Now when the hawk had thus met his death, the quail came out and exclaimed: “I have seen the back of my enemy!” And standing on his heart and breathing forth a solemn utterance, the quail uttered the second stanza: Endowed with sense, delighting in my own feeding-ground, My enemy gone, I rejoice, intent on my own good. The Teacher, having proclaimed the Truths by the narration of this fable, identified the personages in the Birth-story as follows: “At that time the hawk was Devadatta, but the quail was I myself.” _21. How Not To Hit an Insect._ _Better an enemy with sense than a friend without it._ _A. Boy and mosquito._ Jātaka 44: i. 246-248. _Better an enemy._ This parable was related by the Teacher while he was journeying from place to place in the country of the Magadhas, in a certain little village, with reference to some foolish villagers. The story goes that once upon a time the Teacher went from Sāvatthi to the kingdom of Magadha, and journeying about from place to place in that kingdom, arrived at a certain little village. Now that village was inhabited for the most part by men who were utter fools. There one day those utter fools of men assembled and took counsel together, saying: “Folks, when we enter the forest and do our work, the mosquitoes eat us up, and because of this our work is interrupted. Let us, every one, take bows and weapons, go and fight with the mosquitoes, pierce and cut all the mosquitoes, and thus make way with them.” They went to the forest with the thought in their minds, “We’ll pierce the mosquitoes.” But they pierced and hit one another and came to grief, and on their return, lay down within the boundaries of the village, in the village-square, and at the village-gate. The Teacher, surrounded by the Congregation of Monks, entered that village for alms. The rest of the inhabitants, being wise men, seeing the Exalted One, erected a pavilion at the village-gate, gave abundant alms to the Congregation of Monks presided over by the Buddha, saluted the Teacher, and sat down. The Teacher, seeing wounded men lying here and there, asked those lay disciples: “Here are many men who are in a bad way. What have they done?” “Reverend Sir, these men started out with the thought in their minds, ‘We’ll have a fight with the mosquitoes.’ But they pierced one another and returned themselves the worse for wear.” Said the Teacher: “Not only in their present state of existence have utter fools of men, with the thought in their minds, ‘We’ll hit mosquitoes,’ hit themselves; in a previous state of existence also they were the very men who, with the thought in their minds, ‘We’ll hit a mosquito,’ hit something very different.” Then, in response to a request of those men, he related the following Story of the Past: