Page:Buddhist Birth Stories, or, Jātaka Tales.djvu/429

Rh until one day they thought, "This will be a good way for finding it out;" and the Monkey and the Partridge asked the Elephant, as they were all sitting together at the foot of the Banyan-tree —

"Elephant dear! How big was this Banyan Tree at the time you first knew it?"

"Friends!" said he, "When I was little I used to walk over this Banyan, then a mere bush, keeping it between my thighs; and when I stood with it between my legs, its highest branches touched my navel. So I have known it since it was a shrub."

Then they both asked the Monkey in the same way. And he said, "Friends! when I was quite a little monkey I used to sit on the ground and eat the topmost shoots of this Banyan, then quite young, by merely stretching out my neck. So that I have known it from its earliest infancy."

Then again the two others asked the Partridge as before. And he said —

"Friends! There was formerly a lofty Banyan-tree in such and such a place, whose fruit I ate and voided the seeds here. From that this tree grew up: so that I have known it even from before the time when it was born, and am older than either of you!"

Thereupon the Elephant and the Monkey said to the clever Partridge —

"You, friend, are the oldest of us all. Henceforth we will do all manner of service for you, and pay you reverence, and make salutations before you, and treat you with every respect and courtesy, and abide by your counsels. Do you in future give us whatever counsel and instruction we require."