If
any suppliant comes, I will give him of my own flesh.
any suppliant comes, I will give him of my own flesh.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v16 to v20 - Phi to Qui
He was of necessity compelled to go out of the house.
Now they had an ichneumon, in whose charge they left the
house, and through him their minds were altogether set at ease;
and he used to display the utmost exertion in ridding them of
noxious reptiles, and beasts that bite or sting. The Devotee
came out and left the ichneumon with his son. To be short, no
sooner had he left the house than a large snake showed itself
near the cradle. When the ichneumon saw that dart-like, armor-
wearing snake,- that malignant creature swift to wrath, which
when quiescent assumes the shape of a circle, that arrowy-
paced reptile, which at times, like a curved bow, joins its
extremities,-
-
STANZA
Straight as a dart, anon, like buckler, round;
Anon in noose-like circles flows its form;
No cloud within, two lightnings forked are found,
No sea, but waves roll there-a mimic storm,-
making for the cradle, and intending to kill the child, it leapt
up, and seizing his throat, imprisoned him in the ring of the
noose of death; and by the blessed influence of its defense, the
boy escaped from that whirlpool of destruction. Shortly after,
the Devotee returned; and the ichneumon, smeared with blood,
ran to meet him, in exultation at having done a good deed.
## p. 11467 (#81) ###########################################
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11467
The Devotee imagined that it had killed his son, and that these
stains were from his blood. The fire of wrath was kindled in
the stove of his heart, and the smoke of precipitation entered
the aperture of his brain; and his reason, through the murkiness
of the fumes of rashness,-which, like the cloud of tyranny, is
the cause of darkening the world,-covered its face with the veil
of concealment. Before inquiring into the matter, or examining
into the real state of the case, he smote down his staff on the
ichneumon, and broke the vertebræ of its back, and knocked its
head into the casket of its chest. But when he entered the
house he beheld the child sleeping in safety in the cradle, and
a huge serpent lying there torn in pieces. Then the smoke of
remorse ascended from his heart, and he began to smite his
breast with the stone of regret, and complaining and lamenting
said: —
COUPLET
"Hereafter, I and grief are one; and every man this well must see,-
For me to have a cheerful heart, impossible and strange would be.
Alas! that the fire of this distressing accident cannot be extin-
guished by the water of excuses, and that the dart of the shame
of this troublous transaction will not be repelled by the shield of
extenuation. What unjust action is this that I have committed!
and what unsuitable act is this that my hands have done!
COUPLET
-
'Tis right that I my blood should drink, in shame for this distress;
'Tis fit that I my life resign for this unhappiness.
Would to God that this son had never come into existence from
nonentity, and that I had not set my love and affections upon
him! so that this innocent blood would not have been shed on
this account, and I should not have happened to embark in this
unholy business. And what answer shall I give to my Creator
for this, that I have causelessly destroyed one that dwelt in the
same house with me; and have slain the guardian of my home,
and the protector of my beloved son, without reason? And what
excuse can I offer to my fellow-creatures for this? And here-
after the chain of censure will not be removed from my neck,
and the writing of infamy will never be obliterated from the
page of my affairs. "
## p. 11468 (#82) ###########################################
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PILPAY
THIRD VERSION
THE EXAMPLE OF THE FIRST MASTER
From The Seven Wise Masters of Rome': Printed from the edition of
Wynkyn de Worde, 1520, and edited, with an introduction, by George
Laurence Gomme, F. S. A. London: printed for the Villon Society, 1885.
T
HERE was a valiant knight which had only one son as ye have.
The which he loved so much that he ordained for his keep-
ing three nurses: the first should give him suck and feed
him, the second should wash him and keep him clean, the third
should bring him to sleep and to rest. This knight had also a
greyhound and a falcon that he also loved right well.
The grey-
hound was so good that he never ran to no game but he took it
and held it till his master came. And if his master disposed him
to go to battle, if he should not speed in the battle, anon as
he should mount upon his horse the greyhound would take the
horse's tail in his mouth and draw backward, and would also cry
and howl marvelously loud. By these signs the knight under-
stood if that he should speed in his journey or not. The falcon
was so gentle and so hardy that he was never cast off to his
prey but he took it. This same knight had great pleasure in
jousting and tourneying, so that upon a time under his castle he
let proclaim a tournament to the which came many good lords
and knights. The knight entered into the tourney, and his lady
went with her maidens to see it. And as they went out, after
went the nurses, and left the child lying alone in the cradle in
the hall, where the greyhound lay nigh the wall, and the hawk
or falcon standing upon a perch. In this hall there was a ser-
pent lurking or hid in a hole, to all them of the castle unknown.
The which when he felt that they were all absent, he put out
his head of his hole. And as he no man saw, but the child lying
in the cradle, he went out of his cavern towards the cradle for
the child to have slain. The noble falcon seeing that, beheld the
greyhound that was sleeping; she made such a noise and rustling
with her wings or feathers that the greyhound awoke and rose
up. And when he saw the serpent nigh the child, anon against
him he leapt, and they both fought so long together till that the
serpent had grievously hurted and wounded the greyhound that
he bled sore, so that the earth about the cradle was all bebled
with the blood of the greyhound. The greyhound, when that he
## p. 11469 (#83) ###########################################
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11469
felt himself so grievously hurted and wounded, started fiercely
upon the serpent, and fought sore together and so eagerly, so
that between them the cradle was overturned with the child.
And because that the cradle had four pommels or feet, they
saved the child's visage and his life from any hurtful falling
towards the earth. And what shall I say more? Incontinent
thereafter with great pain the greyhound overcame and slew
the serpent, and went and laid him down again in his place and
licked his wounds. And anon after, as the jousts and tourney
was done, the nurses were the first that came into the castle.
And as they saw the cradle reversed, with blood upon the earth
environed, and that the greyhound was also bloody, they thought
and said amongst themselves that the greyhound had slain the
child, and they were not so wise as to turn up again the cradle
with the child for to have seen what was thereof befallen. But
they said, Let us flee or run away, lest that our master put or
lay the blame upon us and slay us. And as they were thus away
running, they met with the knight's wife, and she said to them,
Wherefore make ye this sorrow, and whither will ye run ? And
they said, O lady, woe and sorrow be to us and to you. Why,
what is there happened? show me. The greyhound, they said,
that our lord and master loveth so much, hath devoured and slain
your son, and lieth by the wall all full of the blood. As the
lady this heard, she fell to the earth and began to weep and cry
piteously; and said, Alas, O my dear son, be ye thus slain and
dead? what shall I now make, that I have my only son thus lost?
Herewithal came in the knight from the tourney, and behold-
ing his lady thus crying and making sorrow, he demanded her
wherefore that she made so great sorrow and lamentation. She
answered him, O my lord, your greyhound that ye love so much
hath slain your only son, and lieth by the wall satiate with
blood of the child. The knight hugely angered went in to the
hall, and the greyhound went to him to meet and to fawn as he
was wont to do. And the knight drew out his sword and with
one stroke smote off the hound's head, and went to the cradle
and found his son all whole, and by the cradle the serpent slain.
And by divers signs perceived that the hound had fought against
the serpent for the salvation of the child. Then with great sor-
row and weeping he tare his hair and said, Woe be to me that
for the words of my wife I have slain my good greyhound, the
which hath saved my child's life and hath slain the serpent.
Herefore I will put myself to penance. And brake his sword in
## p. 11470 (#84) ###########################################
11470
PILPAY
three pieces, and went towards the Holy Land, and abode there.
all the days of his life.
Then said the Master to the Emperor, Lord, understand ye
what I have said? And he answered and said, Right well. The
Master said: If that ye do your son to death for the words of
your wife, it shall come to you worse than it did to the knight
for his greyhound. The Emperor said, Ye have showed me a
fair example, and without doubt this day shall not my son die.
Then said the Master, If ye do so, ye do wisely; but I thank
you that ye have him spared this day for my sake.
THE LION-MAKERS
From the Panchatantra,' Book v. , No. 4
E
VEN men of learning and noble birth are sometimes devoid of
For, true is the saying:-
common-sense.
Book-learning people rightly cherish;
But gumption 's best of all to me.
Bereft of gumption you shall perish,
Like to the Lion-makers three.
:-
"How was that? " said the Man-with-the-wheel. And the Gold-
magician narrated:
IN A certain place there dwelt four brahman youths in the
greatest friendship. Three of them had got to the further shore
of the ocean of science, but were devoid of common-sense; while
the fourth had common-sense only, and no mind for science.
Now once upon a time these friends took counsel together, and
said, "Of what profit is science, if we cannot go with it to some
foreign country and win the favor of princes and make our for-
tune? Therefore to the Eastern Country let us go. " And so it
came to pass.
Now after they had gone a little way, the eldest spoke:
"There is one among us, the fourth, who has no learning, but
only common-sense; and a man can't get presents from kings by
common-sense without learning. Not a whit will I give him of
all that I gain; so let him go home. " And the second said,
"Ho there, Gumption! get you homeward, for you have no
learning! " But the third made answer, "Alas, it is not fitting
so to do; for we have played together since we were boys.
So
## p. 11471 (#85) ###########################################
PILPAY
11471
let him come along too. He's a noble fellow, and shall have a
share in the riches that we win. "
On then they went together, till in a jungle they saw the
bones of a dead lion. Then spoke the first: "Ha! now we can
put our book-learning to the test. Here lies some sort of a dead
creature: by the power of our learning we'll bring it to life. I'll
put the bones together. " And that then he did with zeal. The
second added flesh, blood, and hide. But just as the third was
breathing the breath of life into it, Gumption stopped him and
said, "Hold: this is a lion that you are turning out.
If you
make him alive, he will kill every one of us. " Thereupon made
answer the other, "Fie, stupid! is learning to be fruitless in my
hands? " "Well then," said Gumption, "just wait a bit till I
climb a tree. >>
Thereupon the lion was brought to life. But the instant this
was done, he sprang up and killed the three. Afterwards Gump-
tion climbed down and went home.
Therefore, concluded the Gold-magician, therefore I say:
Book-learning people rightly cherish;
But gumption 's best of all to me.
Bereft of gumption you shall perish,
Like to the Lion-makers three.
-
Translation of Charles R. Lanman.
THE KING AND THE HAWK
From the Persian version of Pilpay, Anvár-i Suhailí,' or 'Lights of Canopus'
THE
HEY have related that in ancient times there was a king fond
of hunting. He was ever giving reins to the courser of his
desire in the pursuit of game, and was always casting the
lasso of gladness over the neck of sport. Now this king had a
hawk, who at a single flight could bring down the Símurgh
from the peak of Káf, and in terror of whose claws the constel-
lation Aquila kept himself close in the green nest of the sky.
VERSE
When that bold falcon stretched his pinions wide,
Heaven's bosom then was pierced through with dread;
When to the sky with upward flight he hied,
The eagle of the spheres his feathers shed.
## p. 11472 (#86) ###########################################
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11472
And the king had a prodigious fondness for this hawk, and
always cared for it with his own hands. It happened that one
day the monarch, holding the hawk on his hand, had gone to
the chase. A stag leapt up before him, and he galloped after it
with the utmost eagerness. But he did not succeed in coming
up with it, and became separated from his retinue and servants;
and though some of them followed him, the king rode so hotly
that the morning breeze- which in the twinkling of the eye
encircles the world-could not have reached the dust he raised,
nor could the north wind, in spite of its velocity, attain to the
dust of his horse's hoofs.
COUPLET
Unmeasured has thy swiftness been:
So swift, no trace of thee is seen!
Meantime the fire of his thirst was kindled, and the intense de-
sire to drink overcame the king. He galloped his steed in every
direction, and traversed the desert and the waste in search of
water, until he reached the skirt of a mountain, and beheld that
from its summit limpid water was trickling. The king drew
forth a cup which he had in his quiver, and riding under the
mountain filled the cup with that water, which fell drop by drop;
and was about to take a draught, when the hawk made a blow
with his wing and spilled all the water in the goblet. The
king was vexed at that action, but held the cup a second time
under the rock until it was brimful. He then raised it to his lips
again, and again the hawk made a movement and overthrew the
cup.
HEMISTICH
Brought to the lip, they then forbid the draught.
The king, rendered impatient by thirst, dashed the hawk on
the ground and killed it. Shortly after, a stirrup-holder of the
king came up, and saw the hawk dead and the king athirst.
He then undid a water-vessel from his saddle-cord, and washed
the cup clean, and was about to give the king to drink. The
latter bade him ascend the mountain, as he had the strongest
inclination for the pure water which trickled from the rock,
and could not wait to collect it in the cup, drop by drop; and
therefore he desired the attendant to fill a cup with it and come
## p. 11473 (#87) ###########################################
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11473
down. The stirrup-holder ascended the mountain and beheld a
spring like the eye of hard-hearted misers, giving out a drop at
a time with a hundred stintings; and a huge serpent lay dead
on the margin of the fountain; and as the heat of the sun had
taken effect upon it, the poisonous saliva mixed with the water
of that mountain, and it trickled drop by drop down the rock.
The stirrup-holder was overcome with horror, and came down
from the mountain bewildered, and represented the state of the
case, and gave the king a cup of cold water from his ewer.
The latter raised the cup to his lips, and his eyes overflowed
with tears.
COUPLET
A little water then he drank: the burnings of his heart were stopped;
The fluid that his lips imbibed, back from his flooding eyelids dropped.
The attendant asked the reason of his weeping. The king
drew a cold sigh from his anguished heart, and said:
COUPLET
"So deep my grief that I to none can tell the secret of my woes;
And yet my tale is such that I must still my lips perforce unclose. "
He then related in full the story of the hawk and the spill-
ing of the water in the cup; and said, “I grieve for the death of
the hawk, and bemoan my own deed in that without inquiry I
have deprived a creature so dear to me of life. " The attendant
replied, "This hawk protected thee from a great peril, and has
established a claim to the gratitude of all the people of this
country. It would have been better if the king had not been
precipitate in slaying it, and had quenched the fire of wrath.
with the water of mildness, and had turned back the reins of the
courser of his passions with the vigor of endurance, and had not
transgressed the monition of the wise, who have said: -
COUPLET
Do not the courser of thyself so strain,
That thou canst not at will draw in the rein. "
The king replied, "I repent of this unseemly action, but my
repentance is now unavailing, and the wound of this sorrow can-
not be healed by any salve; and as long as I live I shall retain
XX-718
## p. 11474 (#88) ###########################################
11474
PILPAY
on my bosom the scar of this regret, and lacerate the visage of
my feelings with the nail of remorse.
HEMISTICH
What can I do? The deed was mine: for self-made ills there is no
cure. »
THE ASS IN THE LION'S SKIN
From the Jataka': translated by Henry Clarke Warren, in his Buddhism in
Translations,' Vol. iii. of the Harvard Oriental Series
"N^
AY, this is not a lion's roar. " - This also was related by the
Teacher concerning Kokalika; and it was while dwelling in
Jetavana monastery. Kokalika, at the time, was desirous of
intoning a doctrinal recitation before the congregation of the priests.
When the Teacher heard this, he related the following tale:-
:-
ONCE upon a time, when Brahmadatta was reigning at Benares,
the Future Buddha, having been born in a farmer's family and
now come of age, was making his living by husbandry. Now at
that time a certain peddler went about selling his wares, which
he carried on the back of an ass. And at every place he came
to he would unload the ass, and dressing him up in the skin of
a lion, let him loose in some field of rice or barley. And the
field-watchers did not dare approach, as they thought it was a
lion. Now one day the peddler took up his abode at the gate
of a village, and while his breakfast was cooking, he dressed up
the ass in the lion's skin and let him loose in a field of barley.
The field-watchers did not dare approach, as they thought it was
a lion, but went home and announced the news. Then all the
inhabitants of the village took up arms, and, blowing conch-shells
and beating drums, went to the field and shouted, so that the ass
became afraid for his life and brayed. Then the Future Buddha
knew it was an ass, and pronounced the first stanza:
"Nay, this is not a lion's roar,
Nor tiger, panther, gives it vent;
But, dressed up in a lion's skin,
It is a wretched ass that brays. "
-
And also the inhabitants of the village knew it was an ass,
and beat him until his bones broke, and took the lion's skin away
## p. 11475 (#89) ###########################################
PILPAY
11475
with them.
Then came the peddler, and seeing that his ass had
come to grief, he pronounced the second stanza: -
-
"Long might the ass have lived to eat
The green and tender barley grain,
Accoutred in the lion's skin,
But that he brayed, and ruined all. "
And while he was thus speaking, the ass died; whereupon the
peddler left him and went his way.
The Teacher, having given this doctrinal instruction, identified the
characters in the Birth-story: - "At that time the ass was Kokalika,
but the wise farmer was I myself. "
THE HARE-MARK IN THE MOON
From the Jataka': translated by Henry Clarke Warren, in his Buddhism in
Translations,' Vol. iii. of the Harvard Oriental Series
"S
OME red-fish have I, seven in all. " This was related by the
Teacher while dwelling in Jetavana monastery; and it was
concerning a donation of all the requisites to the congregation
of the priests.
It seems that a householder of Savatthi prepared a donation of all
the requisites for the Buddha and for the Order. At the door of his
house he had a pavilion built and gotten ready; and having invited
the Buddha and the congregation of the priests, he made them sit
down on costly seats which had been spread for them in the pavilion,
and gave them an excellent repast of savory dishes. Then he invited
them again for the next day, and again for the next, until he had
invited them seven times. And on the seventh day he made the
donation of all the requisites to the Buddha and to five hundred
priests.
At the end of the breakfast the Teacher returned thanks and
said:
:-
-
"Layman, it is fitting that you thus manifest a hearty zeal; for
this almsgiving was also the custom of the wise of old time. For
the wise of old time surrendered their own lives to chance suppliants,
and gave their own flesh to be eaten. ”
Then, at the request of the householder, he related the bygone
Occurrence:-
ONCE upon a time, when Brahmadatta was ruling at Benares,
the Future Buddha was born as a hare, and dwelt in a wood.
## p. 11476 (#90) ###########################################
11476
PILPAY
Now on
one side of this wood was a mountain, on another a
river, and on another a border village. And there were three
other animals that were his comrades,-a monkey, a jackal, and
an otter. These four wise creatures dwelt together, catching their
prey each in his own hunting-ground, and at night resorting
together. And the wise hare would exhort the other three and
teach them the Doctrine, saying, "Give alms, keep the precepts,
and observe fast-days. " Then the three would approve of his
admonition, and go each to his own lair in the thicket, and spend
the night.
Time was going by in this manner, when one day the Future
Buddha looked up into the sky and saw the moon, and perceived
that the next day would be fast-day. Then said he to the others:
"To-morrow is fast-day. Do you three keep the precepts and
observe the day; and as alms given while keeping the precepts
bring great reward, if any suppliants present themselves give
them to eat of your own food. "
"Very well," said they, and passed the night in their lairs.
On the next day the otter started out early, and went to the
banks of the Ganges to hunt for prey. Now a fisherman had
caught seven red-fish and strung them on a vine, and buried
them in the sand on the banks of the Ganges, and had then gone
on down-stream catching fish as he went. The otter smelt the
fishy odor, and scraping away the sand, perceived the fish and
drew them out. Then he called out three times, "Does any one
own these? " and when he saw no owner, he bit hold of the vine
with his teeth, and drew them to his lair in the thicket. There
he lay down, remembering that he was keeping the precepts, and
thinking, "I will eat these at the proper time. "
And the jackal also went out to hunt for prey, and found
in the hut of a field-watcher two spits of meat, and one iguana,
and a jar of sour cream. Then he called out three times, "Does
any one own these? " and when he saw no owner, he placed the
cord that served as a handle for the jar of sour cream about his
neck, took hold of the spits of meat and of the iguana with his
teeth, and brought them home, and placed them in his lair in
the thicket. Then he lay down, remembering that he was keep-
ing the precepts, and thinking, "I will eat these at the proper
time. "
And the monkey also, entering the forest, fetched home a
bunch of mangoes, and placed them in his lair in the thicket.
## p. 11477 (#91) ###########################################
PILPAY
11477
Then he lay down, remembering that he was keeping the pre-
cepts, and thinking, "I will eat these at the proper time. "
The Future Buddha, however, remained in his thicket, think-
ing, "At the proper time I will go out and eat dabba-grass. "
Then he thought, "If any suppliants come, they will not want to
eat grass, and I have no sesamum, rice, or other such food.
If
any suppliant comes, I will give him of my own flesh. "
Such fieriness of zeal in keeping the precepts caused the
marble throne of Sakka to grow hot. Then, looking carefully,
Sakka discovered the cause, and proposed to himself to try the
hare. And disguised as a brahman, he went first to the lair of
the otter.
"Brahman, why stand you there? " said the otter.
Said he, "Pandit, if I could but get something to eat, I would
keep fast-day vows, and perform the duties of a monk. ”
"Very well," said the otter: "I will give you some food. "
And he addressed him with the first stanza:
"Some red-fish have I, seven in all,
Found stranded on the river bank.
All these, O brahman, are my own:
Come eat, and dwell within this wood. "
"I will return a little later," said the brahman; "let the mat-
ter rest until to-morrow. "
Then he went to the jackal. And the latter also asking,
«< Why stand you there? " the brahman answered the same as
before.
"Very well," said the jackal: "I will give you some food. "
And he addressed him with the second stanza:
-
"A watchman guards the field close by,-
His supper have I ta'en away:
Two spits of meat, iguana one,
One dish of butter clarified.
All these, O brahman, are my own:
Come eat, and dwell within this wood. "
"I will return a little later," said the brahman; "let the mat-
ter rest until to-morrow. "
Then he went to the monkey. And the latter also asking,
"Why stand you there? " the brahman answered the same as
before.
## p. 11478 (#92) ###########################################
11478
PILPAY
"Very well," said the monkey: "I will give you some food. "
And he addressed him with the third stanza:
"Ripe mangoes, water clear and cold,
And cool and pleasant woodland shade,-
All these, O brahman, are my own:
Come eat, and dwell within this wood. "
"I will return a little later," said the brahman: "let the mat-
ter rest until to-morrow. "
Then he went to the wise hare. And he also asking, "Why
stand you there? " the brahman answered the same as before.
The Future Buddha was delighted. "Brahman," said he,
"you have done well in coming to me for food. To-day I will
give alms such as I never gave before; and you will not have
broken the precepts by destroying life. Go, my friend, and
gather wood, and when you have made a bed of coals, come and
tell me.
I will sacrifice my life by jumping into the bed of live
coals. And as soon as my body is cooked, do you eat of my
flesh, and perform the duties of a monk. ” And he addressed
him with the fourth stanza:
"The hare no seed of sesamum
Doth own, nor beans, nor winnowed rice.
But soon my flesh this fire shall roast:
Then eat, and dwell within this wood. "
When Sakka heard this speech, he made a heap of live coals
by his superhuman power, and came and told the Future Buddha.
The latter rose from his couch of dabba-grass, and went to the
spot. And saying, "If there are any insects in my fur, I must
not let them die," he shook himself three times. Then throwing
his whole body into the jaws of his liberality, he jumped into
the bed of coals, as delighted in mind as a royal flamingo when
he alights in a cluster of lotuses. The fire, however, was unable
to make hot so much as a hair-pore of the Future Buddha's body.
He felt as if he had entered the abode of cold above the clouds.
Then, addressing Sakka, he said:-
-
"Brahman, the fire you have made is exceeding cold, and is
not able to make hot so much as a hair-pore of my body. What
does it mean? "
"Pandit, I am no brahman: I am Sakka, come to try you. "
## p. 11479 (#93) ###########################################
PILPAY
11479
"Sakka, your efforts are useless; for if all beings who dwell
in the world were to try me in respect of my liberality, they
would not discover in me any unwillingness to give. " Thus the
Future Buddha thundered.
"Wise hare," said then Sakka, "let your virtue be proclaimed.
to the end of this world-cycle. " And taking a mountain, he
squeezed it, and with the juice drew the outline of a hare in the
disk of the moon. Then in that wood, and in that thicket, he
placed the Future Buddha on some tender dabba-grass, and tak-
ing leave of him, departed to his own celestial abode.
And these four wise creatures lived happily and harmoniously,
and kept the precepts, and observed fast-days, and passed away
according to their deeds.
When the Teacher had given this instruction, he expounded the
truths, and identified the characters of the Birth-story (at the close of
the exposition of the truths, the householder who had given all the
requisites became established in the fruit of conversion): —
"In that existence the otter was Ananda, the jackal was Moggal-
lana, the monkey was Sariputta, while the wise hare was I myself. "
COUNT NOT YOUR CHICKENS BEFORE THEY BE HATCHED
From the Panchatantra,' Book v. , Fable 9
[This is the well-known tale of the Milkmaid who poised a full pail on her
head,' La Fontaine's 'Perrette' (vii. 10). It recurs in the Arabian
Nights (Night 716), and often elsewhere. *]
Ο
NCE upon a time there lived in a certain town a brahman
named Luckless. He begged a lot of barley grits; and
with what he had left over from his dinner, he filled a jar.
This he hung on a low peg in the wall, put his cot beneath
it, and looking at it with unaverted gaze, he bethought him:-
"This pot is full of barley grits, and if there comes a famine,
will fetch me a hundred pieces of silver. With them I shall buy
me a couple of she-goats; and as they will drop kids every six
months, I shall soon have a herd from them. For the goats I
* See the mutations of this tale in the selection from Max Müller, in the
present work.
## p. 11480 (#94) ###########################################
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PILPAY
shall get many cows; for the cows, buffalo-cows; and for them,
mares; and when they have foaled, I shall have many horses;
and from the sale of them, much gold. With the gold I'll get a
house with four rooms, about a court. And then some brahman
will come to my house, and give me his lovely daughter, with a
rich dowry in marriage.
"She will bear me a son, and I'll name him Soma-çarman.
When he's old enough for me to trot him on my knee, I'll take
a book, and sitting out behind the stable, I'll study it. Then
Soma-çarman, seeing me, and eager to be trotted on my knee,
will leave his mother's lap, and in coming to me will get right
near the horses' hoofs. And I, full of anger, shall say to my
wife, 'Take the child, quick! ' She, busy with housework, won't
hear me, and I shall get up and give her a kick. "
Deep sunk in thought, he gave such a kick that he broke
the jar, and the grits ran down over him till he was well whit-
ened.
Translation of Charles R. Lanman.
THE TRANSFORMED MOUSE
From the 'Panchatantra,' Book iii. , Fable 12
ON
N THE bank of the Ganges, whose billows are flecked with
white foam made by the fish that dart in terror at the
roar of the waters breaking on its craggy shores, there is
a hermitage filled with ascetics. They are given over to prayer,
restraint of the senses, asceticism, study of holy writ, fasting, and
meditation. They take very pure and very little water. They
mortify the flesh by a diet of bulbs, roots, fruits, and water-
plants. They wear only an apron of bast.
There was one among them named Yajnavalkya. He had
performed his sacred ablutions in the Ganges, and was about
to rinse his mouth, when into his hand there fell from the beak
of a hawk a little mouse. On seeing it, he put it on a banyan-
leaf, bathed again and rinsed his mouth, performed rites of expia-
tion and so forth; and then by the power of his asceticism he
changed the mouse into a girl, took her with him to his hermit-
age, and said to his wife, who was childless, "My dear, take this
girl as your daughter, and bring her up carefully. "
## p. 11481 (#95) ###########################################
PILPAY
11481
So the wife reared her, and loved her, and cared for her, till
she was twelve years old; and then, seeing the girl was fit to be
married, she said to her husband, "Seest thou not, O husband,
that the time for our daughter's marriage is slipping by? ”
Quite right," said he: "so if she is agreed, I will summon
the exalted sun-god, and give her to him to wife. " "What's the
harm? " said his wife: "do so. "
<<
So the sage called the sun. And such was the power of his
summons, which was made up of words of the Scripture, that the
sun came instantly, saying, "Reverend sir, didst thou call me? "
He answered, "Here is my daughter. If she will but choose
thee, then take her to wife. " And to his daughter he spake,
"My child, does the exalted sun, the illumer of the three worlds,
please thee? » The girl said, "Father, he is too scorching.
like him not. Call me some one more eminent than he. " Then
said the hermit to the sun, "Exalted one, is there any one
mightier than thou? " And the sun said, "There is one might-
ier than I, the cloud; for he covers me, and then none can see
me. "
I
So the sage called the cloud, and said, "Daughter, to him do
I give thee. " "He is too dark and cold," answered she; "so
give me to some other mightier being. " Then the sage asked the
cloud, "O cloud, is there any mightier even than thou ? »
"The
wind is mightier than I," said the cloud: "when the wind strikes
me I am torn to a thousand shreds. "
So the sage called the wind and said, "Daughter, does the
wind please thee best for a husband? ". -"Father, he is too fickle.
Bring hither some one mightier even than he. "
And the sage
said, "O wind, is any mightier than thou? " And the wind made
answer, "The mountain is mightier than I; for strong as I am,
it braces itself and withstands me. "
So the sage called the mountain and said, "Daughter, to
him do I give thee. " She answered and spake, "Father, he is
too hard and unyielding.
Give me to some other than him. ”
So the sage asked the mountain, "O king of mountains, is
there any mightier even than thou? " And the mountain said,
"The mice are mightier than I; for they tear and rend my body.
asunder. "
So the sage called a mouse, and showed him to her, and said,
(( Daughter, to him do I give thee. Does the king of the mice
please thee? »
## p. 11482 (#96) ###########################################
11482
PILPAY
And she, showing her joy at the thought that this one at last
was of her own kind, said, "Father, make me a mouse again,
and give me to him, in order that I may fulfill my household
duties after the manner ordained for my kind. "
So by the power
of his asceticism he made her a mouse again, and gave her to
him.
HE brahman said:
THE
Translation of Charles R. Lanman.
THE GREEDY JACKAL
From the Panchatantra,' Book ii. , Fable 3
And again -
Excessive greed should ne'er be cherished.
Have greed - but keep it moderate.
The all too greedy jackal perished,
A wooden top-knot on his pate.
How was that? " asked the brahman woman.
narrated.
IN a certain forest lived a savage tribesman, who, on a day,
set out a-hunting. And as he went he met a mighty boar, as
big as the peak of Mount Anjana. Straightway, drawing his
bow till the string touched his ear, he let fly a keen arrow and
hit the boar. Full of rage, the boar, with his sharp tusk that
gleamed like the young moon's crescent, ripped up the belly
of the hunter, that he fell lifeless to earth. But the boar too
yielded his life, from the smarting wound of the arrow.
Meantime a jackal, for whom Fate had ordained a speedy
death, roaming for hunger hither and yon, came to the spot.
Delighted at the sight of the boar and the hunter, he bethought.
him: "Ah! Fate is kind to me in giving me this unexpected
food. How true is the saying:-
And the brahman
No finger need'st thou raise! may'st work or sleep!
But of thy deeds wrought in a former birth,
The fruit or good or ill-thou needs must reap!
Inexorable Karma rules the earth.
In whatso time of life, or when, or where,
In former birth thou didst or good or ill,
In just that time of life, and then, and there,
In future birth, of fruit shalt have thy fill!
## p. 11483 (#97) ###########################################
PILPAY
11483
Now I'll manage it so with these carcasses that I shall get a
living off of them for many days. And to begin withal, I'll eat
the sinew which forms the bowstring. For they say-
A wise man doth sip the elixir of life,
Circumspectly and slowly, and heedful.
Thus enjoy thou the riches thou'st won by thy strife:
Never take at one time more than needful. "
Making up his mind in this way, he took the end of the
bow in his mouth, and began to gnaw the sinew. But as soon
as his teeth cut through the string, the bow tore through his
palate, and came out of his head like a top-knot, and he gave
up the ghost. Therefore, continued the brahman, therefore I
say:
· -
Excessive greed should ne'er be cherished.
Have greed - but keep it moderate.
The all too greedy jackal perished,
A wooden top-knot on his pate.
Translation of Charles R. Lanman.
"HOW PLAUSIBLE »
From the
Jataka,' No. 89
T
HIS story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about a
knave. The details of his knavery will be related in the
Uddala-jataka.
ONCE on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares,
there lived hard by a certain little village a shifty rascal of an
ascetic, of the class which wears long matted hair. The squire
of the place had a hermitage built in the forest for him to dwell
in, and used to provide excellent fare for him in his own house.
Taking the matted-haired rascal to be a model of goodness, and
living as he did in fear of robbers, the squire brought a hundred
pieces of gold to the hermitage, and there buried them, bidding
the ascetic keep watch over them. - "No need to say that, sir, to
a man who has renounced the world; we hermits never covet
other folks' goods. "—"It is well, sir," said the squire, who went
off with full confidence in the other's protestations. Then the
rascally ascetic thought to himself, "There's enough here to keep
a man all his life long. " Allowing a few days to elapse first,
## p. 11484 (#98) ###########################################
11484
PILPAY
he removed the gold and buried it by the wayside, returning to
dwell as before in his hermitage. Next day, after a meal of rice
at the squire's house, the ascetic said, "It is now a long time,
sir, since I began to be supported by you; and to live long in
one place is like living in the world,-which is forbidden to pro-
fessed ascetics. Wherefore I must needs depart. " And though
the squire pressed him to stay, nothing could overcome this
determination.
"Well then, if it must be so, go your way, sir," said the
squire; and he escorted the ascetic to the outskirts before he left
him. After going a little way, the ascetic thought that it would
be a good thing to cajole the squire; so putting a straw in his
matted hair, back he turned again. "What brings you back? "
asked the squire. "A straw from your roof, sir, had stuck in
my hair; and as we hermits may not take anything which is not
bestowed upon us, I have brought it back to you. " "Throw
it down, sir, and go your way," said the squire, who thought to
himself, “Why, he won't take so much as a straw which does
not belong to him! What a sensitive nature! " Highly delighted
with the ascetic, the squire bade him farewell.
Now at that time it chanced that the Future Buddha, who
was on his way to the border district for trading purposes, had
halted for the night at that village. Hearing what the ascetic
said, the suspicion was aroused in his mind that the rascally
ascetic must have robbed the squire of something; and he asked
the latter whether he had deposited anything in the ascetic's care.
"Yes: a hundred pieces of gold. "
"Well, just go and see if it's all safe. "
Away went the squire to the hermitage, and looked, and
found his money gone.
Running back to the Future Buddha, he
cried, "It's not there. " "The thief is none other than that long-
haired rascal of an ascetic," said the Future Buddha: "let us
pursue and catch him. " So away they hastened in hot pursuit.
When they caught the rascal, they kicked and cuffed him till he
discovered to them where he had hidden the money. When he
procured the gold, the Future Buddha, looking at it, scornfully
remarked to the ascetic, "So a hundred pieces of gold didn't
trouble your conscience so much as that straw! " And he rebuked
him in this stanza: -
"How plausible the story that the rascal told!
How heedful of the straw! How heedless of the gold! "
## p. 11485 (#99) ###########################################
PILPAY
11485
When the Future Buddha had rebuked the fellow in this
wise, he added: "And now take care, you hypocrite, that you
don't play such a trick again. "
When his life ended, the Future Buddha passed away, to fare
thereafter according to his deserts.
His lesson ended, the Master said, "Thus you see, brethren, that
this brother was as knavish in the past as he is to-day. " And he
identified the Birth by saying: "This knavish brother was the knav-
ish ascetic of those days, and I the wise and good man. ”
THE MAN IN THE PIT
From the Maha-Bharata ›
[This is one of the most famous parables of antiquity and the Middle
Ages, and has served alike for the edification of Brahmans, Jains, Buddhists,
Mohammedans, Jews, and Christians. The text of this passage of the 'Maha-
Bharata (Book xi. , Sections 5, 6) is corrupt, and the version therefore free.
The history of the parable forms the subject of a charming essay by Ernst
Kuhn, in Festgruss an Otto von Böhtlingk' (Stuttgart, 1888). ]
THE PARABLE
CERTAIN brahman, it is said, once came into a vast and
A impassable jungle filled with beasts of prey, and so beset
on every hand with horribly roaring lions, tigers, and ele-
phants that even the God of Death would quake at the sight.
The brahman's heart was sore affrighted, and his hair stood on
end.
Now they had an ichneumon, in whose charge they left the
house, and through him their minds were altogether set at ease;
and he used to display the utmost exertion in ridding them of
noxious reptiles, and beasts that bite or sting. The Devotee
came out and left the ichneumon with his son. To be short, no
sooner had he left the house than a large snake showed itself
near the cradle. When the ichneumon saw that dart-like, armor-
wearing snake,- that malignant creature swift to wrath, which
when quiescent assumes the shape of a circle, that arrowy-
paced reptile, which at times, like a curved bow, joins its
extremities,-
-
STANZA
Straight as a dart, anon, like buckler, round;
Anon in noose-like circles flows its form;
No cloud within, two lightnings forked are found,
No sea, but waves roll there-a mimic storm,-
making for the cradle, and intending to kill the child, it leapt
up, and seizing his throat, imprisoned him in the ring of the
noose of death; and by the blessed influence of its defense, the
boy escaped from that whirlpool of destruction. Shortly after,
the Devotee returned; and the ichneumon, smeared with blood,
ran to meet him, in exultation at having done a good deed.
## p. 11467 (#81) ###########################################
PILPAY
11467
The Devotee imagined that it had killed his son, and that these
stains were from his blood. The fire of wrath was kindled in
the stove of his heart, and the smoke of precipitation entered
the aperture of his brain; and his reason, through the murkiness
of the fumes of rashness,-which, like the cloud of tyranny, is
the cause of darkening the world,-covered its face with the veil
of concealment. Before inquiring into the matter, or examining
into the real state of the case, he smote down his staff on the
ichneumon, and broke the vertebræ of its back, and knocked its
head into the casket of its chest. But when he entered the
house he beheld the child sleeping in safety in the cradle, and
a huge serpent lying there torn in pieces. Then the smoke of
remorse ascended from his heart, and he began to smite his
breast with the stone of regret, and complaining and lamenting
said: —
COUPLET
"Hereafter, I and grief are one; and every man this well must see,-
For me to have a cheerful heart, impossible and strange would be.
Alas! that the fire of this distressing accident cannot be extin-
guished by the water of excuses, and that the dart of the shame
of this troublous transaction will not be repelled by the shield of
extenuation. What unjust action is this that I have committed!
and what unsuitable act is this that my hands have done!
COUPLET
-
'Tis right that I my blood should drink, in shame for this distress;
'Tis fit that I my life resign for this unhappiness.
Would to God that this son had never come into existence from
nonentity, and that I had not set my love and affections upon
him! so that this innocent blood would not have been shed on
this account, and I should not have happened to embark in this
unholy business. And what answer shall I give to my Creator
for this, that I have causelessly destroyed one that dwelt in the
same house with me; and have slain the guardian of my home,
and the protector of my beloved son, without reason? And what
excuse can I offer to my fellow-creatures for this? And here-
after the chain of censure will not be removed from my neck,
and the writing of infamy will never be obliterated from the
page of my affairs. "
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PILPAY
THIRD VERSION
THE EXAMPLE OF THE FIRST MASTER
From The Seven Wise Masters of Rome': Printed from the edition of
Wynkyn de Worde, 1520, and edited, with an introduction, by George
Laurence Gomme, F. S. A. London: printed for the Villon Society, 1885.
T
HERE was a valiant knight which had only one son as ye have.
The which he loved so much that he ordained for his keep-
ing three nurses: the first should give him suck and feed
him, the second should wash him and keep him clean, the third
should bring him to sleep and to rest. This knight had also a
greyhound and a falcon that he also loved right well.
The grey-
hound was so good that he never ran to no game but he took it
and held it till his master came. And if his master disposed him
to go to battle, if he should not speed in the battle, anon as
he should mount upon his horse the greyhound would take the
horse's tail in his mouth and draw backward, and would also cry
and howl marvelously loud. By these signs the knight under-
stood if that he should speed in his journey or not. The falcon
was so gentle and so hardy that he was never cast off to his
prey but he took it. This same knight had great pleasure in
jousting and tourneying, so that upon a time under his castle he
let proclaim a tournament to the which came many good lords
and knights. The knight entered into the tourney, and his lady
went with her maidens to see it. And as they went out, after
went the nurses, and left the child lying alone in the cradle in
the hall, where the greyhound lay nigh the wall, and the hawk
or falcon standing upon a perch. In this hall there was a ser-
pent lurking or hid in a hole, to all them of the castle unknown.
The which when he felt that they were all absent, he put out
his head of his hole. And as he no man saw, but the child lying
in the cradle, he went out of his cavern towards the cradle for
the child to have slain. The noble falcon seeing that, beheld the
greyhound that was sleeping; she made such a noise and rustling
with her wings or feathers that the greyhound awoke and rose
up. And when he saw the serpent nigh the child, anon against
him he leapt, and they both fought so long together till that the
serpent had grievously hurted and wounded the greyhound that
he bled sore, so that the earth about the cradle was all bebled
with the blood of the greyhound. The greyhound, when that he
## p. 11469 (#83) ###########################################
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11469
felt himself so grievously hurted and wounded, started fiercely
upon the serpent, and fought sore together and so eagerly, so
that between them the cradle was overturned with the child.
And because that the cradle had four pommels or feet, they
saved the child's visage and his life from any hurtful falling
towards the earth. And what shall I say more? Incontinent
thereafter with great pain the greyhound overcame and slew
the serpent, and went and laid him down again in his place and
licked his wounds. And anon after, as the jousts and tourney
was done, the nurses were the first that came into the castle.
And as they saw the cradle reversed, with blood upon the earth
environed, and that the greyhound was also bloody, they thought
and said amongst themselves that the greyhound had slain the
child, and they were not so wise as to turn up again the cradle
with the child for to have seen what was thereof befallen. But
they said, Let us flee or run away, lest that our master put or
lay the blame upon us and slay us. And as they were thus away
running, they met with the knight's wife, and she said to them,
Wherefore make ye this sorrow, and whither will ye run ? And
they said, O lady, woe and sorrow be to us and to you. Why,
what is there happened? show me. The greyhound, they said,
that our lord and master loveth so much, hath devoured and slain
your son, and lieth by the wall all full of the blood. As the
lady this heard, she fell to the earth and began to weep and cry
piteously; and said, Alas, O my dear son, be ye thus slain and
dead? what shall I now make, that I have my only son thus lost?
Herewithal came in the knight from the tourney, and behold-
ing his lady thus crying and making sorrow, he demanded her
wherefore that she made so great sorrow and lamentation. She
answered him, O my lord, your greyhound that ye love so much
hath slain your only son, and lieth by the wall satiate with
blood of the child. The knight hugely angered went in to the
hall, and the greyhound went to him to meet and to fawn as he
was wont to do. And the knight drew out his sword and with
one stroke smote off the hound's head, and went to the cradle
and found his son all whole, and by the cradle the serpent slain.
And by divers signs perceived that the hound had fought against
the serpent for the salvation of the child. Then with great sor-
row and weeping he tare his hair and said, Woe be to me that
for the words of my wife I have slain my good greyhound, the
which hath saved my child's life and hath slain the serpent.
Herefore I will put myself to penance. And brake his sword in
## p. 11470 (#84) ###########################################
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PILPAY
three pieces, and went towards the Holy Land, and abode there.
all the days of his life.
Then said the Master to the Emperor, Lord, understand ye
what I have said? And he answered and said, Right well. The
Master said: If that ye do your son to death for the words of
your wife, it shall come to you worse than it did to the knight
for his greyhound. The Emperor said, Ye have showed me a
fair example, and without doubt this day shall not my son die.
Then said the Master, If ye do so, ye do wisely; but I thank
you that ye have him spared this day for my sake.
THE LION-MAKERS
From the Panchatantra,' Book v. , No. 4
E
VEN men of learning and noble birth are sometimes devoid of
For, true is the saying:-
common-sense.
Book-learning people rightly cherish;
But gumption 's best of all to me.
Bereft of gumption you shall perish,
Like to the Lion-makers three.
:-
"How was that? " said the Man-with-the-wheel. And the Gold-
magician narrated:
IN A certain place there dwelt four brahman youths in the
greatest friendship. Three of them had got to the further shore
of the ocean of science, but were devoid of common-sense; while
the fourth had common-sense only, and no mind for science.
Now once upon a time these friends took counsel together, and
said, "Of what profit is science, if we cannot go with it to some
foreign country and win the favor of princes and make our for-
tune? Therefore to the Eastern Country let us go. " And so it
came to pass.
Now after they had gone a little way, the eldest spoke:
"There is one among us, the fourth, who has no learning, but
only common-sense; and a man can't get presents from kings by
common-sense without learning. Not a whit will I give him of
all that I gain; so let him go home. " And the second said,
"Ho there, Gumption! get you homeward, for you have no
learning! " But the third made answer, "Alas, it is not fitting
so to do; for we have played together since we were boys.
So
## p. 11471 (#85) ###########################################
PILPAY
11471
let him come along too. He's a noble fellow, and shall have a
share in the riches that we win. "
On then they went together, till in a jungle they saw the
bones of a dead lion. Then spoke the first: "Ha! now we can
put our book-learning to the test. Here lies some sort of a dead
creature: by the power of our learning we'll bring it to life. I'll
put the bones together. " And that then he did with zeal. The
second added flesh, blood, and hide. But just as the third was
breathing the breath of life into it, Gumption stopped him and
said, "Hold: this is a lion that you are turning out.
If you
make him alive, he will kill every one of us. " Thereupon made
answer the other, "Fie, stupid! is learning to be fruitless in my
hands? " "Well then," said Gumption, "just wait a bit till I
climb a tree. >>
Thereupon the lion was brought to life. But the instant this
was done, he sprang up and killed the three. Afterwards Gump-
tion climbed down and went home.
Therefore, concluded the Gold-magician, therefore I say:
Book-learning people rightly cherish;
But gumption 's best of all to me.
Bereft of gumption you shall perish,
Like to the Lion-makers three.
-
Translation of Charles R. Lanman.
THE KING AND THE HAWK
From the Persian version of Pilpay, Anvár-i Suhailí,' or 'Lights of Canopus'
THE
HEY have related that in ancient times there was a king fond
of hunting. He was ever giving reins to the courser of his
desire in the pursuit of game, and was always casting the
lasso of gladness over the neck of sport. Now this king had a
hawk, who at a single flight could bring down the Símurgh
from the peak of Káf, and in terror of whose claws the constel-
lation Aquila kept himself close in the green nest of the sky.
VERSE
When that bold falcon stretched his pinions wide,
Heaven's bosom then was pierced through with dread;
When to the sky with upward flight he hied,
The eagle of the spheres his feathers shed.
## p. 11472 (#86) ###########################################
PILPAY
11472
And the king had a prodigious fondness for this hawk, and
always cared for it with his own hands. It happened that one
day the monarch, holding the hawk on his hand, had gone to
the chase. A stag leapt up before him, and he galloped after it
with the utmost eagerness. But he did not succeed in coming
up with it, and became separated from his retinue and servants;
and though some of them followed him, the king rode so hotly
that the morning breeze- which in the twinkling of the eye
encircles the world-could not have reached the dust he raised,
nor could the north wind, in spite of its velocity, attain to the
dust of his horse's hoofs.
COUPLET
Unmeasured has thy swiftness been:
So swift, no trace of thee is seen!
Meantime the fire of his thirst was kindled, and the intense de-
sire to drink overcame the king. He galloped his steed in every
direction, and traversed the desert and the waste in search of
water, until he reached the skirt of a mountain, and beheld that
from its summit limpid water was trickling. The king drew
forth a cup which he had in his quiver, and riding under the
mountain filled the cup with that water, which fell drop by drop;
and was about to take a draught, when the hawk made a blow
with his wing and spilled all the water in the goblet. The
king was vexed at that action, but held the cup a second time
under the rock until it was brimful. He then raised it to his lips
again, and again the hawk made a movement and overthrew the
cup.
HEMISTICH
Brought to the lip, they then forbid the draught.
The king, rendered impatient by thirst, dashed the hawk on
the ground and killed it. Shortly after, a stirrup-holder of the
king came up, and saw the hawk dead and the king athirst.
He then undid a water-vessel from his saddle-cord, and washed
the cup clean, and was about to give the king to drink. The
latter bade him ascend the mountain, as he had the strongest
inclination for the pure water which trickled from the rock,
and could not wait to collect it in the cup, drop by drop; and
therefore he desired the attendant to fill a cup with it and come
## p. 11473 (#87) ###########################################
PILPAY
11473
down. The stirrup-holder ascended the mountain and beheld a
spring like the eye of hard-hearted misers, giving out a drop at
a time with a hundred stintings; and a huge serpent lay dead
on the margin of the fountain; and as the heat of the sun had
taken effect upon it, the poisonous saliva mixed with the water
of that mountain, and it trickled drop by drop down the rock.
The stirrup-holder was overcome with horror, and came down
from the mountain bewildered, and represented the state of the
case, and gave the king a cup of cold water from his ewer.
The latter raised the cup to his lips, and his eyes overflowed
with tears.
COUPLET
A little water then he drank: the burnings of his heart were stopped;
The fluid that his lips imbibed, back from his flooding eyelids dropped.
The attendant asked the reason of his weeping. The king
drew a cold sigh from his anguished heart, and said:
COUPLET
"So deep my grief that I to none can tell the secret of my woes;
And yet my tale is such that I must still my lips perforce unclose. "
He then related in full the story of the hawk and the spill-
ing of the water in the cup; and said, “I grieve for the death of
the hawk, and bemoan my own deed in that without inquiry I
have deprived a creature so dear to me of life. " The attendant
replied, "This hawk protected thee from a great peril, and has
established a claim to the gratitude of all the people of this
country. It would have been better if the king had not been
precipitate in slaying it, and had quenched the fire of wrath.
with the water of mildness, and had turned back the reins of the
courser of his passions with the vigor of endurance, and had not
transgressed the monition of the wise, who have said: -
COUPLET
Do not the courser of thyself so strain,
That thou canst not at will draw in the rein. "
The king replied, "I repent of this unseemly action, but my
repentance is now unavailing, and the wound of this sorrow can-
not be healed by any salve; and as long as I live I shall retain
XX-718
## p. 11474 (#88) ###########################################
11474
PILPAY
on my bosom the scar of this regret, and lacerate the visage of
my feelings with the nail of remorse.
HEMISTICH
What can I do? The deed was mine: for self-made ills there is no
cure. »
THE ASS IN THE LION'S SKIN
From the Jataka': translated by Henry Clarke Warren, in his Buddhism in
Translations,' Vol. iii. of the Harvard Oriental Series
"N^
AY, this is not a lion's roar. " - This also was related by the
Teacher concerning Kokalika; and it was while dwelling in
Jetavana monastery. Kokalika, at the time, was desirous of
intoning a doctrinal recitation before the congregation of the priests.
When the Teacher heard this, he related the following tale:-
:-
ONCE upon a time, when Brahmadatta was reigning at Benares,
the Future Buddha, having been born in a farmer's family and
now come of age, was making his living by husbandry. Now at
that time a certain peddler went about selling his wares, which
he carried on the back of an ass. And at every place he came
to he would unload the ass, and dressing him up in the skin of
a lion, let him loose in some field of rice or barley. And the
field-watchers did not dare approach, as they thought it was a
lion. Now one day the peddler took up his abode at the gate
of a village, and while his breakfast was cooking, he dressed up
the ass in the lion's skin and let him loose in a field of barley.
The field-watchers did not dare approach, as they thought it was
a lion, but went home and announced the news. Then all the
inhabitants of the village took up arms, and, blowing conch-shells
and beating drums, went to the field and shouted, so that the ass
became afraid for his life and brayed. Then the Future Buddha
knew it was an ass, and pronounced the first stanza:
"Nay, this is not a lion's roar,
Nor tiger, panther, gives it vent;
But, dressed up in a lion's skin,
It is a wretched ass that brays. "
-
And also the inhabitants of the village knew it was an ass,
and beat him until his bones broke, and took the lion's skin away
## p. 11475 (#89) ###########################################
PILPAY
11475
with them.
Then came the peddler, and seeing that his ass had
come to grief, he pronounced the second stanza: -
-
"Long might the ass have lived to eat
The green and tender barley grain,
Accoutred in the lion's skin,
But that he brayed, and ruined all. "
And while he was thus speaking, the ass died; whereupon the
peddler left him and went his way.
The Teacher, having given this doctrinal instruction, identified the
characters in the Birth-story: - "At that time the ass was Kokalika,
but the wise farmer was I myself. "
THE HARE-MARK IN THE MOON
From the Jataka': translated by Henry Clarke Warren, in his Buddhism in
Translations,' Vol. iii. of the Harvard Oriental Series
"S
OME red-fish have I, seven in all. " This was related by the
Teacher while dwelling in Jetavana monastery; and it was
concerning a donation of all the requisites to the congregation
of the priests.
It seems that a householder of Savatthi prepared a donation of all
the requisites for the Buddha and for the Order. At the door of his
house he had a pavilion built and gotten ready; and having invited
the Buddha and the congregation of the priests, he made them sit
down on costly seats which had been spread for them in the pavilion,
and gave them an excellent repast of savory dishes. Then he invited
them again for the next day, and again for the next, until he had
invited them seven times. And on the seventh day he made the
donation of all the requisites to the Buddha and to five hundred
priests.
At the end of the breakfast the Teacher returned thanks and
said:
:-
-
"Layman, it is fitting that you thus manifest a hearty zeal; for
this almsgiving was also the custom of the wise of old time. For
the wise of old time surrendered their own lives to chance suppliants,
and gave their own flesh to be eaten. ”
Then, at the request of the householder, he related the bygone
Occurrence:-
ONCE upon a time, when Brahmadatta was ruling at Benares,
the Future Buddha was born as a hare, and dwelt in a wood.
## p. 11476 (#90) ###########################################
11476
PILPAY
Now on
one side of this wood was a mountain, on another a
river, and on another a border village. And there were three
other animals that were his comrades,-a monkey, a jackal, and
an otter. These four wise creatures dwelt together, catching their
prey each in his own hunting-ground, and at night resorting
together. And the wise hare would exhort the other three and
teach them the Doctrine, saying, "Give alms, keep the precepts,
and observe fast-days. " Then the three would approve of his
admonition, and go each to his own lair in the thicket, and spend
the night.
Time was going by in this manner, when one day the Future
Buddha looked up into the sky and saw the moon, and perceived
that the next day would be fast-day. Then said he to the others:
"To-morrow is fast-day. Do you three keep the precepts and
observe the day; and as alms given while keeping the precepts
bring great reward, if any suppliants present themselves give
them to eat of your own food. "
"Very well," said they, and passed the night in their lairs.
On the next day the otter started out early, and went to the
banks of the Ganges to hunt for prey. Now a fisherman had
caught seven red-fish and strung them on a vine, and buried
them in the sand on the banks of the Ganges, and had then gone
on down-stream catching fish as he went. The otter smelt the
fishy odor, and scraping away the sand, perceived the fish and
drew them out. Then he called out three times, "Does any one
own these? " and when he saw no owner, he bit hold of the vine
with his teeth, and drew them to his lair in the thicket. There
he lay down, remembering that he was keeping the precepts, and
thinking, "I will eat these at the proper time. "
And the jackal also went out to hunt for prey, and found
in the hut of a field-watcher two spits of meat, and one iguana,
and a jar of sour cream. Then he called out three times, "Does
any one own these? " and when he saw no owner, he placed the
cord that served as a handle for the jar of sour cream about his
neck, took hold of the spits of meat and of the iguana with his
teeth, and brought them home, and placed them in his lair in
the thicket. Then he lay down, remembering that he was keep-
ing the precepts, and thinking, "I will eat these at the proper
time. "
And the monkey also, entering the forest, fetched home a
bunch of mangoes, and placed them in his lair in the thicket.
## p. 11477 (#91) ###########################################
PILPAY
11477
Then he lay down, remembering that he was keeping the pre-
cepts, and thinking, "I will eat these at the proper time. "
The Future Buddha, however, remained in his thicket, think-
ing, "At the proper time I will go out and eat dabba-grass. "
Then he thought, "If any suppliants come, they will not want to
eat grass, and I have no sesamum, rice, or other such food.
If
any suppliant comes, I will give him of my own flesh. "
Such fieriness of zeal in keeping the precepts caused the
marble throne of Sakka to grow hot. Then, looking carefully,
Sakka discovered the cause, and proposed to himself to try the
hare. And disguised as a brahman, he went first to the lair of
the otter.
"Brahman, why stand you there? " said the otter.
Said he, "Pandit, if I could but get something to eat, I would
keep fast-day vows, and perform the duties of a monk. ”
"Very well," said the otter: "I will give you some food. "
And he addressed him with the first stanza:
"Some red-fish have I, seven in all,
Found stranded on the river bank.
All these, O brahman, are my own:
Come eat, and dwell within this wood. "
"I will return a little later," said the brahman; "let the mat-
ter rest until to-morrow. "
Then he went to the jackal. And the latter also asking,
«< Why stand you there? " the brahman answered the same as
before.
"Very well," said the jackal: "I will give you some food. "
And he addressed him with the second stanza:
-
"A watchman guards the field close by,-
His supper have I ta'en away:
Two spits of meat, iguana one,
One dish of butter clarified.
All these, O brahman, are my own:
Come eat, and dwell within this wood. "
"I will return a little later," said the brahman; "let the mat-
ter rest until to-morrow. "
Then he went to the monkey. And the latter also asking,
"Why stand you there? " the brahman answered the same as
before.
## p. 11478 (#92) ###########################################
11478
PILPAY
"Very well," said the monkey: "I will give you some food. "
And he addressed him with the third stanza:
"Ripe mangoes, water clear and cold,
And cool and pleasant woodland shade,-
All these, O brahman, are my own:
Come eat, and dwell within this wood. "
"I will return a little later," said the brahman: "let the mat-
ter rest until to-morrow. "
Then he went to the wise hare. And he also asking, "Why
stand you there? " the brahman answered the same as before.
The Future Buddha was delighted. "Brahman," said he,
"you have done well in coming to me for food. To-day I will
give alms such as I never gave before; and you will not have
broken the precepts by destroying life. Go, my friend, and
gather wood, and when you have made a bed of coals, come and
tell me.
I will sacrifice my life by jumping into the bed of live
coals. And as soon as my body is cooked, do you eat of my
flesh, and perform the duties of a monk. ” And he addressed
him with the fourth stanza:
"The hare no seed of sesamum
Doth own, nor beans, nor winnowed rice.
But soon my flesh this fire shall roast:
Then eat, and dwell within this wood. "
When Sakka heard this speech, he made a heap of live coals
by his superhuman power, and came and told the Future Buddha.
The latter rose from his couch of dabba-grass, and went to the
spot. And saying, "If there are any insects in my fur, I must
not let them die," he shook himself three times. Then throwing
his whole body into the jaws of his liberality, he jumped into
the bed of coals, as delighted in mind as a royal flamingo when
he alights in a cluster of lotuses. The fire, however, was unable
to make hot so much as a hair-pore of the Future Buddha's body.
He felt as if he had entered the abode of cold above the clouds.
Then, addressing Sakka, he said:-
-
"Brahman, the fire you have made is exceeding cold, and is
not able to make hot so much as a hair-pore of my body. What
does it mean? "
"Pandit, I am no brahman: I am Sakka, come to try you. "
## p. 11479 (#93) ###########################################
PILPAY
11479
"Sakka, your efforts are useless; for if all beings who dwell
in the world were to try me in respect of my liberality, they
would not discover in me any unwillingness to give. " Thus the
Future Buddha thundered.
"Wise hare," said then Sakka, "let your virtue be proclaimed.
to the end of this world-cycle. " And taking a mountain, he
squeezed it, and with the juice drew the outline of a hare in the
disk of the moon. Then in that wood, and in that thicket, he
placed the Future Buddha on some tender dabba-grass, and tak-
ing leave of him, departed to his own celestial abode.
And these four wise creatures lived happily and harmoniously,
and kept the precepts, and observed fast-days, and passed away
according to their deeds.
When the Teacher had given this instruction, he expounded the
truths, and identified the characters of the Birth-story (at the close of
the exposition of the truths, the householder who had given all the
requisites became established in the fruit of conversion): —
"In that existence the otter was Ananda, the jackal was Moggal-
lana, the monkey was Sariputta, while the wise hare was I myself. "
COUNT NOT YOUR CHICKENS BEFORE THEY BE HATCHED
From the Panchatantra,' Book v. , Fable 9
[This is the well-known tale of the Milkmaid who poised a full pail on her
head,' La Fontaine's 'Perrette' (vii. 10). It recurs in the Arabian
Nights (Night 716), and often elsewhere. *]
Ο
NCE upon a time there lived in a certain town a brahman
named Luckless. He begged a lot of barley grits; and
with what he had left over from his dinner, he filled a jar.
This he hung on a low peg in the wall, put his cot beneath
it, and looking at it with unaverted gaze, he bethought him:-
"This pot is full of barley grits, and if there comes a famine,
will fetch me a hundred pieces of silver. With them I shall buy
me a couple of she-goats; and as they will drop kids every six
months, I shall soon have a herd from them. For the goats I
* See the mutations of this tale in the selection from Max Müller, in the
present work.
## p. 11480 (#94) ###########################################
11480
PILPAY
shall get many cows; for the cows, buffalo-cows; and for them,
mares; and when they have foaled, I shall have many horses;
and from the sale of them, much gold. With the gold I'll get a
house with four rooms, about a court. And then some brahman
will come to my house, and give me his lovely daughter, with a
rich dowry in marriage.
"She will bear me a son, and I'll name him Soma-çarman.
When he's old enough for me to trot him on my knee, I'll take
a book, and sitting out behind the stable, I'll study it. Then
Soma-çarman, seeing me, and eager to be trotted on my knee,
will leave his mother's lap, and in coming to me will get right
near the horses' hoofs. And I, full of anger, shall say to my
wife, 'Take the child, quick! ' She, busy with housework, won't
hear me, and I shall get up and give her a kick. "
Deep sunk in thought, he gave such a kick that he broke
the jar, and the grits ran down over him till he was well whit-
ened.
Translation of Charles R. Lanman.
THE TRANSFORMED MOUSE
From the 'Panchatantra,' Book iii. , Fable 12
ON
N THE bank of the Ganges, whose billows are flecked with
white foam made by the fish that dart in terror at the
roar of the waters breaking on its craggy shores, there is
a hermitage filled with ascetics. They are given over to prayer,
restraint of the senses, asceticism, study of holy writ, fasting, and
meditation. They take very pure and very little water. They
mortify the flesh by a diet of bulbs, roots, fruits, and water-
plants. They wear only an apron of bast.
There was one among them named Yajnavalkya. He had
performed his sacred ablutions in the Ganges, and was about
to rinse his mouth, when into his hand there fell from the beak
of a hawk a little mouse. On seeing it, he put it on a banyan-
leaf, bathed again and rinsed his mouth, performed rites of expia-
tion and so forth; and then by the power of his asceticism he
changed the mouse into a girl, took her with him to his hermit-
age, and said to his wife, who was childless, "My dear, take this
girl as your daughter, and bring her up carefully. "
## p. 11481 (#95) ###########################################
PILPAY
11481
So the wife reared her, and loved her, and cared for her, till
she was twelve years old; and then, seeing the girl was fit to be
married, she said to her husband, "Seest thou not, O husband,
that the time for our daughter's marriage is slipping by? ”
Quite right," said he: "so if she is agreed, I will summon
the exalted sun-god, and give her to him to wife. " "What's the
harm? " said his wife: "do so. "
<<
So the sage called the sun. And such was the power of his
summons, which was made up of words of the Scripture, that the
sun came instantly, saying, "Reverend sir, didst thou call me? "
He answered, "Here is my daughter. If she will but choose
thee, then take her to wife. " And to his daughter he spake,
"My child, does the exalted sun, the illumer of the three worlds,
please thee? » The girl said, "Father, he is too scorching.
like him not. Call me some one more eminent than he. " Then
said the hermit to the sun, "Exalted one, is there any one
mightier than thou? " And the sun said, "There is one might-
ier than I, the cloud; for he covers me, and then none can see
me. "
I
So the sage called the cloud, and said, "Daughter, to him do
I give thee. " "He is too dark and cold," answered she; "so
give me to some other mightier being. " Then the sage asked the
cloud, "O cloud, is there any mightier even than thou ? »
"The
wind is mightier than I," said the cloud: "when the wind strikes
me I am torn to a thousand shreds. "
So the sage called the wind and said, "Daughter, does the
wind please thee best for a husband? ". -"Father, he is too fickle.
Bring hither some one mightier even than he. "
And the sage
said, "O wind, is any mightier than thou? " And the wind made
answer, "The mountain is mightier than I; for strong as I am,
it braces itself and withstands me. "
So the sage called the mountain and said, "Daughter, to
him do I give thee. " She answered and spake, "Father, he is
too hard and unyielding.
Give me to some other than him. ”
So the sage asked the mountain, "O king of mountains, is
there any mightier even than thou? " And the mountain said,
"The mice are mightier than I; for they tear and rend my body.
asunder. "
So the sage called a mouse, and showed him to her, and said,
(( Daughter, to him do I give thee. Does the king of the mice
please thee? »
## p. 11482 (#96) ###########################################
11482
PILPAY
And she, showing her joy at the thought that this one at last
was of her own kind, said, "Father, make me a mouse again,
and give me to him, in order that I may fulfill my household
duties after the manner ordained for my kind. "
So by the power
of his asceticism he made her a mouse again, and gave her to
him.
HE brahman said:
THE
Translation of Charles R. Lanman.
THE GREEDY JACKAL
From the Panchatantra,' Book ii. , Fable 3
And again -
Excessive greed should ne'er be cherished.
Have greed - but keep it moderate.
The all too greedy jackal perished,
A wooden top-knot on his pate.
How was that? " asked the brahman woman.
narrated.
IN a certain forest lived a savage tribesman, who, on a day,
set out a-hunting. And as he went he met a mighty boar, as
big as the peak of Mount Anjana. Straightway, drawing his
bow till the string touched his ear, he let fly a keen arrow and
hit the boar. Full of rage, the boar, with his sharp tusk that
gleamed like the young moon's crescent, ripped up the belly
of the hunter, that he fell lifeless to earth. But the boar too
yielded his life, from the smarting wound of the arrow.
Meantime a jackal, for whom Fate had ordained a speedy
death, roaming for hunger hither and yon, came to the spot.
Delighted at the sight of the boar and the hunter, he bethought.
him: "Ah! Fate is kind to me in giving me this unexpected
food. How true is the saying:-
And the brahman
No finger need'st thou raise! may'st work or sleep!
But of thy deeds wrought in a former birth,
The fruit or good or ill-thou needs must reap!
Inexorable Karma rules the earth.
In whatso time of life, or when, or where,
In former birth thou didst or good or ill,
In just that time of life, and then, and there,
In future birth, of fruit shalt have thy fill!
## p. 11483 (#97) ###########################################
PILPAY
11483
Now I'll manage it so with these carcasses that I shall get a
living off of them for many days. And to begin withal, I'll eat
the sinew which forms the bowstring. For they say-
A wise man doth sip the elixir of life,
Circumspectly and slowly, and heedful.
Thus enjoy thou the riches thou'st won by thy strife:
Never take at one time more than needful. "
Making up his mind in this way, he took the end of the
bow in his mouth, and began to gnaw the sinew. But as soon
as his teeth cut through the string, the bow tore through his
palate, and came out of his head like a top-knot, and he gave
up the ghost. Therefore, continued the brahman, therefore I
say:
· -
Excessive greed should ne'er be cherished.
Have greed - but keep it moderate.
The all too greedy jackal perished,
A wooden top-knot on his pate.
Translation of Charles R. Lanman.
"HOW PLAUSIBLE »
From the
Jataka,' No. 89
T
HIS story was told by the Master while at Jetavana, about a
knave. The details of his knavery will be related in the
Uddala-jataka.
ONCE on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares,
there lived hard by a certain little village a shifty rascal of an
ascetic, of the class which wears long matted hair. The squire
of the place had a hermitage built in the forest for him to dwell
in, and used to provide excellent fare for him in his own house.
Taking the matted-haired rascal to be a model of goodness, and
living as he did in fear of robbers, the squire brought a hundred
pieces of gold to the hermitage, and there buried them, bidding
the ascetic keep watch over them. - "No need to say that, sir, to
a man who has renounced the world; we hermits never covet
other folks' goods. "—"It is well, sir," said the squire, who went
off with full confidence in the other's protestations. Then the
rascally ascetic thought to himself, "There's enough here to keep
a man all his life long. " Allowing a few days to elapse first,
## p. 11484 (#98) ###########################################
11484
PILPAY
he removed the gold and buried it by the wayside, returning to
dwell as before in his hermitage. Next day, after a meal of rice
at the squire's house, the ascetic said, "It is now a long time,
sir, since I began to be supported by you; and to live long in
one place is like living in the world,-which is forbidden to pro-
fessed ascetics. Wherefore I must needs depart. " And though
the squire pressed him to stay, nothing could overcome this
determination.
"Well then, if it must be so, go your way, sir," said the
squire; and he escorted the ascetic to the outskirts before he left
him. After going a little way, the ascetic thought that it would
be a good thing to cajole the squire; so putting a straw in his
matted hair, back he turned again. "What brings you back? "
asked the squire. "A straw from your roof, sir, had stuck in
my hair; and as we hermits may not take anything which is not
bestowed upon us, I have brought it back to you. " "Throw
it down, sir, and go your way," said the squire, who thought to
himself, “Why, he won't take so much as a straw which does
not belong to him! What a sensitive nature! " Highly delighted
with the ascetic, the squire bade him farewell.
Now at that time it chanced that the Future Buddha, who
was on his way to the border district for trading purposes, had
halted for the night at that village. Hearing what the ascetic
said, the suspicion was aroused in his mind that the rascally
ascetic must have robbed the squire of something; and he asked
the latter whether he had deposited anything in the ascetic's care.
"Yes: a hundred pieces of gold. "
"Well, just go and see if it's all safe. "
Away went the squire to the hermitage, and looked, and
found his money gone.
Running back to the Future Buddha, he
cried, "It's not there. " "The thief is none other than that long-
haired rascal of an ascetic," said the Future Buddha: "let us
pursue and catch him. " So away they hastened in hot pursuit.
When they caught the rascal, they kicked and cuffed him till he
discovered to them where he had hidden the money. When he
procured the gold, the Future Buddha, looking at it, scornfully
remarked to the ascetic, "So a hundred pieces of gold didn't
trouble your conscience so much as that straw! " And he rebuked
him in this stanza: -
"How plausible the story that the rascal told!
How heedful of the straw! How heedless of the gold! "
## p. 11485 (#99) ###########################################
PILPAY
11485
When the Future Buddha had rebuked the fellow in this
wise, he added: "And now take care, you hypocrite, that you
don't play such a trick again. "
When his life ended, the Future Buddha passed away, to fare
thereafter according to his deserts.
His lesson ended, the Master said, "Thus you see, brethren, that
this brother was as knavish in the past as he is to-day. " And he
identified the Birth by saying: "This knavish brother was the knav-
ish ascetic of those days, and I the wise and good man. ”
THE MAN IN THE PIT
From the Maha-Bharata ›
[This is one of the most famous parables of antiquity and the Middle
Ages, and has served alike for the edification of Brahmans, Jains, Buddhists,
Mohammedans, Jews, and Christians. The text of this passage of the 'Maha-
Bharata (Book xi. , Sections 5, 6) is corrupt, and the version therefore free.
The history of the parable forms the subject of a charming essay by Ernst
Kuhn, in Festgruss an Otto von Böhtlingk' (Stuttgart, 1888). ]
THE PARABLE
CERTAIN brahman, it is said, once came into a vast and
A impassable jungle filled with beasts of prey, and so beset
on every hand with horribly roaring lions, tigers, and ele-
phants that even the God of Death would quake at the sight.
The brahman's heart was sore affrighted, and his hair stood on
end.
