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Another notable story in which enmity is overcome by friendship is ‘The Birth-Story of the Goose’ (22), in which a hunter’s aggressive intentions toward a flock of geese cease when he witnesses the devotion shown by a goose for his king (see especially 22.112 [65]). Here the king who ordered the capture of the geese is so impressed by the friendship shown by the pair of geese that he proclaims his own friendship for them (22.144 [88]): “May this friendship never be severed now that it has been embarked upon. Place your trust in me. For a union of noble beings never decays.”

5 See also volume 1, 7.42–61 [20–31] and this volume 23.30 [13], 23.117 [62]–118 [63], 26.58 [30], 34.43 [22].

6 The propriety of Sumukha’s devotion is, however, debated in a group of verses (22.56 [26]–72 [38]), in which the Bodhi·sattva argues that his general’s actions are unpragmatic and will bring no “benefit” (artha), whereas Sumukha appeals to the authority of “virtue” (dharma). It is noteworthy that this context-free, absolutist form of morality advocated by Sumukha is usually the type of virtue espoused by the Bodhi·sattva in other stories.

7 See, for example, 24.18 [8], 25.40 [21], 26.16 [8]–17 [9], 27.39 [15]–56 [28], 29.68 [47]–69 [48], 30.30 [14], 30.35 [18], 30.44 [22], 31.178 [93].

8 See also the ‘Birth-Story of Maitri-bala’ (vol. 1, story 8) for a connection between the Bodhi·sattva’s sacrifice of his body and his gift of the teaching as a Buddha. There the Bodhi·sattva’s blood and flesh, eaten by five demons, is directly compared with the “ambrosia of the teaching of liberation” given by the Buddha at his first sermon to five ascetics (see v. 59 and the epilogue). This theme has particularly been analyzed by Reiko Ohnuma (2007: 199ff.).

9 Stories 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30, 33, 34. Stories 33 and 34 are different in style to the other animal stories, a fact that may point to the Jatakamala being incomplete, or to the possibility of interpolation, or simply to a difference in literary technique. Apart from ________