"Yes, I will do this service, Hawk, for thee:
Come, let us go and slay this gang of foes!
Surely the prudent, he who wisdom knows,
Protector of a friend must try to be."

Having thus spoken, he dismissed him, saying, "Now go, and comfort your young ones." Then he went forward, churning up the crystal water.

[paragraph continues] When the churls perceived him approaching, they were frightened to death: "The Osprey," they cried, "put out our fire-brands; the Tortoise made us lose the clothes we had on: but now we are done for. This Lion will destroy us at once." They ran this way and that: when the Lion came to the foot of the tree, nothing could he see. [296] Then the Osprey, the Hawk, and the Tortoise came up, and accosted him. He told them the profitableness of friendship, and said, "From this time forth be careful never to break the bonds of friendship." With this advice he departed: and they also went each to his own place. The hen-hawk looking upon her young, thought--"Ah, through friends have my young been given back to me!" and as she rejoiced, she spoke to her mate, and recited six stanzas declaring the effect of friendship:

"Get friends, a houseful of them without fail,
Get a great friend: a blessing he'll be found :
Vain strike the arrows on a coat of mail.
And we rejoice, our younglings safe and sound.

"By their own comrade's help, the friend who stayed to take their part,
One chirps, the fledglings chirp reply, with notes that charm the heart.

"The wise asks help at friend's or comrade's hand,
Lives happy with his goods and brood of kind:
So I, my mate, and young, together stand,
Because our friend to pity was inclined.

"A man needs king and warriors for protection:
And these are his whose friendship is perfection:
Thou cravest happiness: he is famed and strong;
He surely prospers to whom friends belong.

"Even by the poor and weak, O Hawk, good friends must needs be found:
See now by kindness we and ours each one are safe and sound.

"The bird who wins a hero strong to play a friendly part,
As thou and I are happy, Hawk, is happy in his heart."

[297] So she declared the quality of friendship in six stanzas. And all this company of friends lived all their lives long without breaking the bond of friendship, and then passed away according to their deeds.

The Master, having ended this discourse, said, "This is not the first time, Brethren, that he won to bliss by his wife's means; it was the same before." With these words, he identified the Birth: "At that time the married pair were the pair of Hawks, Rahula was the young Tortoise, Moggallana was the old Tortoise, Sariputta the Osprey, and I was myself the Lion.

Footnotes