No. 502.

HAMSA-JATAKA.

"There go the birds," etc.--This story the Master told while dwelling in the Bamboo Grove, about Elder Ananda's renunciation of life. Then also the Brethren were talking in the Hall of Truth about the Elder's good qualities, when the Master came in and asked them what they sat talking of there. He said, "This is not the first time, Brethren, that Ananda has renounced his life for my sake, but he did the same before." And then he told them a story of the past.

Once upon a time, there reigned in Benares a king named Bahuputtaka, or the Father of Many Sons, and his Queen Consort was Khema. At that time the Great Being dwelt on Mount Cittakuta, and he was the chief of ninety thousand wild geese, having come to life as a golden goose. [424] And at that time, as already recounted, the queen saw a dream, and told the king she had conceived a woman's craving to hear a Golden Goose discourse of the Law. When the king enquired, were there any such creatures as golden geese, he was told yes, there were on Mount Cittakuta. Then he had made a lake which he called Khema, and caused to be planted all manner of food-corn, and daily in the four quarters made proclamation of immunity to be cried, and sent forth a hunter to catch geese. How this man was sent forth, and his watching of the birds, and how news was told the king when the golden geese came, and in what manner the snare was set and the Great Being was caught in the snare, how Sumukha chief captain of the geese saw him not in the three divisions of the geese, and returned, all this will be set forth in the Mahahamsa Birth . Now as then the Great Being was caught in the noose and stick; and even as he hung in the noose at the end of the stick, he stretched forth his neck looking along the way that the geese had gone, and espying Sumukha as he came, thought, "When he comes I will put him to the test." So when he came, the Great Being repeated three stanzas:

"There go the birds, the ruddy geese, all overcome with fear:
O golden-yellow Sumukha, depart! what want you here?

"My kith and kin deserted me, away they all have flown,
Without a thought they fly away: why are you left alone?

"Fly, noble bird! with prisoners no fellowship can be:
Sumukha, fly! nor lose the chance while you may yet be free."

[425] To which Sumukha replied, sitting on the mud--

"No, I'll not leave you, Royal Goose, when trouble draweth nigh:
But stay I will, and by your side will either live or die."

Thus Sumukha, with a lion's note; and Dhatarattha answered with this stanza:

"A noble heart, brave words are these, Sumukha, which you say:
'Twas but to put you to the test I bade you fly away."