A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2.209

v2.c19.s3.t2.209

illustration to Jātaka No. 383, which relates in four verses, how the cat, by flattering the cock and promising to be his submissive wife, endeavours to get him into her power. But the cock sees through her cunning, and drives her away. In three verses, the genuinely Buddhist doctrine is extracted from it: like the cat, so do crafty women act, when they want to seduce men, but the sage is equal to them, as the cock was equal to the cat. One of the few fables decidedly Buddhist in origin, is No. 278. Here the Bodhisatta is reborn as a buffalo, and as such exhibits unbounded patience: an impertinent monkey climbs on his back, befouls him, seizes him by the horns and does all kinds of mischief to him. Then the monkey does the same to another buffalo and is killed by him. In this way, as the prose commentary expressly says, the Bodhisatta preserves his virtue of patience, and yet the monkey is punished.¹