The Golden Deer Who Saved His Herd
Long long ago there was a king who was much given to hunting deer. He relished the deer meat very much. Almost every day he would go hunting. The citizens, in their hundreds, would be required to accompany him to the forest. They would spread over a wide area, encircling it. Then they would slowly come closer, shouting and beating drums. The circle they made would have only one outlet where the king would stand ready with his bow and arrows. As the panicky deer would try to escape through the outlet, the king would shoot and kill one of them, if not more. This went on day after day. The citizens were tired of giving company to the king in his daily expedition. Their vocational work suffered. Many of them got injured in the operation. They met and decided to drive all the deer into a park that was adjacent to the palace compound. Accordingly, one-day thousands of people surrounded the whole forest, and with their yells and the sound of the bugles and drums drove all the deer into the park. Once the deer had entered the park, they closed all its openings save the one which opened into the palace garden. Against that opening, they set a gate which no deer however smart could cross.
The spokesman of the citizens then met the king and said, "My lord, we know how very fond of deer meat you are. You spend much time hunting and oblige us to waste our time too. We have done something that should please you. We have driven all the deer into the park close to your garden. You can kill a deer a day with ease and spare us the trouble of running about in the forest. The king at once paid a visit to the park and satisfied himself that what he heard was true. He strolled in the park for a long time, delighted at the sight of the numerous deer. Soon his eyes fell on a particular deer which was quite large in size. The king went near it and found that its color was of luminous gold, its horns dazzled like polished silver and its eyes glittered like a pair of precious jewels. The king realized that the wonderful deer he saw was the chief of the herd. But he did not know that the deer was none other than a great soul. "I marvel at your grandeur. You are, indeed, a remarkable creature. Although a deer, I take you as my friend. Never shall you get killed, either by me or by anyone else. Be free to move about, eat as much grass as you like, and drink from the pool. For you, even the gates of my garden are ever open," the king told the deer, patting him on the back. "Thank you, my lord," said the deer. But he looked sad because of the captive state of his herd. Every day either the king or one of his servants entered the park and took aim at a deer, with his bow and arrow. At that the deer got panicky. As a result of each one trying to hide behind the other, there was a stampede.
While one fell to the arrow, many got injured in the stampede. Sometimes some of the injured died. The golden deer told his heard, "There is no point in many dying or getting injured when the king needs only one deer a day. Better one of us goes forward to die every day so that all the others could live in peace." All the deer agreed to this. They followed a certain method by which it fell to the lot, of any one deer to die on a day. Near the gate of the park lay a slab of stone on which the kitchen assistant dressed the deer after it had fallen to the arrow. Now the deer whose turn was to die went near the stone and crouched there with his head resting on it. The kitchen assistant then would prepare the meat for the kitchen. This went on smoothly. There was no more stampede among the deer and no more need to shoot arrows at them. One day it was the turn of a hind to die. She was pregnant. She told her fellow deer, "I am not afraid of dying. But I do not want the fawn in my womb to die. I request that one of you take my place today. After I have given birth to the fawn and it has grown up a little, I will take someone else's place." But no deer was willing to accept her suggestion. However, soon the chief heard of her agony. He called her to his side and said, "My child, do not worry. I shall take your place so that your fawn may live and you may live to see it grow". Then he calmly went near the slab of stone and waited there with his head resting on the stone. The kitchen assistant was surprised to see him. It was not within his power to kill one whom the king had addressed as a friend.
He ran to the chief cook and told him of the deer chief's conduct. The chief cook informed the minister and the minister reported the matter to the king. The king hastened to the garden and shook the golden deer and said, "My friend, had I not declared that you are never to be killed?" "But I must die for the sake of a hind who is soon to become a mother," said the golden deer calmly. The king was deeply moved. He said, "Nobody would take the hind's life, I assure you. Get up now." "Even then I am hardly consoled, for I see my friends being killed day after day. Better I die," replied the deer chief. The king was overwhelmed by the chief's feeling for his herd. "I assure you, my friend, that all your deer would be spared. They can return to the forest. Nobody shall harm them," said the king. "Even then I do not wish to live, for, in the forest I see hunters killing other animals and birds," said the golden deer. "Very well, my friend, I pass the order right now banning hunting altogether," said the king over whom a great change had come. The golden deer lifted his head. He blessed the king and left with his herd for the forest.
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