But the leading ox of the other troop spoke to them in this wise, “O honoured ones, as men are strong and have the mastery over even the difficult to be subdued, and we should only suffer damage at their hands, let us endure the burden which shall be laid upon us.”
When it had thus spoken, the first chief ox said angrily to its troop, “O honoured ones, who has seen the further side of the moon? Let those oxen submit to their burden. We will not endure ours.”
So when the merchants began to load their oxen, and the first set of animals held stubbornly back, the merchants [[322]]beat them and lacerated them with thorny rods, and yoked them dripping with blood to the waggons. But the others submitted to the yoke without resisting, so no harm came to them. Thereupon a deity uttered this śloka:
“See how the steers which the ox misguided, bleeding and wounded, suffer hunger and thirst. See how those which the ox rightly advised, after leaving the forest, quaff cooling water.” [[323]]
[1] Kah-gyur iv. ff. 248*, 249. [↑]
XXXII.
THE ASS AS A SINGER.[1]
When in long-past times the Bodisat, in consequence of his aggregation of merits remaining incomplete, had been born in a herd of horned cattle as a bull, he used to go out of the city in the evenings to a bean-field belonging to the king, and there take his food. But by day he lived in the city. There an ass joined him. It said one day, “O uncle, your flesh and your blood and your hide thrive, and yet I have never seen you change your abode.”