Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 3 1885.djvu/368

 360 FOLK-TALES OP INDIA.

have such as you, of purpose so unstable, to do with keeping the Uposatha-tasi ? You did not know that I was Indra : so you were desirous of eating the flesh of the goat." After thus teasing and upbraiding the wolf he returned to the world of the gods.

The moral of this story was pointed by the Buddha in the following gdthds : —

" A wolf who lived by others' death And ate their flesh and blood, Did make a vow to keep the fast And holy day observe. " But Indra soon did note his vow, A goat's form he assumed ; The murderous wolf his vow forsook And tried the goat to seize.

" Thus weak of purpose, like the wolf That for a goat transgressed, Some men give up their good resolves, And light their vows esteem."

The Supatta Jataka.*

Long ago, when Brahmadatta reigned at Benares, the Bodhisat was reborn among the crow-kind. When he grew up he was the chief of eighty thousand crows, and, as king of the crows, was called Supatta.

The nan^e of his principal queen was Suphassa, and Sumukha that of his prime-minister.

With a following of eighty thousand crows Supatta took up his quarters near Benares. One day he went along with Suphassa in search of food, and came by the kitchen belonging to the king of Benares. The cook, having provided for the king courses of food consisting of various kinds of fish and flesh, stood uncovering the cooking-pots a little in order that the steam might escape.

Suphassa smelt the odour of the fish and flesh, and longed to taste the king's viands ; but she said nothing about it that day.

The next day her spouse said, " Come, let us go in search of food." " Do you go," she replied ; " (I can't, for) I have a certain longing."

• Jataka Book, vol. ii. No. 282, p. 4.S.S.