The Sword of Song

APPENDIX I 72 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 approachin 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 im agine there was one. So the tusker was usually to be found, still as a rock, in s ome secluded place, m editating on the Three Characteris tics. And when Ganesha appeared in all his glory , he found him to his disgust quite free from e lephanto- morphism. In fact, he quietly asked the God to leave him alone. “Now he was still quite a y oung 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 as a 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 joy ous a bird, thought the God, could not but be influenced by the ordinary passions and y ield 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 pray er-wheel in his hands; and ever as he went he muttered the mystic words ‘Aum Mani Padme Hum.’ 1 The parrot, who had never heard hum an 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 in a cage. The parrot was still m uttering inaudibly the sacred mantra. Now, now, the moment of Destiny was at hand! The Four Noble Truths shone out in that parrot’s mind; the Three Characteristics 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!’ s aid s he, ‘take away that dreadful creature! Its language is positively awful.’ ‘W hat 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 muddle and an idiot !’ said the infuriated God. ‘Why not make him a spiritual thing ? A Nat2 lives 10,000 years.’ ‘M ake him a Nat then !’ s aid 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 phy sical plane. W e must transcend it.’ No sooner said than done : 1 “O the Jewel in the Lotus! Aum!” The most famous of the Buddhist formularies. 2 The Burmese name for an elemental spirit.