"You rob our city, and carry off clothes and all sorts of things," he began.--"Yes, Sire."--"Whom have they been given to?"--"A merchant of Benares."--"Why?"--"Because he saved our lives, and they say one good turn deserves another; that is why we gave them to him."

"Vultures, they say," quoth the king, "can spy a corpse an hundred leagues away; and can't you see a trap set ready for you?" And with these words he repeated the first stanza:--

"A vulture sees a corpse that lies one hundred leagues away:
When thou alightst upon a trap dost thou not see it, pray?"

[52] The Vulture listened, then replied by repeating the second stanza:--

"When life is coming to an end, and death's hour draws anigh,
Though you may come close up to it, nor trap nor snare you spy."

After this response of the Vulture, the king turned to our Merchant. "Have all these things really been brought to you, then, by the Vultures?"

[paragraph continues] "Yes, my lord." "Where are they?" "My lord, they are all put away; each shall receive his own again:--only let this Vulture go!" He had his way; the Vulture was set at liberty, and the Merchant returned all the property to its owners.

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This lesson ended, the Master declared the Truths, and identified the Birth:--at the conclusion of the Truths the dutiful Brother was established in the fruition of the First Path:--"Ananda was the king of those days; Sariputta was the Merchant; and I myself was the Vulture that supported his parents."

Footnotes

^34:1 No. 532 in Westergaard's Copenhagen Catalogue (Cat. Or. MSS. Bibl. Haun.); not yet printed.

^35:1 This seems to be another form of the "Grateful Beasts" incident which so often occurs in folk-tales.

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