Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/348

 No. 20.

NAḶAPĀNA JĀTAKA.

The Monkeys and the Demon.

"He saw the marks of feet," etc. — This the Teacher told about the Naḷa-canes, when he was living at the Ketaka wood, hard by the Lake of Naḷaka-pāna, after he had come to the village of that name on his tour through Kosala.

At that time the monks, after they had bathed in the Naḷaka-pāna lake, had the canes of the Naḷa-plant brought to them by the novices, for needle-cases. And finding them hollow throughout, they went to the Teacher, and asked him, "Lord! we had Naḷa-canes brought for needle-cases. They are hollow throughout, from root to point. How is this?"

"This, mendicants," said he, "is a former command of mine." And he told a tale.

This was formerly, they say, a densely-wooded forest. And in its lake there was a water-demon, who used to eat whomsoever went down into the water. At that time the Bodisat was a monkey-king, in size like the fawn of a red deer; and attended by a troop of monkeys about eighty thousand in number, he lived in that forest, preserving them from harm.