Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/413

Rh bring a smile into your face!'* And so saying, he uttered this stanza to his wife:

"So long as the birds but agree, They can get away with the net; But when once they begin to dispute, Then into my clutches they fall!"

And when only a few days had gone by, one of the quails, in alighting on the ground where they fed, trod unawares on another one's head.

"Who trod on my head?" asked the other in a passion.

"I didn't mean to tread upon you; don't be angry," said the other; but he was angry still. And as they went on vociferating, they got to disputing with one another in such words as these: "Ah! it was you then, I suppose, who did the lifting up of the net!"

When they were so quarrelling, the Bodisat thought, "There is no depending for safety upon a quarrelsome man! No longer will these fellows lift up the net; so they will come to great destruction, and the fowler will get his chance again. I dare not stay here any more!" And he went off with his more immediate followers to some other place.

And the fowler came a few days after, and imitated the cry of a quail, and cast his net over those who came together. Then the one quail cried out:

"The talk was that the very hairs of your head fell off when you heaved up the net. Lift away, then, now!"

The other cried out, "The talk was that the very feathers of your wings fell out when you heaved up the net. Lift away, then, now!"

But as they were each calling on the other to lift away,