The Wolf's Sabbath

Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta reigned king in
Benares, the Bodhisatta came to life as Sakka, king of
the gods. At that time a Wolf lived on a rock by the
Ganges bank. The winter floods came up and surrounded
the rock. There he lay upon the rock, with no food and
no way of getting it. The water rose and rose, and the
wolf pondered : " No food here, and no way to get it.
Here I lie, with nothing to do. I may as well keep a sabbath
fast." Thus resolved to keep a sabbath, as he lay he
solemnly resolved to keep the religious precepts. Sakka in
his meditations perceived the wolf's weak resolve. Thought
he, " I'll plague that wolf" ; and taking the shape of a wild
goat, he stood near, and let the wolf see him.

" I'll keep sabbath another day ! " thought the Wolf, as
he spied him ; up he got, and leapt at the creature. But
the goat jumped about so that the Wolf could not catch
him. When our Wolf saw that he could not catch him,
he came to a standstill, and went back, thinking to himself
as he lay down again, "Well, my sabbath is not broken
after all."

Then Sakka, by his divine power, hovered above in the
air ; said he,

" What have such as you, all unstable, to do with keep-
ing a sabbath ? You didn't know that I was Sakka,
and wanted a meal of goafs-flesh ! " and thus plaguing
and rebuking him, he returned to the world of the gods.

A variant of De lupo et ariete of Marie de France (L, Roquefort, LXXIII.), in
Berekhyah ha-Naqdan, Mishle Shu'allm 36. It occurs as follows in the Paris
Promptuarium Exemplorum, 20 (a work dependent on Marie) : De lupo uouente,
quod lion comederet carnes per totum XL. Qui duni iret per siluam, uidit vnum
pinguem arietem soluni. Qui dixit in corde suo, quod uotum amplius non seruaret,
sed comederet mutonem loco salmonis, qui carius emitur. Jacobs 172, gives a
translation of the Hebrew.