Page:Barlaam and Josaphat. English lives of Buddha.djvu/117

This page needs to be proofread.
APPENDIX
cxi

with opposition from the senses. Only that which takes root in the heart brings forth fruit in the character.

[Occurrences in Barlaam. — In Arab., Georg., and Heb. c. x., and Gr.; probably, therefore, in the original in some form, but the details are from the New Testament.

Source.— Parable of Sower, Matt. xiii. 3; Mark iv. 3; Luke viii. 5.

Parallel. — Sutta Nihata, tr. Fausböll, pp. 1-5. (Cf. Carus, Gospel of Buddha, § 74. )]

VI.a. The Man in the Well.

Z. viii., L. p. 93.

A man saw a raging unicorn, and flying from him fell into a pit. But as he fell he caught hold of a branch which saved him from falling to the bottom, while he rested his feet upon a projecting stone. Looking about him he saw two mice, one white and one black, gnawing at the root of the branch which he was holding, while at the bottom of the well he saw a fiery dragon, and near the stone on which his feet rested, a serpent, with four heads. But just at this moment he noticed on the branch he was holding a few drops of honey trickling down, and forgetting the unicorn, the dragon, the snakes, and the mice, he directed his whole thoughts how he might obtain the sweet honey.

Now the unicorn is death, the well is the world, full of manifold evil, the two mice are the night

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.