Once upon a time, in the first cycle of the world's history, the four-legged animals chose the lion as their king, the fishes chose the monster-fish Ananda, and the birds chose the golden mallard duck. The golden mallard was one of the early forms of the Buddha, who was born many times in many shapes, before he at last achieved release from the wheel of life. Always he showed wisdom, leadership and humility, and there are many lessons to be learnt from the stories of his lives, which are known as the Jataka tales. In one life, he was born as an outcast pariah dog, living on rubbish scraps. He became leader of all the stray dogs and earned the king's favour.

The king golden mallard had a lovely daughter. She asked him if she could choose her own husband and he agreed. He summoned all the birds to an area of bare rock high in the Himalayan mountains so that she could make her choice. Every single bird came. The king's daughter was attracted by the shimmering beauty of the peacock.
"He shall be my husband," she said.

The peacock was so overcome with pride and vanity that he danced and pranced, and fanned out his beautiful tail for all to see.
"This bird has no modesty in his heart or decency in his bearing. My daughter shall never marry such a vain wretch," declared the king.
So the king gave his daughter to a young mallard, and the peacock flew away in shame.

Human pride and vanity often cause people to lose a treasure that is nearly within their grasp.

Reproduced by permission of Dorling Kingsley Limited, from Myths and Fairytales Collection, retold by Neil Philip, 1995, Dorling Kingsley Limited, 9 Henrietta Street, London.

Q: In this story, the king's daughter first chose the peacock, being attracted to his shimmering beauty. She was attracted to superficial qualities of the bird rather than looking for deeper more lasting qualities. Do you think human beings do the same thing? For example, who are the most popular kids in your school? Are they those showing the greatest kindness, compassion, commonsense and caring for others? Or are they the most successful, beautiful or rich?

Q: There is a proverb in English, "Pride comes before a fall." The behaviour of the peacock in this story is an example of this proverb. Can you think of situations in your own life where pride stemming from success or popularity has lead to problems?

Q: Why did the king mallard prevent his daughter from marrying the peacock?

Q: The king mallard's daughter agreed to her father's choice of husband, even though she had originally asked him if she could choose her own husband and he had consented to this. Do you think this was sensible? What would you do if put in the same situation? What qualities do you think would be important in choosing a husband or wife? Do you think parents and wise people can offer any useful guidance in this?

O, Master!
Thou art the real goal of human life.
We are yet but slaves of wishes
Putting bar to our advancement,
Thou art the only God and power
To bring us up to that stage.