The man went with him, and found the Bodhisatta feeding in the lake. When the Bodhisatta saw the forester, he thought, "This danger has doubtless come from none other than that man. But I am very strong; I can scatter even a thousand elephants; in anger I am able to destroy all the beasts that carry the army of a whole kingdom. But if I give way to anger, my virtue will be marred. So to-day I will not be angry, not even though pierced with knives." With this resolve, bowing his head he remained immovable.

Down into the lotus-lake went the forester, and seeing the beauty of his points, said, "Come, my son!" Then seizing him by the trunk (and like a silver rope it was), he led him in seven days to Benares.

When the Bodhisatta's mother found that her son came not, she thought that he must have been caught by the king's nobles. [92] "And now," she wailed, "all these trees will go on growing, but he will be far away"; and she repeated two stanzas:

"Though far away this elephant should go,
Still olibane and kutaja will grow,
Grain, grass, and oleander, lilies white,
On sheltered spots the bluebells dark still blow.

"Somewhere that royal elephant must go,
Full fed by those whose breast and body show
All gold-bedeckt, that King or Prince may ride
Fearless to triumph o'er the mailclad foe."

Now the trainer, while he was yet in the way, sent on a message to tell the king. And the king caused the city to be decorated. The trainer led the Bodhisatta into a stable all adorned and decked out with festoons and with garlands, and surrounding him, with a screen of

many colours, sent word to the king. And the king took all manner of fine food and caused it to be given to the Bodhisatta. But not a bit would he eat: "Without my mother, I will eat nothing," said he. The king besought him to eat, repeating the third stanza:

[93] "Come, take a morsel, Elephant, and never pine away:
There's many a thing to serve your king that you shall do one day."

Hearing this, the Bodhisatta repeated the fourth stanza:

"Nay, she by Mount Candorana, poor blind and wretched one,
Beats with a foot on some tree-root, without her royal son."

The king said the fifth stanza to ask his meaning:

"Who is't by Mount Candorana, what blind and wretched one,
Beats with a foot on some tree-root, without her royal son?"

To which the other replied in the sixth stanza:

"My mother by Candorana, ah blind, ah wretched one!
Beats with her foot on some tree-root for lack of me, her son!"

And hearing this, the king gave him freedom, reciting the seventh stanza:

"This mighty Elephant, who feeds his mother, let go free:
And let him to his mother go, and to all his family."