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the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, was ingenious. And he lumbered off to clinch
Iehi Aour, i.e. Let there be Light ), now Ananda
the affair at once.
Metteya, to whom the volume in which this story
And Perdu R Abu died.
was issued is inscribed.
2
Taphtatharath [sic., s.b. Taphthartharath
1
T.S.], the spirit of Mercury. The archdevil of the Buddhists.
72
APPENDIX I
whirled a prayer-wheel in his hands; and
ever as he went he muttered the mystic
V.
words Aum Mani Padme Hum. 1 The
parrot, who had never heard human speech,
Now the great elephant strode with
tried to mimic the old Lama, and was
lordly footsteps in the forest, and Jehjaour
amazed at his success. Pride first seized the
shut himself up with his caldrons and things
bird, but it was not long before the words
and felt quite happy, for he knew his danger
had their own effect, and it was in
was not near till the approachin of Perdu R
meditation upon the conditions of existence
Abu s Arahatship. But in spite of the young
that he eternally re-peated the formula.
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
A home at distant Inglistan. An old
elephants. The seasons spoke to him of
lady, and a grey parrot in a cage. The parrot
change the forest is ever full of sorrow
was still muttering inaudibly the sacred
and nobody need preach to him the absence
mantra. Now, now, the moment of Destiny
of an ego, for the brutes have had more
was at hand! The Four Noble Truths shone
sense than ever to imagine there was one.
out in that parrot s mind; the Three
So the tusker was usually to be found, still
Characteristics appeared luminous, like
as a rock, in some secluded place, meditating
three spectres on a murderer s grave: unable
on the Three Characteristics. And when
to contain himself he recited aloud the
Ganesha appeared in all his glory, he found
mysterious sentence.
him to his disgust quite free from elephanto-
The old lady, whatever may have been
morphism. In fact, he quietly asked the God
her faults, could act promptly. She rang the
to leave him alone.
bell. Sarah! said she, take away that
Now he was still quite a young elephant
dreadful creature! Its language is positively
when there came into the jungle, tripping
awful. What shall I do with it, mum?
merrily along, with a light-hearted song in
asked the general. Aum Mani Padme
its nucleolus, no less than a Bacillus.
Hum, said the parrot. The old lady stopped
And the elephant died. He was only
her ears. Wring its neck! she said.
seventeen years old.
The parrot was only eight years old.
VI.
VII.
A brief consultation ; and the Srotapatti
You re a muddle and an idiot ! said
was reincarnated as a parrot. For the parrot,
the infuriated God. Why not make him
said the wicked Jehjaour, may live 500
a spiritual thing ? A Nat2 lives 10,000
years and never feel it.
years. Make him a Nat then ! said the
So a grey wonder of wings flitted into
magician, already beginning to fear that fate
the jungle. So joyous a bird, thought the
would be too strong for him, in spite of all
God, could not but be influenced by the
his cunning. There s some one working
ordinary passions and yield to such majesty
against us on the physical plane. We must
as his own.
transcend it. No sooner said than done :
But one day there came into the jungle a
strange wild figure. He was a man dressed
1
O the Jewel in the Lotus! Aum! The most
in the weird Tibetan fashion. He had red
famous of the Buddhist formularies.
2
robes and hat, and thought dark things. He The Burmese name for an elemental spirit.
73
THE THREE CHARACTERISTICS
a family of Nats in a big tree at Anuradhapura know a thing or two about Indra, for
had a little stranger, very welcome to Mamma example
and Papa Nat. It was done. Beautiful was the young
Blessed indeed was the family. Five- girl s face as she sprang mature from the
and-forty feet1 away stood a most ancient and womb of Matter, on her life-journey of an
holy dagoba: and the children of light would hundred thousand years. Of all Indra s
gather round it in the cool of the evening, or flute-girls she played and sang the sweetest.
in the misty glamour of dawn, and turn forth Yet ever some remembrance, dim as a pallid
in love and pity towards all mankind nay, ghost that fleets down the long avenues of
to the smallest grain of dust tossed on the deodar and moonlight, stole in her brain;
utmost storms of the Sahara ! and her song was ever of love and death
Blessed and more blessed ! For one day and music from beyond.
came a holy Bikkhu from the land of the And one day as she sang thus the deep
Peacock,2 and would take up his abode in the truth stole into being and she knew the
hollow of their very tree. And little Perdu Noble Truths. So she turned her flute to
R Abu used to keep the mosquitoes away the new song, when horror ! there was a
with the gossamer of his wings, so that the mosquito in the flute. Tootle ! Tootle !
good man might be at peace. she began. Buzz! Buzz! went the
Now the British Government abode in mosquito from the very vitals of her delicate
that land, and when it heard that there was a tube.
Bhikkhu living in a tree, and that the village Indra was not unprovided with a disc.1
folk brought him rice and onions and gramo- Alas ! Jehjaour, art thou already in the toils ?
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