The Valāhassa Jātaka

The Buddha told this story at Jetavana, and the Jātaka Atthakatha records it as Jātaka No. 196, the Valāhassa Jātaka. It concerns a monk who had become a backslider. When the Master asked whether it was true, the monk said that it was. Asked why, he replied that his passion had been aroused by seeing a finely dressed woman.

The Buddha then spoke to him. Such she-goblins tempt men by figure and voice, by scents and perfumes and touch, he said, and by their wiles and dalliance. Thus they get men into their power, and once they have done so they ruin them, character, wealth, and all, by their evil ways. This is why they are called she-goblins.

He added that in former days a troop of she-goblins had tempted a caravan of traders and gotten power over them. Then he told an old story.

Once upon a time, in the island of Ceylon, there was a goblin town called Sirīsavatthu, peopled by she-goblins. When a ship is wrecked there, the goblins adorn themselves, take rice and gruel and a train of slaves, and come to the merchants with their children on their hips. To make the merchants believe the town is a city of human beings, the goblins let them see men ploughing and tending cattle, and herds of cattle, and dogs.

The goblins invite the merchants to eat the gruel, rice, and other food they have brought. The merchants, knowing nothing, eat. When they have eaten and are resting, the goblins ask where they live and what brought them there. The merchants say they were shipwrecked.

"Very good, noble sirs," the goblins answer. "It is three years since our husbands went on board ship, and they must have perished. You are merchants too, so we will be your wives." In this way they lead the men astray by their wiles, tricks, and dalliance until they have them in the goblin city. Any men they already hold they bind with magic chains and cast into the house of torment.

It happened once that five hundred shipwrecked traders were cast ashore near the goblins' city. The goblins came and enticed them in this way and brought them into the town. The chief goblin took the chief man, and the others took the rest, until five hundred goblins had the five hundred traders.

That night, when her man was asleep, the chief goblin rose and went to the house of death, where she slew and ate some of the men. The others did the same.

When the eldest goblin returned, her body was cold. The eldest merchant embraced her and understood that she was a goblin. "All five hundred of them must be goblins," he thought. "We must make our escape."

In the early morning, when he went to wash his face, he spoke to the other merchants. "These are goblins and not human beings. As soon as other shipwrecked men can be found, they will make them their husbands and will eat us. Come, let us escape."

Two hundred and fifty of them replied, "We cannot leave them. Go if you will, but we will not flee." So the chief trader fled with the two hundred and fifty who were ready to obey him, in fear of the goblins.

At that time the Bodhisatta had come into the world as a flying horse. He was white all over and beaked like a crow, with hair like muñja grass, and he possessed supernatural power and could fly through the air. From the Himalaya he flew until he came to Ceylon. There he passed over the ponds and tanks and ate the wild paddy that grew there.

As he passed, he thrice uttered human speech filled with mercy. "Who wants to go home? Who wants to go home?"

The traders heard him and cried, "We are going home, master!" They joined their hands and raised them respectfully to their foreheads. "Then climb up on my back," said the Bodhisatta.

Some climbed on his back, some took hold of his tail, and some simply stood where they were with a respectful salute. The Bodhisatta took up even those who stood saluting, and he carried all two hundred and fifty to their own country and set each one down in his own place. Then he flew back to his dwelling.

When other men came to that place, the goblins killed the two hundred and fifty who had stayed behind.

The Master said that, as the traders who fell into the goblins' hands perished while those who obeyed the horse returned safe home, so those who neglect the advice of the Buddhas come to great misery, and those who follow it reach fortunate births and at last imperishable Nirvana. Then he recited two verses. Those who neglect the Buddha's advice will perish as the merchants were eaten by the goblins. Those who heed the Buddha's advice will find salvation, as the bird-horse saved the merchants.

At the end of the discourse the Master declared the Truths, the Four Noble Truths of suffering and its end. The backsliding monk entered the fruit of the First Path, stream-entry, the first of the four stages of awakening, and many others entered the fruit of the First, Second, Third, or Fourth. "The Buddha's followers were the two hundred and fifty who followed the advice of the horse, and I was the horse myself."

The Valāhassa Jātaka is a story of rescue, and it makes the rescue depend on two small acts. The traders had to hear the call, and they had to answer it. The horse took even those who only stood and saluted, but he could not carry the ones who refused to leave.

For the backsliding monk the message was direct. The temptation looked like hospitality, and the danger was real. For every devotee the horse's call still comes as a question, "Who wants to go home?", and the teaching of this Jātaka is that it can be answered at once.