But the others said, “Brethren, what is this you are doing? ‘Tis like failing to see the moon when it has reached the topmost sky, or the sun as it rises with its thousand rays from the eastern quarter of the world; ‘tis like people standing on the beachy shore and perceiving not the ocean, or standing close to Sineru and seeing not that mighty mountain, for you--when journeying along in company with the greatest Being in earth or heaven--to call out, ‘Let _us_ make a counter fire,’ and to take no notice of the supreme, the Buddha! You know not the power of the Buddhas! Come, let us go to the Master!” And they all crowded together from in front, and from behind, and went up in a body near to the Mighty by Wisdom. There the Master stopped, surrounded by the whole body of disciples. The jungle fire came on roaring as if to overwhelm them. It came right up to the place where the Great Mortal stood, and then--as it came within about sixteen rods of that spot--it went out, like a torch thrust down into water, leaving a space of about thirty-two rods in breadth over which it could not pass! Then the monks began to magnify the Teacher, saying; “Oh! how marvellous are the qualities of the Buddhas! The very fire, unconscious though it be, cannot pass over the place where the Buddhas stand. Oh! how great is the might of the Buddhas!” On hearing this the Teacher said-- “It is not, monks, through any power I have now that the fire goes out on reaching this plot of ground. It is through the power of a former act of mine. And in all this spot no fire will burn through the whole kalpa, for that was a miracle enduring through a kalpa.”[329] Then the venerable Ānanda folded a robe in four, and spread it as a seat for the Teacher. The Teacher seated himself; and when he had settled himself cross-legged, the body of disciples seated themselves reverently round him, and requested him, saying-- “What has now occurred, O Lord, is known to us. The past is hidden from us. Make it known to us.” And the Teacher told the tale. Long ago the Bodisat entered upon a new existence as a quail in this very spot, in the land of Magadha; and after having been born in the egg, and having got out of the shell, he became a young quail, in size like a big partridge.[330] And his parents made him lie still in the nest, and fed him with food they brought in their beaks. And he had no power either to stretch out his wings and fly through the air, nor to put out his legs and walk on the earth. Now that place was consumed year after year by a jungle fire. And just at that time the jungle fire came on with a mighty roar and seized upon it. The flocks of birds rose up, each from his nest, and flew away shrieking. And the Bodisat’s parents too, terrified with the fear of death, forsook the Bodisat, and fled.