The Monkeys and The Ogre

In past times, we are told, there was a thick forest on
this spot 1 . And in the lake here dwelt a water-ogre who
used to devour everyone who went down into the water.
In those days the Bodhisatta had come to life as the king
of the monkeys, and was as big as the fawn of a red deer ;
he lived in that forest at the head of a troop of no less
than eighty thousand monkeys whom he shielded from
harm. Thus did he counsel his subjects: "My friends, in
this forest there are trees that are poisonous and lakes
that are haunted by ogres. Mind to ask me first before
you either eat any fruit which you have not eaten before,
or drink of any water where you have not drunk before."
" Certainly," said they readily.

One day they came to a spot they had never visited
before. As they were searching for water to drink after
their day's wanderings, they came on this lake. But they
did not drink; on the contrary they sat down watching
for the coming of the Bodhisatta.

When he came up, he said, "Well, my friends, why
don't you drink?"

" We waited for you to come."

" Quite right, my friends," said the Bodhisatta. Then
he made a circuit of the lake, and scrutinized the foot-
prints round, with the result that he found that all the
footsteps led down into the water and none came up again.
" Without doubt," thought he to himself, " this is the haunt
of an ogre." So he said to his followers, " You are quite
right, my friends, in not drinking of this water; for the
lake is haunted by an ogre."

When the water-ogre realised that they were not enter-
ing his domain, he assumed the shape of a horrible
monster with a blue belly, a white face, and bright-red
hands and feet ; in this shape he came out from the water,
and said, "Why are you seated here? Go down into the
lake and drink." But the Bodhisatta said to him, " Are
not you the ogre of this water ? " " Yes, I am," was the
answer. "Do you take as your prey all those who go
down into this water?" "Yes, I do; from small birds
upwards, I never let anything go which comes down into
my water. I will eat the lot of you too." " But we shall
not let you eat us." " Just drink the water." " Yes, we
will drink the water, and yet not fall into your power."
" How do you propose to drink the water then ? " " Ah,
you think we shall have to go down into the water to
drink ; whereas we shall not enter the water at all, but
the whole eighty thousand of us will take a reed each
and drink therewith from your lake as easily as we could
through the hollow stalk of a lotus. And so you will not
be able to eat us." And he repeated the latter half of the
following stanza (the first half being added by the Master
when, as Buddha, he recalled the incident) :

I found the footprints all lead down, none back.
With reeds we'll drink : you shall not take my life.

So saying, the Bodhisatta had a reed brought to him.
Then, calling to mind the Ten Perfections displayed by
him, he recited them in a solemn asseveration 1 , and blew
down the reed. Straightway the reed became hollow
throughout, without a single knot being left in all its
length. In this fashion he had another and another
brought and blew down them. (But if this were so, he
could never have finished ; and accordingly the foregoing
sentence must not be understood in this literal sense.

Next the Bodhisatta made the tour of the lake, and com-
manded, saying, " Let all reeds growing here become
hollow throughout." Now, thanks to the great virtues of
the saving goodness of Bodhisattas, their commands are
always fulfilled. And thenceforth every single reed that
grew round that lake became hollow throughout.


After giving this command, the Bodhisatta seated
himself with a reed in his hands. All the other eighty
thousand monkeys too seated themselves round the lake,
each with a reed in his hands. And at the same moment
when the Bodhisatta sucked the water up through his
reed, they all drank too in the same manner, as they sat
on the bank. This was the way they drank, and not one
of them could the water-ogre get ; so he went off in a
rage to his own habitation. The Bodhisatta, too, with his
following went back into the forest.