THE THREE CHARACTERISTICS.
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V.
‘“Now the great elephant strode with
lordly footsteps in the forest, and Jehjaour
shut himself up with his caldrons and things
and felt quite happy, for he knew his danger
was not near till the approaching of Perdu’ R
Abu’s Arahatship. But in spite of the
young gently-ambling cows which Ganesha
took care to throw in his way, in spite of
the tender shoots of green and the soft
cocoanuts, this elephant was not as other
elephants. The seasons spoke to him of
change—the forest is ever full of sorrow—
and nobody need preach to him the absence
of an ego, for the brutes have had more
sense than ever to imagine there was one.
So the tusker was usually to be found, stil]
as a rock, in some secluded place, meditating
on the Three Characteristics) And when
Ganesha appeared in all his glory, he found
him to his disgust quite free from elephanto-
morphism. In fact, he quietly asked the
God to leave him alone.
‘* Now he was still quite a young elephant
when there came into the jungle, tripping
merrily along, with a light-hearted song in
its nucleolus, no less than a Bacillus.
‘‘ And the elephant died. He was only
seventeen years old.
VI.
“* A brief consultation ; and the Srotapatti
was reincarnated asa parrot. For the parrot,
said the wicked Jehjaour, may live 500 years
and never feel it.
‘‘So a grey wonder of wings flitted into
the jungle. So joyous a bird, thought the
God, could not but be influenced by the
ordinary passions and yield to such majesty
as his own.
‘* But one day there came into the jungle a
strange wild figure. He was a man dressed
in the weird Tibetan fashion. He had red
robes and hat, and thought dark things. He
whirled a prayer-wheel
in his: hands}; and
ever as he went he muttered the mystic words:
‘Aum Mani Padme Hum.’! The parrot,
who had never heard human speech, tried to
mimic the old Lama, and was amazed at his:
success. Pride first seized the bird, but it.
was not long before the words had their own
effect, and it was in meditation upon the
conditions of existence that he eternally re-
peated the formula,
*%
* *
‘*A home at distant Inglistan. An old
lady, and a grey parrot inacage, The parrot
was still muttering inaudibly the sacred
mantra. Now, now, the moment of Destiny
was athand! The Four Noble Truths shone
out in that parrot’s mind ; the Three Char-
acteristics appeared luminous, like three
spectres on a murderer’s grave: unable
to contain himself he recited aloud the
mysterious sentence.
‘*The old lady, whatever may have been
her faults, could act promptly. She rang the
bell. ‘Sarah!’ said she, ‘take away that
dreadful creature! Its language is positively
awful.’ ‘What shall I do with it, mum?’
asked the ‘general.’ ‘Aum Mani Padme
Hum,’ said the parrot. The old lady stopped
her ears. ‘ Wring its neck !’ she said.
‘* The parrot was only-eight years old.
VII.
*** You're a muddler and an idiot !’ said
the infuriated God. ‘Why not make him
a spiritual thing? A Nat? lives 10,000
years.” ‘Make him a Nat then !’ said the
magician, already beginning to fear that fate
would be too strong for him, in spite of all
his cunning. ‘There’s some one working
against us on the physical plane. We mist
transcend it.’ No sooner said than done:
1 **O the Jewel in the Lotus! Aum!”
most famous of the Buddhist formularies.
2 The Burmese name for an elemental spirit.
The