Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/24

 The Jackal and the Crow.

JAMBU-KHĀDAKA JĀTAKA.

(Fausböll, No. 294.)

Long, long ago, when Bralima-datta was reigning in Benāres, the Bodisat had come to life as a tree-god, dwelling in a certain grove of Jambu-trees.

Now a crow was sitting there one day on the branch of a Jambu-tree, eating the Jambu-fruits, when a jackal coming by, looked up and saw him.

"Ha!" thought he. "I'll flatter that fellow, and get some of those Jambus to eat." And thereupon he uttered this verse in his praise:

"Who may this be, whose rich and pleasant notes Proclaim him best of all the singing-birds? Warbling so sweetly on the Jambu-branch, Where like a peacock he sits firm and grand!"

Then the crow, to pay him back his compliments, replied in this second verse:

"'Tis a well-bred young gentleman, who understands To speak of gentlemen in terms polite! Good Sir! — whose shape and glossy coat reveal The tiger's offspring — eat of these, I pray!"

And so saying, he shook the branch of the Jambu-tree till he made the fruit to fall.

But when the god who dwelt in that tree saw the two of them, now they had done flattering one another, eating the Jambus together, he uttered a third verse: