[298] I'll free the snake, but not the crow;
The crow shall be a hostage bound:
Never shall I let him go
Till my friend be safe and sound.

So saying he loosened his claw to let the snake go at his ease. The snake took away the poison and left the Bodhisatta's body free from it. He rose up well and stood in his natural hue. The crab thinking, "If these two be well there will be no prosperity for my friend, I will kill them," crushed both their heads like lotus-buds with his claws and took the life from them. The she-crow fled away from the place. The Bodhisatta spiked the snake's body with a stick and threw it on a bush, let the golden crab go free in the pool, bathed and then went to Salindiya. From that time there was still greater friendship between him and the crab.

The lesson ended, the Master declared the Truths, and identifying the Birth spoke the last stanza:--

"Mara, was the dusky serpent, Devadatta was the crow,
Good Ananda was the crab, and I the brahmin long ago."

At the end of the Truths many reached the First Path and the other Paths. The female crow was Ci###324###camanavika, though this is not mentioned in the last stanza.

Footnotes

^183:1 No. 542, vol. VI.

^183:2 No. 533, vol. v.

^184:1 See introductory story to No. 21, Vol. i.; Milindapanho, p. 207.

^184:2 2 According to Childers, Pali Dictionary s.v. ammanam, this would be about eight thousand acres.