"Whenever the wind blows,"--This the Master told when at Jetavana, about two Buddhist monks. They, they are told, were living a forest life in the country of Kosala; and one was called Dark and the other called Light. Now one day Light asked Dark, "Brother! at what time does the cold, as some people call it, come on?"

"In the dark half of the month!" said he.

But one day Dark asked Light, "Brother Light! at what time does the so-called cold come on?"

"In the light half of the month!" said he.

And neither of the two being able to solve the knotty point, they went to the Master, and after paying him reverence, asked him, "At what time. Sir, is the cold?"

When the Master had heard their story, he said, "Formerly also, O mendicants! I solved this question for you; but the confusion arising from change of birth has driven it out of your minds." And he told a tale.

"Once upon a time two friends, a lion and a tiger, were living in a certain cave at the foot of a hill. At that time the Bodhisattva, who had devoted himself to the religious life of a hermit, was living at the foot of that same mountain.

"Now one day a dispute arose between the friends about the cold. The tiger said it was cold in the dark half of the month, the lion said it was cold in the light half. And as neither of them could solve the difficulty, they asked the Bodhisattva, and he uttered this stanza:

"'It is whenever the wind blows.
In the dark half or in the light.
For cold is caused by wind: and so
You both are right.'

"Thus the Bodhisattva pacified the two friends."

When the Master had finished this discourse ("Formerly also,"), he proclaimed the Truths. And at the close thereof the two brethren were established in the Fruit of Conversion. The Master made the connection, and summed up the Jataka: "He who was then the tiger was Dark, the lion Light, but the ascetic who answered the question was I myself."