The king died, and she was buried alive in his tomb, after having had great honour shown to her by the women, the princes, the ministers, and a vast concourse of people.  Some men from the north who were wont to rob graves broke into this one also.  The dust they raised entered into Krisa Gautami’s nostrils, and made her sneeze.  The grave-robbers were terrified, thinking that she was a demon (vetala), and they fled; but Krisa Gautami escaped from the grave through the opening which they had made.  Conscious of all her troubles, and affected by the want of food, just as a violent storm arose, she went out of her mind.  Covered with merely her underclothing, her hands and feet foul and rough, with long locks and pallid complexion, she wandered about until she reached Sravasti.  There, at the sight of Bhagavant, she recovered her intellect.  Bhagavant ordered Ananda to give her an overrobe, and he taught her the doctrine, and admitted her into the ecclesiastical body, and he appointed her the chief of the Bhikshunis who had embraced discipline.[FN#520]

This remarkable story is one of those which reached Europe long anterior to the Crusades.  It is found in the Greek martyr acts, which were probably composed in the eighth century, where it is told of Saint Eustache, who was before his baptism a captain of Trajan, named Placidus, and the same legend reappears, with modifications of the details, in many mediaeval collections and forms the subject of several romances.  In most versions the motif is similar to that of the story of Job.  The following is the outline of the original legend, according to the Greek martyr acts: 

Legend of st. Eustache.

As Placidus one day hunted in the forest, the Saviour appeared to him between the antlers of a hart, and converted him.  Placidus changed his name into Eustache, when he was baptised with his wife and sons.  God announced to him by an angel his future martyrdom.  Eustache was afflicted by dreadful calamities, lost all his estate, and was compelled to go abroad as a beggar with his wife and his children.  As he went on board a ship bound for Egypt, his wife was seized by the shipmaster and carried off.  Soon after, when Eustache was travelling along the shore, his two children were borne off by a lion and a leopard.  Eustache then worked for a long time as journeyman, till he was discovered by the emperor Trajan, who had sent out messengers for him, and called him to court.  Reappointed captain, Eustache undertook an expedition against the Dacians.  During this war he found his wife in a cottage as a gardener—­the shipmaster had fallen dead to the ground as he ventured to touch her—­and in the same cottage he found again his two sons as soldiers:  herdsmen had rescued them from the wild beasts and brought them up.  Glad was their meeting again!  But as they returned to Rome they were all burnt in a glowing bull of brass by the emperor’s order, because they refused to sacrifice to the heathen gods.[FN#521]