Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/391

 No. 30.

MUṆIKA JĀTAKA.

The Ox who Envied the Pig.

"Envy not Muṇika." — This the Master told while at Jetavana, about being attracted by a fat girl. That will be explained in the Birth Story of Nārada-Kassapa the Younger, in the Thirteenth Book.

On that occasion the Teacher asked the monk, "Is it true what they say, that you are love-sick?"

"It is true, Lord!" said he.

"What about?"

"My Lord! 'tis the allurement of that fat girl!"

Then the Master said, "O monk! she will bring evil upon you. In a former birth already you lost your life on the day of her marriage, and were turned into food for the multitude." And he told a tale.

Long ago, when Brahma-datta was reigning in Benares, the Bodisat came to life in the house of a landed proprietor in a certain village as an ox, with the name of 'Big-red.' And he had a younger brother called 'Little-red.' And all the carting work in the household was carried on by means of the two brothers.

Now there was an only daughter in that family, and she was asked in marriage for the son of a man of rank in