Buddha (The concept) -- Juvenile literature; Buddhism -- Juvenile literature; Buddhist legends
So the bet was made. And he filled a hundred carts (small wagons made
for two bullocks) with sand and gravel and stones, ranged them all in a
row, and tied them all firmly together, cross-bar to axle-tree.
Then he bathed Nandi Visāla, gave him a measure of scented rice, hung a
garland round his neck, and yoked him by himself to the front cart. Then
he took his seat on the pole, raised his goad aloft, and called out:
“Gee up! you brute!! Drag ’em along, you wretch!!”
The Bodisat said to himself: “He addresses me as a wretch. I am no
wretch!” And, keeping his four legs as firm as so many posts, he stood
perfectly still.
Then the Squire that moment claimed his bet, and made the Brahmin hand
over the thousand pieces. And the Brahmin, minus his thousand, took out
his ox, went home to his house, and lay down overwhelmed with grief.
Presently Nandi Visāla, who was roaming about the place, came up and saw
the Brahmin grieving there, and said to him: “What, Brahmin! Are you
asleep?”
“Sleep! How can I sleep after losing the thousand pieces?”
“Brahmin! I’ve lived so long in your house, and have I ever broken any
pots, or rubbed up against the walls?”
“Never, my dear!”
“Then why did you call me a wretch? It’s your fault. It’s not my fault.
Go now and bet him two thousand; and never call me a wretch again—I, who
am no wretch at all!”
When the Brahmin heard what he said, he made the bet two thousand, tied
the carts together as before, decked out Nandi Visāla, and yoked him to
the foremost cart.
He managed this in the following way: he tied the pole and the
cross-piece fast together, yoked Nandi Visāla on one side; on the other
he fixed a smooth piece of timber from the point of the yoke to the
axle-end, and wrapping it round with the fastenings of the cross-piece,
tied it fast, so that when this was done the yoke could not move this
way and that way, and it was possible for one ox to drag forwards the
double bullock-cart.
Then the Brahmin seated himself on the pole, stroked Nandi Visāla on the
back, and called out: “Gee up! my beauty!! Drag it along, my beauty!!”
And the Bodisat, with one mighty effort, dragged forwards the hundred
heavily-laden carts, and brought the hindmost one up to the place where
the foremost one had stood.
Then the cattle-owner acknowledged himself beaten, and handed over to
the Brahmin the two thousand; the bystanders, too, presented the Bodisat
with a large sum, and the whole became the property of the Brahmin.
Thus, by means of the Bodisat, great was the wealth he acquired.
THE BULL THAT PROVED HIS GRATITUDE
Long ago ... the Bodisat returned to life as a Bull.
Now, when it was still a young calf, its owners stopped a while in an
old woman’s house, and gave him to her when they settled their account
for their lodging. And she brought him up, treating him like a son, and
feeding him on gruel and rice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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