"My pupil," thought the teacher to himself, "does not know all my resources." So he chose an elephant, and in one night he taught him to do all things awry. He taught him to back when bidden go forward, and to go on when told to back; to lie down when bidden rise, and to rise when bidden lie down; to drop when told to pick up, and to pick up when told to drop.

Next day mounting his elephant he came to the palace yard. And his pupil also was there, mounted upon a beautiful elephant. There was a great concourse of people. They both showed all their skill. But the Bodhisatta made his elephant reverse orders; [223] "Go on!" said he, and it backed; "Back!" and it ran forward; "Stand up!" and it lay down; "Lie!" and it stood up; "Pick it up!" and the creature dropped it; "Drop it!" and he picked it up. And the crowd cried, "Go to, you rascal! do not raise your voice against your master! You do not know your own measure, and you think you can match yourself against him!" and they assailed him with clods and staves, so that he gave up the ghost then and there. And the Bodhisatta came down from his elephant, and approaching the king, addressed him thus--

"O mighty king! for their own good men get them taught; but there was one to whom his learning brought misery with it, like an ill-made shoe;" and he uttered these two stanzas:--

"As when a pair of shoes which one has bought
For help and comfort cause but misery,
Chafing the feet till they grow burning hot
And making them to fester by and bye:

"Even so an underbred ignoble man,
Having learnt all that he can learn from you,
By your own teaching proves your very bane :
The lowbred churl is like the ill-made shoe."

[224] The king was delighted, and heaped honours upon the Bodhisatta.

_____________________________

When this discourse was ended, the Master identified this Birth as follows:--"Devadatta was the pupil, and I myself was the teacher."

Footnotes

^155:1 The schol. would take tam as for attanam, "he hurts himself," not "thee," but this is hardly possible. The verses do not seem to fit the story very exactly.

[j232]