Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/339

Rh caught early in the morning, he is already putrid," he loosed the bands which tied him. And apprehending nothing, he began to collect leaves and branches, saying to himself, "I will dress him at once, here on the spot, and carry off the flesh."

But the young stag arose, stood on his feet, shook himself, stretched out his neck, and, swiftly as a cloud driven by a mighty wind, returned to his mother!

The Teacher having finished this discourse, in illustration of his words ("Not now only, mendicants, was Rāhula devoted to instruction; formerly also he was so," etc.), made the connexion, and summed up the Jātaka: "At that time the nephew, the young stag, was Rāhula, the mother was Uppala-vaṇṇā, but the uncle was I myself."

END OF THE STORY OF THE CUNNING DEER.