Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/259

Rh to call the men together, and addressed them thus: "Without asking me, let not even a cupful of water be used! There are poisonous trees in the wilderness: without asking me, let not a leaf nor a flower nor a fruit you have not eaten before, be eaten!" And when he had thus exhorted his followers, he entered the desert with his five hundred waggons.

When he had reached the middle of the desert, that demon, in the same way as before, showed himself to the Bodisat as if he were coming from the opposite direction. The Bodisat knew him as soon as he saw him, thinking thus: "There is no water in this wilderness; its very name is the arid desert. This fellow is red-eyed and bold, and throws no shadow. The foolish merchant who went on before me will doubtless have been persuaded by this fellow to throw away all his water; will have been wearied out; and, with all his people, have fallen a prey. But he doesn't know, methinks, how clever I am, and how fertile in resource."

Then he said to him, "Begone! We are travelling merchants, and don't throw away the water we've got till we see some more; and as soon as we do see it, we understand quite well how to lighten carts by throwing ours away!"

The demon went on a little way, and when he got out of sight, returned to his demon city. When the demons were gone, his men said to the Bodisat, "Sir! those men told us that yonder was the beginning of the green forest, and from there onwards it was always raining. They had all kinds of lotuses with them in garlands and branches, and were chewing the edible lotus-stalks; their clothes and hair were all wet, and they came dripping with water.