Now he exhorted the troop of monkeys, saying, “My children! in this forest there are poisonous trees, and pools haunted by demons. When you are going to eat fruits of any kind you have not eaten before, or to drink water you have not drunk before, ask me about it.” “Very well,” said they. And one day they went to a place they had not been to before. There they wandered about the greater part of the day; and when, in searching about for water, they found a pond, they sat down without even drinking, and looked forward to the arrival of their king.[297] When the Bodisat had come, he asked them, “Why, my children, do you take no water?” “We awaited your arrival,” said they. “It is well, my children!” said the Bodisat; and fixing his attention on the foot-marks close round the edge of the pond, he saw that they went down, but never came up. Then he knew that it was assuredly haunted by demons, and said, “You have done well, my children, not to have drunk the water. This pond is haunted!” But when the demon of the water saw that they were not going down into it, he assumed the horrible shape of a blue-bellied, pale-faced, red-handed, red-footed creature, and came splashing out through the water, and cried out, “Why do you sit still here? Go down and drink the water!” But the Bodisat asked him, “Are you the water-demon who haunts this spot?” “Yes! I am he!” was the reply. “Have you received power over all who go down into the pool?” “Yes, indeed! I carry off even a bird when it comes down, and I let no one off. You too I will devour, one and all!” “We shall not allow you to eat us.” “Well, then! drink away!” “Yes! we shall drink the water too, but we shall not fall into your hands.” “How, then, will you get at the water?” “You imagine, I suppose, that we must go down to drink. But you are wrong! Each one of us eighty thousand shall take a Naḷa-cane and drink the water of your pond without ever entering it, as easily as one would drink from the hollow stem of a water-plant. And so you will have no power to eat _us_!” It was when the Teacher as Buddha had recalled this circumstance that he uttered the first half of the following stanza: “I saw the marks of feet that had gone down, I saw no marks of feet that had returned.” (But then he said to the monkeys)-- “We’ll drink the water through a reed,” (And turning to the demon, he added)-- “And yet I’ll not become your prey!”