The Feast for the Dead

Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in
Benares, a brahmin, who was versed in the three Vedas
and world-famed as a teacher, being minded to offer a
Feast for the Dead, had a goat fetched and said to his
pupils, "My sons, take this goat down to the river and
bathe it ; then hang a wreath round its neck, adorn it with
a five-sprayed garland, and bring it back."

" Very good," said they, and down to the river they
took the goat, where they bathed and adorned the
creature and set it on the bank. The goat, becoming
conscious of the deeds of its past lives, was overjoyed at
the thought that on this very day it would be freed from
all its misery, and laughed aloud like the smashing of
a pot. Then at the thought that the brahmin by slaying
it would bear the misery which it had borne, the goat felt
a great compassion for the brahmin, and wept with a loud
voice. "Friend goat," said the young brahmins, "your
voice has been loud both in laughter and in weeping;
what made you laugh and what made you weep?"
" Ask me your question before your master."
So with the goat they came to their master and told
him of the matter. After hearing their story, the master
asked the goat why it laughed and why it wept. Hereupon
the animal, recalling its past deeds by its power of remem-
bering its former existence, spoke thus to the brahmin:
" In times past, brahmin, I, like you, was a brahmin versed
in the mystic texts of the Vedas, and I, to offer a Feast for
the Dead, killed a goat for my offering. All through
killing that single goat, I have had my head cut off five
hundred times all but one. This is my five hundredth and
last birth ; and I laughed aloud when I thought that this
very day I should be freed from my misery. On the other
hand, I wept when I thought how, whilst I, who for killing
a goat had been doomed to lose my head five hundred
times, was to-day being freed from my misery, you, as a
penalty for killing me, would be doomed to lose your head,
like me, five hundred times. Thus it was out of com-
passion for you that I wept." "Fear not, goat," said the
brahmin; "I will not kill you." "What is this you say,
brahmin ? " said the goat. " Whether you kill me or not,
I cannot escape death to-day." " Fear not, goat ; I will go
about with you to guard you." " Weak is your protection,
brahmin, and strong is the force of my evil-doing."

Setting the goat at liberty, the brahmin said to his
disciples, " Let us not allow anyone to kill this goat " ;
and, accompanied by the young men, he followed the
animal closely about. The moment the goat was set free,
it reached out its neck to browse on the leaves of a bush
growing near the top of a rock. And that very instant
a thunderbolt struck the rock, rending off a mass which
hit the goat on the outstretched neck and tore oft' its
head. And people came crowding round.

In those days the Bodhisatta had been born a tree
divinity in that selfsame spot. By his supernatural powers
he now seated himself cross-legged in mid-air while all the
crowd looked on. Thinking to himself, " If these creatures
only knew the fruit of evil-doing, perhaps they would desist
from killing," in his sweet voice he taught them the Truth
in this stanza :

If folk but knew the truth that their existence
Is pain, then living things would cease
From taking life. Stern is the slayer's doom.

Thus did the Great Being preach the Truth, scaring
his hearers with the fear of hell ; and the people, hearing
him, were so terrified at the fear of hell that they left off
taking life. And the Bodhisatta after establishing the
multitude in the Commandments by preaching the Truth
to them, passed away to fare according to his deserts.
The people, too, remained steadfast in the teaching of the
Bodhisatta and spent their lives in charity and other good
works, so that in the end they attained to the City of
the gods.