168 



Journal, r.a.s, (ceylon). 



[Vol. VIII. 



half-way down the street, some near the gate. The teacher, 

 with the company of mendicants in his train, entered the village 

 for alms. The remnant of wise men, seeing the blessed one, made 

 a pavilion at the entrance of the village, and after bringing large 

 offerings to the Buddha and the rest of his company of mendi- 

 cants, did obeisance to the teacher, and sat down. The teacher, 

 seeing the wounded men on every side, asked those laymen, 

 " Here are a great many sick men ; what have they been doing?" 

 " Sir, these men went to wage war with mosquitoes and shot one 

 another, and so have made themselves ill." The teacher said : 

 " This is not the first time that simpletons, intending to strike 

 mosquitoes, have struck one another ; formerly, too, there were 

 people who struck their neighbours meaning to strike mosquitoes ;" 

 and at the request of these men he told the story of the past time. 



In past time, when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the 

 Bodhisat was living by trade. At that time there were a great 

 many carpenters living in a country village in Kasi. A sawyer 

 there was chopping a felled tree when a mosquito settled on his 

 copper-basin-like head, and darted his proboscis into it like 

 the thrust of a spear. He said to his son, who was sitting by, 

 "My boy, there is a mosquito stinging me on the head, as if he 

 were running a spear into me ; drive him off," " Wait a bit, 

 father ; I will kill it with one blow." Just then the Bodhisat 

 was come into that village in search of goods, and was sitting in 

 that carpenter's shed. So the carpenter said : " Son, drive off 

 this mosquito." And the boy, saying " I will," took up a sharp 

 axe and took his stand behind his father's back, and thinking to 

 strike the mosquito, cleft his father's head in two. The carpenter 

 died on the spot. The Bodhisat, seeing what the boy had done, 

 thought : " Even an enemy, if he is wise, is better ; fear of 

 punishment at any rate will prevent his killing people ; M * and so 

 uttered this stanza : — 



" Better a wise foe 



Than a friend of sense bereft ; 



The stupid son to kill the gnat 



His father's headpiece cleft." 

 After uttering this stanza the Bodhisat got up and departed 

 according to his deeds. The carpenter's relatives performed his 

 funeral. 



The teacher, having related this religious discourse in illustra- 

 tion of his saying, " Thus, laymen,f formerly there were people 



* Manussdnam : read Mauusse. 



\ Evam updsakd pubbe, 8fc. : read Evam,updsakd, pubbe, §*c. 



