not sure that many of your men will be slain and that you yourselves, O kings, are liable to lose your lives?"4
And they said: "Verily, it is sure that many will be slain and our own lives be jeopardized."5
"The blood of men, however," said Buddha, "has it less intrinsic value than a mound of earth?"6
"No," the Idngs said, "the lives of men and above all the lives of kings, are priceless."7
Then the Tathagata concluded: "Are you going to stake that which is priceless against that which has no intrinsic value whatever?"8
The wrath of the two monarchs abated, and they came to a peaceable agreement.9
LXXVIII.
THE HUNGRY DOG.
There was a great king who oppressed his people and was hated by his subjects 5 yet when the Tathāgata came into his kingdom, the king desired much to see him. So he went to the place where the Blessed One stayed and asked: "O Sakyamuni, canst thou teach a lesson to the king that will divert his mind and benefit him at the same time?"1
And the Blessed One said: *I shall tell thee the parable of the hungry dog:2
"There was a wicked tyrant; and the god Indra, assuming the shape of a hunter, came down upon earth with the demon Mātali, the latter appearing as a dog of enormous size. Hunter and dog entered the palace, and the dog howled so wofully that the royal buildings shook by the sound to their very foundations. The tyrant had the awe-inspiring hunter brought before his throne and inquired
