The Magic Treasures

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta w r as reigning in
Benares, four brahmins, brothers, of the land of Kasi, left
the world and became hermits; they built themselves four
huts in a row in the highlands of the Himalaya, and there
they lived.

The eldest brother died, and was born as Sakka.
Knowing who he had been, he used to visit the others
every seven or eight days, and lend them a helping hand.

One day, he visited the eldest of the anchorites, and
after the usual greeting, took his seat to one side. " Well,
Sir, how can I serve you ? " he enquired. The hermit, who
w r as suffering from jaundice, replied, "Fire is what I
want.'' Sakka gave him a razor-axe. (A razor-axe is so
called because it serves as razor or as axe according as
you fit it into the handle.) "Why;' said the hermit, "who
is there to get me firewood with this?" "If you want a
fire, Sir," replied Sakka, "all you have to do is to strike
your hand upon the axe and say ' Fetch wood and make
a fire ! ' The axe will fetch the wood and make you the
fire."

After giving him this razor-axe he next visited the
second brother, and asked him the same question " How
can I serve you, Sir?" Now there was an elephant track
by his hut, and the creatures annoyed him. So he told
Sakka that he was annoyed by elephants, and wanted
them to be driven away. Sakka gave him a drum. "If
you beat upon this side, Sir," he explained, " your enemies
will run away; but if you strike the other, they will become
your firm friends, and will encompass you with an army
in fourfold array." Then he handed him the drum.

Lastly he made a visit to the youngest, and asked as
before how he could serve him. He too had jaundice,
and what he said was "Please give me some curds."
Sakka gave him a milk-bowl, with these words: "Turn
this over if you want anything, and a great river will pour
out of it, and will flood the whole place, and it will be
able even to win a kingdom for you." With these words
he departed.

After this the axe used to make fire for the eldest
brother, the second used to beat upon one side of his
drum and drive the elephants away, and the youngest had
his curds to eat.

About this time a wild boar, that lived in a ruined
village, lit upon a gem possessed of magic power. Picking
up the gem in his mouth, he rose in the air by its magic.


From afar he could see an isle in mid-ocean, and there
he resolved to live. So descending he chose a pleasant
spot beneath a fig tree, and there he made his abode.

One day he fell asleep under the tree, with the jewel
lying in front of him. Now a certain man from the Kasi
country, who had been turned out of doors by his parents
as a ne'er-do-well, had made his way to a seaport, where
he embarked on shipboard as a sailors' drudge. In mid-
sea the ship was wrecked, and he floated upon a plank
to this island. As he wandered in search of fruit, he espied
our boar fast asleep. Quietly he crept up, seized the
gem, and found himself by magic rising through the air !
He alighted on the fig tree, and pondered. " The
magic of this gem," thought he, "has taught yon boar
to be a sky-walker; that's how he got here, I suppose.
"Well! I must kill him and make a meal of him first;
and then I'll be off." So he snapt off a twig, dropping it
upon the boar's head. The boar woke up, and seeing no
gem, ran trembling up and down. The man up in the
tree laughed. The boar looked up, and seeing him ran
his head against the tree, and killed himself.

The man came down, lit a fire, cooked the boar and
made a meal. Then he rose up in the sky, and set out
.on his journey.

As he passed over the Himalaya, he saw the hermits'
settlement. So he descended, and spent two or three
days in the eldest brother's hut, entertaining and enter-
tained, and he found out the virtue of the axe. He made
up his mind to get it for himself. So he shewed our
hermit the virtue of his gem, and offered to exchange it
for the axe. The hermit longed to be able to pass through
mid-air 1 , and struck the bargain. The man took the axe,
and departed ; but before he had gone very far, he struck
upon it and said "Axe! smash that hermit's skull and
bring the gem to me!" Off flew the axe, clove the hermit's
skull, and brought the gem back.

Then the man hid the axe away, and paid a visit to
the second brother. With him the visitor stayed a few
days, and soon discovered the power of his drum. Then
he exchanged his gem for the drum, as before, and as
before made the axe cleave the owner's skull. After this
he went on to the youngest of the three hermits, found
out the power of the milk-bowl, gave his jewel in exchange
for it, and as before sent his axe to cleave the man's skull.
Thus he was now owner of jewel, axe, drum, and milk-
bowl, all four.

He now rose up and passed through the air. Stopping
hard by Benares, he wrote a letter which he sent by a
messenger's hands, that the king must either fight him or
yield. On receipt of this message the king sallied forth
to "seize the scoundrel." But he beat on one side of
his drum, and was promptly surrounded by an army in
fourfold array. When he saw that the king had deployed
his forces, he then overturned the milk-bowl, and a great
river poured forth ; multitudes were drowned in the river
of curds. Next he struck upon his axe. " Fetch me the
king's head!" cried he; away went the axe, and came
back and dropt the head at his feet. Not a man could
raise hand against him.

So encompassed by a mighty host, he entered the city,
and caused himself to be anointed king under the title of
king Dadhi-vahana, or Carried-on-the-Curds, and ruled
righteously.

One day, as the king was amusing himself by casting
a net into the river, he caught a mango fruit, fit for the
gods, which had floated down from Lake Kannamunda.
When the net was hauled out, the mango was found, and
shown to the king. It was a huge fruit, as big as a basin,
round, and golden in colour. The king asked what the
fruit was : Mango, said the foresters. He ate it, and had
the stone planted in his park, and watered with milk-water.

The tree sprouted up, and in three years it bore fruit.
Great was the worship paid to this tree; milk-water was
poured about it; perfumed garlands with five sprays 1
were hung upon it; wreaths were festooned about it; a
lamp was kept burning, and fed with scented oil ; and all
round it was a screen of cloth. The fruit was sweet, and
had the colour of fine gold. King Dadhi-vahana, before
sending presents of these mangoes to other kings, used to
prick with a thorn that place in the stone where the
sprout would come from, for fear of their growing the like
by planting it. When they ate the fruit, they used to
plant the stone; but they could not get it to take root.
They enquired the reason, and learnt how the matter was.

One king asked his gardener whether he could spoil
the flavour of this fruit, and turn it bitter on the tree.
Yes, the man said he could; so his king gave him a
thousand pieces and sent him on his errand.

So soon as he had arrived in Benares, the man sent a
message to the king that a gardener was come. The king
admitted him to the presence. After the man had saluted
him, the king asked, " You are a gardener ? " " Yes, Sire,"
said the man, and began to sound his own praises. " Very
well," said the king, "you may go and assist my park-
keeper." So after that these used both to look after the
royal grounds.

The new comer managed to make the park look more
beautiful by forcing flowers and fruit out of their season.
This pleased the king, so that he dismissed the former
keeper and gave the park into sole charge of the new
one. No sooner had this man got the park into his
own hands than he planted nimbs and creepers about
the choice mango tree. By and by the nimbs sprouted
up. Above and below, root with root, and branch with
branch, these were all entangled with the mango tree.
Thus this tree, with its sweet fruit, grew bitter as the
bitter-leaved nimb by the company of this noxious and
sour plant. As soon as the gardener knew that the fruit
had gone bitter, he took to his heels.

King Dadhi-vahana went a-walking in his pleasaunce,
and took a bite of the mango fruit. The juice in his
mouth tasted like a nasty nimb ; swallow it he could not,
so he coughed and spat it out. Now at that time the
Bodhisatta was his temporal and spiritual counsellor.
The king turned to him. " Wise Sir, this tree is as care-
fully cared for as ever, and yet its fruit has gone bitter.
What's the meaning of it ? " and asking this question, he
repeated the first stanza :

Sweet was once the mango's savour, sweet its scent, its colour gold :
What has caused this bitter flavour? for we tend it as of old.

The Bodhisatta explained the reason in the second
stanza :

Round about the trunk entwining, branch with branch, and root with

root,

See the bitter creeper climbing ; that is what has spoilt your fruit :
So you see bad company will make the better follow suit.

On hearing this the Bodhisatta caused all the nimbs
and creepers to be removed, and their roots pulled up;
the noxious soil was all taken away, and sweet earth put
in its place; and the tree was carefully fed with sweet
water, milk-water, scented water. Then by absorbing all
this sweetness its fruit grew sweet again. The king put
his former gardener in charge of the park, and after his
life was done passed away to fare according to his deserts.