I faced you as I came, good Sir, you face me as you sit:
Your tail is all behind you: how could I tread on it?

He answered, "What do you say, she-goat? is there any place where my tail might not be?" and so he spoke the fourth stanza:--

[481] As far as four great continents with seas and mountains spread,
My tail extends: how could you fail on such a tail to tread?

The she-goat; when she heard this, thought, "This wicked one is not attracted by soft words: I will answer him as an enemy," and so she spoke the fifth stanza:--

Your villain's tail is long, I know, for I had warning fair:
Parents and brothers told me so: but I flew through the air.

Then he said, "I know you came through the air: but as you came, you spoilt my food by your way of coming," and so he spoke the sixth stanza:--

The sight of you, miss goat, on high, the air a-flying through,
Frightened a herd of deer: and so my food was spoilt by you.

Hearing this, the goat in fear of death could bring no other excuse, but cried out, "Uncle, do not commit such cruelty; spare my life." But though she cried out, the other seized her by the shoulder, killed her and ate her.

'Twas thus the she-goat cried for grace: but blood must satisfy
The beast that grips her throat; the bad will shew no courtesy.

Conduct, nor right, nor courtesy, the bad man will display;
He hates the good: to face him then 'tis best in open fray.

These are two stanzas inspired by Perfect Wisdom.

[482] A holy ascetic saw the whole matter of the two animals.

After this lesson, the Master identified the Birth: "At that time the she-goat and the panther were the she-goat and the panther of to-day, the holy ascetic was myself."

Footnotes

^285:1 Cf. Tibetan Tales, no. 29, and Folk-lore Journal, vol. iv. p. 45.

BOOK IX. NAVANIPATA.