Buddhacarita by Ven Asvaghosa - Ancient Buddhist Texts

Buddha-carita, or Life of Buddha - 175
24. ‘Even though powerless and helpless, oppressed by hunger, thirst,
and fatigue, they are driven along as oxen and horses, their bodies
wounded with goads.
25. ‘They are driven along, when born as elephants, by weaker
creatures than themselves for all their strength, – their heads
tormented by the hook and their bodies kicked by foot and heel.
26. ‘And with all these other miseries there is an especial misery
arising from mutual enmity and from subjection to a master.
27. ‘Air-dwellers are oppressed by air-dwellers, the denizens of water
by the denizens of water, those that dwell on dry land are made to
suffer by the dwellers on dry land in mutual hostility.
28. ‘And others there are who, when born again, with their minds
filled with envy, reap the miserable fruit of their actions in a world of
the Pit
29. ‘Having mouths as small as the eye of a needle and bellies as big
as a mountain, these miserable wretches are tortured with the pains of
hunger and thirst.
30. ‘If a man only knew that such was the consequence of selfishness,
he would always give to others even pieces of his own body like Śibi.
31. ‘Rushing up filled with hope but held back by their former deeds,
they try in vain to eat anything large, however impure.