No. 34
The Kinnarā and the Parrots
In a large forest there is a great Banyan tree. In that tree many Parrots roost. While they were doing so, one day, having seen a Crow flying near, a Parrot spoke to the other Parrots, and said, “Bolawu,[1] do not ye ever give a resting-place to this flying animal,” he said.
While they were there many days after he said it, one day, as a great rain was falling at night, on that day the flying Crow, saying, “Kā, Kā,” came and settled on the tree near those Parrots.
That night one Parrot out of the flock of Parrots was unable to come because of that day’s rain. Having seen that this Crow was roosting on the tree, all the Parrots, surrounding and pecking and pecking the Crow, drove it out in the rain.
Again, saying, “Kā, Kā,” having returned it roosts in the same tree. As the Parrots getting soaked and soaked were driving off the Crow in this way, an old Parrot, sitting down, says, “What is it doing? Because it cannot go and come in this rain it is trying[2] to roost here. What [harm] will it do if it be here this little time in our company?” thus this old Parrot said. So the other Parrots allowed it to be there, without driving away the Crow.
While it was there, the Crow in the night left excreta, and in the morning went away. At the place where the excreta fell a tree sprang up [from a seed that was in them]; it became very large.
As it was thus, one day as Kinnarās were going near that [Crows’] village, having seen that another tree was near the tree in which the Parrots roosted, the Kinnarās spoke with each other, “In these days cannot we catch the Parrots that are in this tree?” they said.
Before that, the Kinnarās were unable to catch the Parrots in the tree. There was then only that tree in which the Parrots roosted. When the Kinnarās were going along the tree to catch the Parrots, the Parrots got to know [owing to the shaking of the tree], so all the Parrots flew away. Because of that they were unable to catch the Parrots.
The Kinnarās having [now] gone along the tree which had grown up through the Crow’s dropping the seed under the tree, easily placed the net [over the Parrots’ tree]. All the Parrots having come in the evening had settled in the tree. Having settled down, and a little time having gone, after they looked, all the Parrots being folded in the net were enclosed. The Parrots tried to go; they could not.