The Bodhisatta, noting these two things, thought that here was a chance to drop a hint to the queen-mother. "Mother," said he, "when they heard the jay's cry on the road, every body stopped their ears, and called out--Don't make that noise! don't make that noise! and stopped up their ears: for harsh sounds are liked by no body." And he repeated the following stanzas:

"Those who are dowered with a lovely-hue,
Though ne'er so fair and beautiful to view,
Yet if they have a voice all harsh to hear
Neither in this world nor the next are dear.

"There is a bird that you may often see;
Ill-favoured, black, and speckled though it be,
Yet its soft voice is pleasant to the ear:
How many creatures hold the cuckoo dear!

"Therefore your voice should gentle be and sweet,
Wise-speaking, not puffed up with self-conceit.
And such a voice--how sweet the sound of it!--
Explains the meaning of the Holy Writ ."

When the Bodhisatta had thus admonished his mother with these three verses, he won her over to his. way of thinking; and ever afterwards sin followed a right course of living. And he having by one word made his mother a self-denying woman afterwards passed away to fare according to his deeds.

_____________________________

[351] When the Master had ended this discourse, he thus identified the Birth: "Sujata was the mother of the king of Benares, and I was the king himself."

Footnotes

^239:1 It is not clear whether vadhena kitassa is 'the thing bought by his wealth,' or the 'person'; probably both.

^241:1 Shorea Robusta.

^241:2 The last stanza comes from Dhammapada, v. 363, not quoted word for word, but adapted to the context.

[j270]