about. Then come to me and say—'Jackal, show thyself!' Now pray don't be all jealous of me."
Then the lion replied: "O jackal, only he that is born among the lion-kind is able to kill elephants. There's not a jackal in the whole world that is fit to bring down elephants and eat their flesh. Don't be hankering to do a thing of this kind. Stay on here and eat of the flesh of the elephants that I myself shall kill." Notwithstanding the lion's advice, the jackal did not like to give up the attempt, but again and again entreated the lion to be allowed to do as he wished. At last the lion, unable to restrain him, consented.
"Well, come into my cave," said he, "and lie down." And he made the jackal lie down in the Koñcana cave. As soon as he had found a rut-elephant at the foot of the mountain he went to the entrance of the cave and said—"Jackal, show thyself!"
The jackal left the cave, shook himself up, looked all around, and thrice he uttered a jackal's cry, saying, "I'll alight on the forehead of this rut-elephant." He missed his mark, however, and fell at the elephant's feet. The elephant, lifting up his right foot, trod upon his head and ground the bones of it to powder. Then, with his other foot, he crushed the jackal's body into a heap and dropped dung all over it. After he had done this, roaring an elephant's roar, he went into the forest. The Bodhisat, having witnessed this afifair, said: "O jackal, show thyself!" Then he spake the following gâthâ:—
"Thy head is split, thy brains are oozing out.
All broken are thy ribs by this huge beast;
In sorry plight thou findst thyself to-day.
Full well I ween thou art conspicuous now."
Having uttered this verse, he lived to a good old age, and then departed to be rewarded according to his deeds.
The Palâsa Jâtaka.[1]
The grateful Tree-Sprite.
In days gone by when Brahmadatta reigned at Benares, the Bodhisat was re-born as a Palâsa-tree-sprite, not far from the city of Benares.
- ↑ Jâtaka Book, vol. iii. No. 307, p. 23.
