[16] Dubois, p. 109.
[17] See La Fontaine, Book i. No. 2, and the current collections of Æsop’s Fables (e.g. James’s edition, p. 136). It should be added that the Jambu-khādaka-saŋyutta in the Saŋyutta Nikāya has nothing to do with our fable. The Jambu-eater of that story is an ascetic, who lives on Jambus, and is converted by a discussion on Nirvāna.
[18] The Siŋhalese text will be found in the ‘Sidat Saŋgarāwa,’ p. clxxvii.
[19] Literally ‘the great medicine.’ The Bodisat of that time received this name because he was born with a powerful drug in his hand,—an omen of the cleverness in device by which, when he grew up, he delivered people from their misfortunes. Compare my ‘Buddhism,’ p. 187.
[20] The Yakshas, products of witchcraft and cannibalism, are beings of magical power, who feed on human flesh. The male Yaksha occupies in Buddhist stories a position similar to that of the wicked genius in the Arabian Nights; the female Yakshiṇī, who occurs more frequently, usually plays the part of siren.
[21] Not quite the same as Jupiter. Sakka is a very harmless and gentle kind of a god, not a jealous god, nor given to lasciviousness or spite. Neither is he immortal: he dies from time to time; and, if he has behaved well, is reborn under happy conditions. Meanwhile somebody else, usually one of the sons of men who has deserved it, succeeds, for a hundred thousand years or so, to his name and place and glory. Sakka can call to mind his experiences in his former birth, a gift in which he surpasses most other beings. He was also given to a kind of practical joking, by which he tempted people, and has become a mere beneficent fairy.
[22] That is, infantry, cavalry, chariots of war, and elephants of war. Truly a useful kind of present to give to a pious hermit!
[23] The power of going through the air is usually considered in Indian legends to be the result, and a proof, of great holiness and long-continued penance. So the hermit thought he would get a fine reputation cheaply.
[24] Compare Mahā-bhārata, xii. 1796.
[25] Fausböll, No. 291.