In all three postures--on his back or sides
Your son is versed; he's trained to use eight hoofs ,
And save at midnight never slakes his thirst;
As he lies couched on earth, he lifeless seems,
And only with his under-nostril breathes.
Six tricks my nephew knows to cheat his foes.

[164] Thus did the Bodhisatta console his sister by shewing her how thoroughly her son had mastered the ruses of deer. Meantime the young stag on being caught in the snare did not struggle, but lay down at full length on his side, with his legs stretched out taut and rigid. He pawed up the ground round his hoofs so as to shower the grass and earth about; relieved nature; let his head fall; lolled out his tongue; beslavered his body all over; swelled himself out by drawing in the wind; turned up his eyes; breathed only with the lower nostril, holding his breath with the upper one; and made himself generally so rigid and so stiff as to look like a corpse. Even the blue-bottles swarmed round him; and here and there crows settled.

The hunter came up and smacked the stag on the belly with his hand, remarking, "He must have been caught early this morning; he's going bad already." So saying, the man loosed the stag from his bonds, saying to himself, "I'll cut him up here where he lies, and take the flesh home with me." But as the man guilelessly set to work to gather sticks and leaves (to make a fire with), the young stag rose to his feet, shook himself, stretched out his neck, and, like a little cloud scudding before a mighty wind, sped swiftly back to his mother.

_____________________________

After repeating what he had said as to Rahula's having shewn no less anxiety in time past to keep rules than in the present, the Master made the connexion and identified the Birth by saying, "Rahula was the young stag of those days, Uppala-vanna his mother, and I the stag his uncle."

[Note. According to Feer (J. As. 1876, p. 516) this Jataka is also called Sikhakama in the Bigandet MS. The substance of the Introductory Story occurs in the Vinaya, Vol. IV. page 16.]

Footnotes

^49:1 This the commentator explains as having two hoofs on each foot, referring to the cloven hoof of the deer.

^49:2 I.e. the three mentioned in line 1, and the three mentioned in lines 2, 3, and 5, respectively.

^49:3 See infra <page 62>, l. 10.

[j017]