that best of vehicles, Mātali
made these ten directions resound,
and the sky, the crags, the lords of the forest,
and the earth with its ocean he set atremble.
Swiftly drawing near the hermitage,
his mantle arranged over one shoulder, with hands raised in añjali,
Mātali spoke thus to the deva-like brahmin—
deeply learned, venerable in years, of well-disciplined conduct:
"Listen, Kosiya, to the word of Inda!
I am a messenger; Purindada asks you:
among Āsā, Saddhā, and Sirī, Kosiya,
by what cause was it Hirī who obtained the ambrosia (sudhā)?"
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.