Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/415

 No. 34.

MACCHA JĀTAKA.

The Fish and his Wife.

"'Tis not the heat, 'tis not the cold." — This the Master told when at Jetavana, about being tempted back by one's former wife.

For on that occasion the Master asked the monk, "Is it true, then, that you are love-sick?"

"It is true, Lord!" was the reply.

"What has made you sad?"

"Sweet is the touch of the hand, Lord! of her who was formerly my wife. I cannot forsake her!"

Then the Master said, "O Brother! this woman does you harm. In a former birth also you were just being killed through her when I came up and saved you." And he told a tale.

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benāres, the Bodisat became his private chaplain.

At that time certain fishermen were casting their nets into the river. Now a big fish came swimming along playing lustily with his wife. She still in front of him smelt the smell of a net, and made a circuit, and escaped