Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/343

Rh intention of giving the Feast of the Dead, and said to his pupils:

"My lads! take this goat to the river, and bathe it, and hang a garland round its neck, and give it a measure of corn, and deck it out, and then bring it back."

"Very well," said they, and accordingly took it to the river; and when they had bathed it and decorated it, let it stand on the bank.

The goat, seeing in this the effect of his former bad conduct, thought to himself, "To-day I shall be free from that great misery;" and, glad at heart, he laughed a mighty laugh, in sound like the crashing of a jar. Then, thinking to himself, "This Brāhman, by killing me, will take upon himself like misery to that which I had earned," he felt compassion for the Brāhman, and wept with a loud voice.

Then the young Brāhman asked him, "Friend goat! you have both laughed heartily and heartily cried. Pray, what is it makes you laugh, and what is it makes you cry?"

"Ask me about it in your teacher's presence," said he.

They took him back, and told their teacher of this matter. And when he had heard their story, he asked the goat, "Why did you laugh, goat, and why did you cry?"

Then the goat, by his power of remembering former births, called to mind the deeds he had done, and said to the Brāhman, "Formerly, O Brāhman, I had become just such another Brāhman, — a student of the mystic verses of the Vedas; and determining to provide a Feast of the Dead, I killed a goat, and gave the Feast. By