Indian Fairy Tales (20 page)

"Never!" said the king.

"But it must be so, Your Majesty," replied the vizier; "and in order to
prove the truth of what I have heard, I pray you to call together all
the maids in your palace, and order them to jump over a pit, which must
be dug. We'll soon find out whether there is any man there."

The king had the pit dug, and commanded all the maids belonging to the
palace to try to jump it. All of them tried, but only one succeeded.
That one was found to be a man!!

Thus was the queen satisfied, and the faithful old vizier saved.

Afterwards, as soon as could be, the vizier's son married the old
farmer's daughter; and a most happy marriage it was.

This story the Teacher told in Jetavana about a Brother who had
ceased striving after righteousness. Said the Teacher to him: "Is it
really true that you have ceased all striving?"—"Yes, Blessed One," he
replied. Then the Teacher said: "O Brother, in former days wise men
made effort in the place where effort should be made, and so attained
unto royal power." And he told a story of long ago.

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was King of Benares, the Bodhisatta
was born as son of his chief queen. On his name-day they asked 800
Brahmans, having satisfied them with all their desires, about his lucky
marks. The Brahmans who had skill in divining from such marks beheld
the excellence of his, and made answer:

"Full of goodness, great King, is your son, and when you die he will
become king; he shall be famous and renowned for his skill with the
five weapons, and shall be the chief man in all India." On hearing what
the Brahmans had to say, they gave him the name of the Prince of the
Five Weapons, sword, spear, bow, battle-axe, and shield.

When he came to years of discretion, and had attained the measure of
sixteen years, the King said to him:

"My son, go and complete your education."

"Who shall be my teacher?" the lad asked.

"Go, my son; in the kingdom of Candahar, in the city of Takkasila, is a
far-famed teacher from whom I wish you to learn. Take this, and give it
him for a fee." With that he gave him a thousand pieces of money, and
dismissed him.

The lad departed, and was educated by this teacher; he received the
Five Weapons from him as a gift, bade him farewell, and leaving
Takkasila, he began his journey to Benares, armed with the Five
Weapons.

On his way he came to a forest inhabited by the Demon with the Matted
Hair. At the entering in of the forest some men saw him, and cried out:

"Hullo, young sir, keep clear of that wood! There's a Demon in it
called he of the Matted Hair: he kills every man he sees!" And they
tried to stop him. But the Bodhisatta, having confidence in himself,
went straight on, fearless as a maned lion.

When he reached mid-forest the Demon showed himself. He made himself as
tall as a palm tree; his head was the size of a pagoda, his eyes as big
as saucers, and he had two tusks all over knobs and bulbs; he had the
face of a hawk, a variegated belly, and blue hands and feet.

"Where are you going?" he shouted. "Stop! You'll make a meal for me!"

Said the Bodhisatta: "Demon, I came here trusting in myself. I advise
you to be careful how you come near me. Here's a poisoned arrow, which
I'll shoot at you and knock you down!" With this menace, he fitted to
his bow an arrow dipped in deadly poison, and let fly. The arrow stuck
fast in the Demon's hair. Then he shot and shot, till he had shot away
fifty arrows; and they all stuck in the Demon's hair. The Demon snapped
them all off short, and threw them down at his feet; then came up to
the Bodhisatta, who drew his sword and struck the Demon, threatening
him the while. His sword—it was three-and-thirty inches long—stuck in
the Demon's hair! The Bodhisatta struck him with his spear—that stuck
too! He struck him with his club—and that stuck too!

When the Bodhisatta saw that this had stuck fast, he addressed the
Demon. "You, Demon!" said he, "did you never hear of me before—the
Prince of the Five Weapons? When I came into the forest which you live
in I did not trust to my bow and other weapons. This day will I pound
you and grind you to powder!" Thus did he declare his resolve, and with
a shout he hit at the Demon with his right hand. It stuck fast in his
hair! He hit him with his left hand—that stuck too! With his right
foot he kicked him—that stuck too; then with his left—and that stuck
too! Then he butted at him with his head, crying, "I'll pound you to
powder!" and his head stuck fast like the rest.

Thus the Bodhisatta was five times snared, caught fast in five places,
hanging suspended: yet he felt no fear—was not even nervous.

Thought the Demon to himself: "Here's a lion of a man! A noble man!
More than man is he! Here he is, caught by a Demon like me; yet he will
not fear a bit. Since I have ravaged this road, I never saw such a man.
Now, why is it that he does not fear?" He was powerless to eat the man,
but asked him: "Why is it, young sir, that you are not frightened to
death?"

"Why should I fear, Demon?" replied he. "In one life a man can die but
once. Besides, in my belly is a thunderbolt; if you eat me, you will
never be able to digest it; this will tear your inwards into little
bits, and kill you: so we shall both perish. That is why I fear
nothing." (By this, the Bodhisatta meant the weapon of knowledge which
he had within him.)

When he heard this, the Demon thought: "This young man speaks the
truth. A piece of the flesh of such a lion-man as he would be too much
for me to digest, if it were no bigger than a kidney-bean. I'll let him
go!" So, being frightened to death, he let go the Bodhisatta, saying
"Young sir, you are a lion of a man! I will not eat you up. I set you
free from my hands, as the moon is disgorged from the jaws of Rahu
after the eclipse. Go back to the company of your friends and
relations!"

And the Bodhisatta said: "Demon, I will go, as you say. You were born a
Demon, cruel, blood-bibbing, devourer of the flesh and gore of others,
because you did wickedly in former lives. If you still go on doing
wickedly, you will go from darkness to darkness. But now that you have
seen me you will find it impossible to do wickedly. Taking the life of
living creatures causes birth, as an animal, in the world of Petas, or
in the body of an Asura, or, if one is reborn as a man, it makes his
life short." With this and the like monition he told him the
disadvantage of the five kinds of wickedness, and the profit of the
five kinds of virtue, and frightened the Demon in various ways,
discoursing to him until he subdued him and made him self-denying, and
established him in the five kinds of virtue; he made him worship the
deity to whom offerings were made in that wood; and having carefully
admonished him, departed out of it.

At the entrance of the forest he told all to the people thereabout; and
went on to Benares, armed with his five weapons. Afterwards he became
king, and ruled righteously; and after giving alms and doing good he
passed away according to his deeds.

And the Teacher, when this tale was ended, became perfectly
enlightened, and repeated this verse:

Whose mind and heart from all desire is free,
Who seeks for peace by living virtuously,
He in due time will sever all the bonds
That bind him fast to life, and cease to be.

Thus the Teacher reached the summit, through sainthood and the teaching
of the law, and thereupon he declared the Four Truths. At the end of
the declaring of the Truths, this Brother also attained to sainthood.
Then the Teacher made the connexion, and gave the key to the birth-
tale, saying: "At that time Angulimala was the Demon, but the Prance of
the Five Weapons was I myself."

One day a young prince was out practising archery with the son of his
father's chief vizier, when one of the arrows accidentally struck the
wife of a merchant, who was walking about in an upper room of a house
close by. The prince aimed at a bird that was perched on the window-
sill of that room, and had not the slightest idea that anybody was at
hand, or he would not have shot in that direction. Consequently, not
knowing what had happened, he and the vizier's son walked away, the
vizier's son chaffing him because he had missed the bird.

Presently the merchant went to ask his wife about something, and found
her lying, to all appearance, dead in the middle of the room, and an
arrow fixed in the ground within half a yard of her head. Supposing
that she was dead, he rushed to the window and shrieked, "Thieves
thieves! They have killed my wife." The neighbours quickly gathered,
and the servants came running upstairs to see what was the matter. It
happened that the woman had fainted, and that there was only a very
slight wound in her breast where the arrow had grazed.

As soon as the woman recovered her senses she told them that two young
men had passed by the place with their bows and arrows, and that one of
them had most deliberately aimed at her as she stood by the window.

On hearing this the merchant went to the king, and told him what had
taken place. His Majesty was much enraged at such audacious wickedness,
and swore that most terrible punishment should be visited on the
offender if he could be discovered. He ordered the merchant to go back
and ascertain whether his wife could recognise the young men if she saw
them again.

"Oh yes," replied the woman, "I should know them again among all the
people in the city."

"Then," said the king, when the merchant brought back this reply, "to-
morrow I will cause all the male inhabitants of this city to pass
before your house, and your wife will stand at the window and watch for
the man who did this wanton deed."

A royal proclamation was issued to this effect. So the next day all the
men and boys of the city, from the age of ten years upwards, assembled
and marched by the house of the merchant. By chance (for they both had
been excused from obeying this order) the king's son and the vizier's
son were also in the company, and passed by in the crowd. They came to
see the tamasha.

As soon as these two appeared in front of the merchant's window they
were recognised by the merchant's wife, and at once reported to the
king.

"My own son and the son of my chief vizier!" exclaimed the king, who
had been present from the commencement. "What examples for the people!
Let them both be executed."

"Not so, your Majesty," said the vizier, "I beseech you Let the facts
of the case be thoroughly investigated. How is it?" he continued,
turning to the two young men. "Why have you done this cruel thing?"

"I shot an arrow at a bird that was sitting on the sill of an open
window in yonder house, and missed," answered the prince. "I suppose
the arrow struck the merchant's wife. Had I known that she or anybody
had been near I should not have shot in that direction."

"We will speak of this later on," said the king, on hearing this
answer. "Dismiss the people. Their presence is no longer needed."

In the evening his Majesty and the vizier had a long and earnest talk
about their two sons. The king wished both of them to be executed; but
the vizier suggested that the prince should be banished from the
country. This was finally agreed to.

Accordingly, on the following morning, a little company of soldiers
escorted the prince out of the city. When they reached the last custom-
house the vizier's son overtook them. He had come with all haste,
bringing with him four bags of muhrs on four horses. "I am come," he
said, throwing his arms round the prince's neck, "because I cannot let
you go alone. We have lived together, we will be exiled together, and
we will die together. Turn me not back, if you love me."

"Consider," the prince answered, "what you are doing. All kinds of
trial may be before me. Why should you leave your home and country to
be with me?"

"Because I love you," he said, "and shall never be happy without you."

So the two friends walked along hand in hand as fast as they could to
get out of the country, and behind them marched the soldiers and the
horses with their valuable burdens. On reaching a place on the borders
of the king's dominions the prince gave the soldiers some gold, and
ordered them to return. The soldiers took the money and left; they did
not, however, go very far, but hid themselves behind rocks and stones,
and waited till they were quite sure that the prince did not intend to
come back.

On and on the exiles walked, till they arrived at a certain village,
where they determined to spend the night under one of the big trees of
the place. The prince made preparations for a fire, and arranged the
few articles of bedding that they had with them, while the vizier's son
went to the baniya and the baker and the butcher to get something for
their dinner. For some reason he was delayed; perhaps the tsut was not
quite ready, or the baniya had not got all the spices prepared. After
waiting half an hour the prince became impatient, and rose up and
walked about.

He saw a pretty, clear little brook running along not far from their
resting-place, and hearing that its source was not far distant, he
started off to find it. The source was a beautiful lake, which at that
time was covered with the magnificent lotus flower and other water
plants. The prince sat down on the bank, and being thirsty took up some
of the water in his hand. Fortunately he looked into his hand before
drinking, and there, to his great astonishment, he saw reflected whole
and clear the image of a beautiful fairy. He looked round, hoping to
see the reality; but seeing no person, he drank the water, and put out
his hand to take some more. Again he saw the reflection in the water
which was in his palm. He looked around as before, and this time
discovered a fairy sitting by the bank on the opposite side of the
lake. On seeing her he fell so madly in love with her that he dropped
down in a swoon.