Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/325

Rh "Well, I grant the same boon to them."

"Great king! the birds then will obtain peace, but what of the fish who dwell in the water?"

"They shall have peace as well."

And so the Great Being, having interceded with the king for all creatures, rose up and established the king in the Five Precepts, and said, "Walk in righteousness, O great king! Doing justice and mercy to fathers and mothers, to sons and daughters, to townsmen and landsmen, you shall enter, when your body is dissolved, the happy world of heaven!"

Thus, with the grace of a Buddha, he preached the Truth to the king; and when he had dwelt a few days in the park to exhort the king, he went away to the forest with his attendant herd.

And the roe gave birth to a son as beautiful as buds of flowers; and he went playing about with the Monkey Deer's herd. But when its mother saw that, she said, "My son, henceforth go not in his company; you may keep to the Banyan Deer's herd!" And thus exhorting him, she uttered the verse —

Follow the Banyan Deer: Dwell not with the Monkey Deer. Better death with the Banyan Deer, Than life with the Monkey Deer.

Now after that the deer, secure of their lives, began to eat men's crops. And the men dared not strike them or drive them away, recollecting how it had been granted to them that they should dwell secure. So they met together in front of the king's palace, and told the matter to the king.