The Holy Quail

Long ago, in the land of Magadha, a quail hatched from its egg in a nest on the ground. Once out of the shell, the young quail grew to about the size of a big partridge. His parents kept him lying quietly in the nest and fed him with food they carried in their beaks. He could not yet spread his wings to fly, and he could not stretch out his legs to walk.

That stretch of country was swept by a forest fire every year, and just at this time the fire came roaring in and took hold of it. All the birds flew up from their nests, screeching, and fled. The young quail’s parents were terrified too, and they left him and flew away.

The little quail lay in his nest and stretched out his neck. He saw the flames spreading toward him, and he thought, “If I could open my wings and fly, or put out my legs and walk, I could get away somewhere safe. But I can’t! My parents were so frightened that they have flown off to save themselves and left me all alone. Nobody else can help me, and I can’t help myself. What in the world am I going to do?”

Then a thought came to him. “In this world there is power in goodness, and power in truth. There have been Buddhas, wise and full of truth and kindness, whose love reaches out to every living thing. I hold to that same truth. So I will think of those Buddhas of long ago and the good qualities they gained, and, trusting in the truth I hold, I will make an Act of Truth. Perhaps it can drive the fire back and save me and the other birds as well.”

The old book puts it in a verse:

There is power in goodness in the world,
in truth, in purity and love.
In the name of that truth I made
a solemn Act of Truth.

So the young quail called to mind the Buddhas who had lived long before, declared the truth that was in his own heart, and spoke these words:

“I have wings, but they cannot fly.
I have feet, but they cannot walk.
My mother and father have flown away.
Fire, you that swallow everything, turn back!”

At those words the fire drew back sixteen rods from where he lay. And as it drew back it did not turn to burn up the forest. It went out straight away, like a torch plunged into water.

Another verse tells of it:

For me and for my Act of Truth
the great, hot fire went out,
and left a space of sixteen rods,
as fire goes out in water.

Through all the long age that followed, no fire ever burned across that patch of ground, and people called it a miracle that would last for a whole age of the world. As for the little quail, he lived out his life, and when it came to its end he passed on, as all creatures do, according to the good he had done.

About this tale

“The Holy Quail” is Jataka No. 35, the Vattaka Jataka, in T. W. Rhys Davids’s 1880 translation Buddhist Birth Stories. Rhys Davids frames it with a scene in which a forest fire dies out before reaching the Buddha and his monks, who ask him why; he explains it through this story of one of his past lives.

This retelling gives only the story of the past, with its three verses rewritten in simple words. In the closing lines of the Jataka, the Buddha says that the quail’s parents were his own parents in his present life and that he himself was the little quail.

Read the original: Buddhist Birth Stories (Project Gutenberg)

Best for ages 6–8 — a helpless chick who stops a forest fire with words of truth.

Truth without pretending to be strong

The quail does not claim he can fly or walk. His appeal begins with precisely what he cannot do and what has happened to him. Within the religious story, that honest declaration connects a helpless creature with a power greater than physical strength. The fire’s complete extinction also protects more than the speaker.

Read the two kinds of statement

Separate the quail’s verse into descriptions of his situation and the request he makes. Why would changing “cannot fly” to a boast about strength weaken this particular Act of Truth? Keep the miracle distinct from practical responses to a real fire.

Think about it

• Why couldn’t the young quail escape the fire?
• What is an “Act of Truth” in this story?
• How do you think the quail felt when he was left alone?

Related stories

• The Banyan Deer (Nigrodhamiga Jataka) — another Jataka from Rhys Davids’s translation
• The Quarrel of the Quails — a different Jataka about quails
• The Two Stags — a Jataka about wisdom in danger