The World for Freedom

Revision as of 01:38, 24 June 2020

Hello Students, read the below article then on your own webpage on www.goodtoknow.com, write a short constructed response using "R-A-C-E-" as instructed in class.

      What do the poem's stanzas tell about the donkey?
      Use two details from the passage to support your response.

At the same time, when Brahma-datta was reigning in Benares, the future Buddha was born one of a peasant family; and when he grew up, he gained his living by tilling the ground.

At that time a hawker used to go from place to place, trafficking in goods carried by a donkey. Now at each place, he came to, when he took the pack down from the donkey's back, he used to clothe him in a lion's skin, and turn him loose in the rice and barley fields. And when the watchmen in the fields saw the donkey, they dared not go near him, taking him for a lion.

So one day the hawker stopped in a village; and whilst he was getting his own breakfast cooked, he dressed the donkey in a lion's skin, and turned him loose in a barley-field. The watchmen in the field dared not go up to him; but going home, they published the news. Then all the villagers came out with weapons in their hands; and blowing chanks, and beating drums, they went near the field and shouted. Terrified with the fear of death, the donkey uttered a cry—the bray of a donkey!

And when he knew him then to be a donkey, the future Buddha pronounced the First Verse:

"This is not a lion's roaring, Nor a tiger's, nor a panther's; Dressed in a lion's skin, 'Tis a wretched donkey that roars!" But when the villagers knew the creature to be a donkey, they laughed and put it down; and, carrying off the lion's skin, went away. Then the hawker came; and seeing the donkey fallen into so bad a plight, pronounced the Second Verse:

"Long might the donkey, Clad in a lion's skin, Have fed on the barley green. But he brayed! And that moment he came to ruin."

And even while he was yet speaking the donkey became tame and good!