Sakka saw that there were no newcomers among the gods; and he cast about him what was to be done. At last he hit upon a plan. "I will humble him!" thought Sakka; and he took upon him the form of an old man, and placing two jars of buttermilk in a crazy old waggon, he yoked to it a pair of old oxen, and set out upon a feast day. Brahmadatta, mounted upon a richly caparisoned elephant, was making a solemn procession about the city, which was all decorated; and Sakka, clad in rags, and driving this cart, came to meet the king. When the king saw the old cart, he shouted, "Away with that cart, you!" But his people answered, "Where is it, my lord? we cannot see any cart!" (for Sakka by his power let it be seen by no one but the king). And, coming up to the king repeatedly, at last Sakka, still driving his cart, smashed one of the jars upon the king's head, and made him turn round; then he smashed the other in like manner. And the buttermilk trickled down on either side of his head. Thus was the king plagued and tormented, and made miserable by Sakka's doings.

When Sakka saw his distress, he made the cart disappear, and took his proper shape again. Poised in mid-air, thunderbolt in hand, he upbraided him--"O wicked and unrighteous king! Will you never become old yourself? will not age assail you? Yet you sport and mock, and do despite to those who are old! It is through you alone, and these doings of yours, that men die on every hand, and fill up the four worlds of unhappiness, and that men cannot care for their parents' welfare! If you do not cease from this, I will cleave your head with my thunderbolt. Go, and do so no more."

With this rebuke, he declared the worth of parents, and made known the advantage of reverencing old age; after which discourse he departed to his own place. From that time forward the king never so much as thought of doing anything like what he had done before.

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[144] This story ended, the Master, becoming perfectly enlightened, recited these two couplets:--

"Geese, herons, elephants, and spotted deer
Though all unlike, alike the lion fear.
"Even so, a child is great if he be clever;
Fools may be big, but great they can be never ."

When this discourse was ended, the Master declared the Truths and identified the Birth:--at the conclusion of the Truths some of those Brethren entered on the First Path, some on the Second, and some upon the Fourth:--"The excellent Lakuntaka was the king in the story, who made people the butt for his jests and then became a butt himself, whilst I myself was Sakka."

Footnotes

^99:1 The four apaye = Hell, birth as an animal, birth as a peta (ghost), birth among the asuras (Titans or fallen spirits).

^100:1 These lines occur in Samyutta-Nikaya, pt. II. xxi. 6 (ii. p. 279, ed. P. T. S.).

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