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.
The Donkey in the Lion's Skin
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!
