"Parrot," they said, "it is not our business to give you fruit off this tree. All the fruit on this tree is marked. If there is one fruit wrong we shall lose our lives. If Vessavana is angry and looks but once, a thousand goblins are broken up and scattered like parched peas hopping about on a hot plate. So we cannot give you any. But we will tell you a place where you can get some."

"I care not who gives it," said the parrot, "but the fruit I must have. Tell me where I may get it."

"In one of the tortuous paths of the Golden Mountain lives an ascetic, by name Jotirasa, who watches the sacred fire in a leaf-thatched hut, called Kancana-patti or Goldleaf, a favourite of Vessavana; and sends him constantly four fruits from the tree; go to him."

The parrot took his leave, and came to the ascetic; he gave him greeting, and sat down on one side. The ascetic asked him,

"Where have you come from?" "From the king of Benares." "Why are you come?"

"Master, our Queen has a great craving for the fruit of the middle mango, and that is why I am come. Howbeit the goblins would not give me any themselves, but sent me to you."

"Sit down, then, and you shall have one," said the ascetic. Then came the four which Vessavana used to send. The ascetic ate two of them, gave the parrot one to eat, and when this was eaten he hung the fourth by a string, and made it fast around the parrot's neck, and let him go--"Off with you, now!" said he. The parrot flew back and gave it to the Queen. She ate it, and satisfied her craving, but still all the same she had no son.

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[400] When the Master had ended this discourse, he identified the Birth in these words: "At that time Rahula's mother was the Queen, Ananda was the parrot, Sariputta was the ascetic who gave the mango fruit, but the ascetic who lived in the park was I myself."

Footnotes

^268:1 Two of the seven ratanas, or Treasures of the Empire of an universal monarch.

^269:1 The phrase is meant to be enigmatical. It is explained below.

^269:2 The idea of conception by eating of fruit and in other abnormal ways is fully discussed in The Legend of Perseus, E. S. Hartland, vol. i. chaps. 4-6.

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