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The question seems to often arise about this series of suttas (which comprise several of the first chapters of the first book of the Samyutta), and why they refer to mythical devas, devattas, Brahmins, and Mara as if they were real. When one examines these suttas, however, one can see the common pattern of an interlocutor asking a question, or offering a poem or a view, usually based in myth, and always receiving a practical answer that is based in the Buddha's own teachings, giving the "Noble" answer.