In long past times the Bodisat, his accumulations [168] as yet
incomplete, was born again among birds as a woodpecker, dwelling in a
villageless solitude in a hill district, rich in mountain streams,
fruits, and flowers. In the same district there lived a king of the
beasts, a lion, which was in the habit of killing and devouring
gazelles at its pleasure. One day it had been eating meat; a bone stuck
fast between its teeth, and the lion, which had never known fear or
anxiety, now that toothache was plaguing its body, was quite prostrated
and could eat nothing.
By good fortune a woodpecker, which was wont to fly from one tree-top
to another, came to the place where the king of the beasts was. When it
saw the lion so tormented by pain, it said, “Uncle, wherefore are you
cast down?” The lion replied, “Nephew, I am tortured by pain.” “What
sort of pain?” asked the woodpecker. When the lion had told the whole
story, the woodpecker said, “Uncle, I will treat your case. As you are
the lion and the king of all four-footed beasts, and can be of service,
therefore you must from time to time be of service to me.” The lion
replied, “I will act in accordance with your words.”
The woodpecker thought, “I will manage so that the lion shall not
perceive what I am doing to it, and shall find it out only after
recovering.” Anxious to assist the lion, the woodpecker remained there
observing its way of going on. The violence of the pain having abated,
the king of the beasts passed into a happier mood, and went to sleep
with its jaws apart on a great, broad, flat rock. The woodpecker drew
near to the king of the beasts, and thought that, as it found the lion
in so convenient a position, this was the proper moment for treating
it. After making a careful examination, the woodpecker, by means of a
continued fluttering of its wings, extracted the bone which had stuck
between the lion’s teeth. And the lion sat up, with eyes opening after
surmounted slumber. Then the woodpecker, knowing that the king of the
beasts was freed from pain and discomfort, came up to it in high glee,
and said, “O uncle, here is the bone which caused the pain.” The king
of the beasts was greatly astonished and said, “O nephew, as I wish to
recompense you for this service, come to me from time to time in order
that I may be of use to you.” The woodpecker replied, “Good, I will do
so,” and flew away.
At another time, while the king of the beasts was devouring flesh, the
woodpecker, which had been seized by a falcon, and had only just
escaped from death, appeared before the king of the beasts in a state
of suffering from hunger. Having described its need, it said to the
lion, “O uncle, I am tormented with hunger, so give me a piece of
flesh.” The lion replied in a verse—
“Having torn to pieces a living creature, I am now savage and a
misdoer. Are not you, who passed between my teeth, thankful for
remaining alive?”