In times past, when Brahmadatta ruled at Benāres, the Future Buddha made his living by trading. At that time, in the kingdom of Kāsi, in a certain frontier village, dwelt many carpenters. There a certain grey-haired carpenter was planing a tree. Now a mosquito settled on his head,--his head looked like the surface of a copper bowl!--and pierced his head with his stinger, just as though he were sticking him with a spear. Said he to his son who sat beside him: “Son, a mosquito is stinging me on the head,--it feels just as if he were sticking me with a spear! Shoo him away!” “Father, wait a moment! I’ll kill him with a single blow!” At that time the Future Buddha also, seeking wares for himself, having reached that village, was sitting in that carpenter’s hut. Well, that carpenter said to his son: “Shoo this mosquito off!” “I’ll shoo him off, father!” replied the son. Taking his stand immediately behind his father, the son, with the thought in his mind, “I’ll hit the mosquito!” raised aloft a big, sharp axe, and split the skull of his father in two. The carpenter died on the spot. The Future Buddha, seeing what the son had done, thought: “Even an enemy, if he be a wise man, is better; for an enemy, though it be from fear of human vengeance, will not kill.” And he uttered the following stanza: Better an enemy with sense Than a friend without it, For with the words, “I’ll kill a mosquito!” A son,--both deaf and dumb!-- Split his father’s skull! Having uttered this stanza, the Future Buddha arose and passed away according to his deeds. As for the carpenter, his kinsfolk did their duty by his body. Said the Teacher: “Thus, lay disciples, 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.” Having related this parable, he joined the connection and identified the personages in the Birth-story as follows: “But the wise man who uttered the stanza and departed on that occasion was I myself.” _B. Girl and fly._ Jātaka 45: i. 248-249. _Better an enemy._ This parable was related by the Teacher while he was in residence at Jetavana with reference to a certain slave-girl. A certain wealthy merchant, we are told, had a slave-girl. Where she was pounding rice, her old mother came in and lay down. Flies buzzed round her and ate her up, just as though they were piercing her with needles. She said to her daughter: “My dear, the flies are eating me up. Shoo them off!” “I’ll shoo them off!” replied the daughter. Raising her pestle aloft, intending to kill the flies, with the thought in her mind, “I’ll make way with them!” she struck her mother with the pestle and killed her. When she saw what she had done, she began to weep: “Mother! Mother!”