The Lion in bad company

Once upon a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in
Benares, the Bodhisatta was a lion and living with a
lioness had two children, a son and a daughter. The
son's name was Manoja. When he grew up he took a
young lioness to wife : and so they became five. Manoja
killed wild buffaloes and other animals, and so got flesh
to feed his parents, sister and wife. One day in his hunt-
ing ground he saw a jackal called Giriya, unable to run
away and lying on his belly. " How now, friend ? " he said.
" I wish to wait on you, my lord." " Well, do so." So he
took the jackal to his den. The Bodhisatta seeing him
said, "Dear Manoja, jackals are wicked and sinners, and
give wrong advice ; don't bring this one near you " : but
could not hinder him. Then one day the jackal wished
to eat horseflesh, and said to Manoja, "Sir, except horse-
flesh there is nothing we have not eaten; let us take a
horse." "But where are there horses, friend?" "At
Benares by the river bank." He took this advice and
went with him there when the horses bathe in the river;
he took one horse, and throwing it on his back he came
with speed to the mouth of his den. His father eating
the horseflesh said, "Dear, horses are kings' property,
kings have many stratagems, they have skilful archers to
shoot; lions who eat horseflesh don't live long, hence-
forward don't take horses." The lion not following his
father's advice went on taking them. The king, hearing
that a lion was taking the horses, had a bathing-tank
for horses made inside the town: but the lion still came
and took them. The king had a stable made, and had
fodder and water given them inside it. The lion came
over the wall and took the horses even from the stable.
The king had an archer called who shot like lightning,
and asked if he could shoot a lion. He said he could,
and making a tower near the Avail where the lion came
he waited there. The lion came and, posting the jackal
in a cemetery outside, sprang into the town to take the
horses. The archer thinking "His speed is very great
when he comes," did not shoot him, but when he was going
away after taking a hdrse, hampered by the heavy weight,
he hit him with a sharp arrow in the hind quarters. The
arrow came out at his front quarters and flew in the air.
The lion yelled "I am shot." The archer after shooting
him twanged his bow like thunder. The jackal hearing
the noise of lion and bow said to himself, "My comrade
is shot and must be killed, there is no friendship with the
dead, I will now go to my old home in the wood," and so
he spoke to himself in two stanzas:

The bow is bent, the bowstring sounds amain ;
Manoja, king of beasts, my friend, is slain.

Alas, I seek the woods as best I may:

Such friends are naught; others must be my stay.

The lion with a rush came and threw the horse at the
den's mouth, falling dead himself. His kinsfolk came out
and saw him blood-stained, blood flowing from his wounds,
dead from following the wicked; and his father, mother,
sister and wife seeing him spoke four stanzas in order:

His fortune is not prosperous whom wicked folk entice;
Look at Maiioja lying 1 there, through Giriya's advice.

No joy have mothers in a son whose comrades are not good:
Look at Manoja lying there all covered with his blood.

And even so fares still the man, in low estate he lies,

Who follows not the counsel of the true friend and the wise.

This, or worse than this, his fate

Who is high, but trusts the low:
See, 'tis thus from kingly state

He has fallen to the bow.