that moment he chanced to see a bilva-fruit fall on the top of a palm-leaf, and thus he ascertained, beyond a doubt, that there was nothing in reality that portended the dissolution of the earth.
Setting the hare on his back he with the fleetness of a lion quickly returned to the assembled beasts and informed them of the real state of the whole affair, saying, "Don't be alarmed "; with these words he quieted them and let them go.
But if the Bodhisat had not been there at that time all the beasts would, doubtless, have rushed headlong into the ocean and perished, but by his instrumentality their lives were saved.
The following gâthas were uttered by the Buddha:—
"A hare once took to flight, scared by a sound
Of bilva-fruit that on a palm-leaf fell.
Then said the hare, 'The world is at an end,'
Whereat the frightened beasts did fly amain.
No cause they knew, no cause had they forsooth.
What others said was truth enough for them.
Such fools as these the most unwary are.
Their wits they lose and fall a prey to foes.
But they who walk in virtue's pleasant paths
Full wary are; in calmness they delight,
In time of dread no cowardice they show,
But stand full firm, and none can them beguile."
Bâveru Jâtaka.[1]
How the Peacock supplanted the Crow.
In days long since past, when Brahmadatta reigned at Benares, the Bodhisat was reborn among the peacock kind. As he grew up he became exceedingly lovely and lived in the forest. On one occasion some traders went in a ship, with a foreign crow on board, to the Bâvera country.
At that time, it is said, there were no birds in Bâveru. When the country-folks, coming at all times and from all quarters, saw the bird perched on the ship's mast, they said, "Look at the colour of his skin, his neck and tail, his mouth and beak, and his eyes like balls of
- ↑ Jâtaka Book, vol. iii. p. 126.
