The king has sent thee rice prepared and seasoned well with meat:
If Makhadeva is at home, let him come forth and eat!

[328] Hearing him the yakkha thought, "I will deceive him, and eat him when he comes into the shadow," and so he spoke the second stanza:--

Come inside, young man, with your seasoned food,
Both it and you, young man, to eat are good.

Then the Bodhisatta spoke two stanzas:--

Yakkha, you'll lose a great thing for a small,
Men fearing death will bring no food at all.

You'll have good supply of cheer,
Pure and sweet and flavoured to your mind:
But a man to bring it here,
If you eat me, will be hard to find.

[329] The yakkha thought, "The young man speaks sense," and being well disposed spoke two stanzas:--

Young Sutana, my interests are clearly as you show:
Visit your mother then in peace, you have my leave to go.

Take sword, and parasol, and dish, young man, and go your ways,
Visit your mother happily and bring her happy days.

Hearing the yakkha's words the Bodhisatta was pleased, thinking, "My task is accomplished, the yakkha overcome, much wealth won and the king's word made good," and so returning thanks to the yakkha he spoke a final stanza:--

With all thy kith and kin, yakkha, right happy may you be:
The king's command has been performed, and wealth has come to me.

So he admonished the yakkha, saying, "Friend, you did evil deeds of old, you were cruel and harsh, you ate the flesh and blood of others and so were born as a yakkha: from henceforth do no murder or the like:" so telling the blessings of virtue and the misery of vice, he established the yakkha in the five virtues: then he said, "Why dwell in the forest? come, I will settle you by the city gate and make you get the best rice." So he went away with the yakkha, making him take the sword and the other things, and came to Benares. They told the king that Sutana was come with the yakkha. The king with his ministers [330] went out to meet the Bodhisatta, settled the yakkha at the city gate and made him get the best rice: then he entered the town, made proclamation by drum, and calling a meeting of the townsfolk spoke the praises of the Bodhisatta and gave him the command of the army: himself was established in the Bodhisatta's teaching, did the good works of charity and the other virtues, and became destined for heaven.

After the lesson, the Master declared the Truths, and identified the Birth:--After the Truths, the Brother who supported his mother was established in the fruition of the First Path:--"At that time the Yakkha was Angulimala, the king Ananda, the youth myself."

Footnotes

^201:1 No. 540, vol. vi.

^201:2 King of the yakkhas.