A History of Sanskrit Literature c18.s3.6

c18.s3.6

then a second tale is adduced, the election by the birds of a king; the crow objects to the owl as hideous¹ and not fit even for a bluff, and to illustrate the use of bluffing tells Tale 3, how the clever hare by pretending to have a commission from his patron the moon—in which the Indians saw a hare instead of a face—frightened away an elephant which was destroying with its herd all the animals round a certain lake. Further, he denounces the meanness of the owl and by Tale 4 illustrates the danger of a mean king as judge by the case of the cat, Curd-ears, who ate up the foolish hare and partridge who had come to him to settle a dispute. The birds are now induced to desert the owl who remains alone, vowing vengeance on the crows. The next tale (5) shows how by deceit the crows may win, as the Brahmin was cheated out of his sacrificial goat, as he was carrying it home, by rogues who assured him that he was carrying an unclean dog. The crow minister, therefore, contrives to present himself to the owls as a suppliant who, for his good advice to the crow king, has been cast out; his friendly reception is advised and defended by two parallels. Tale 6 explains that even a thief received a kind welcome from the old man whose young wife is terrified by his intrusion into embracing warmly her spouse; Tale 7 extols the advantage of having enemies divided; the ogre who came to carry off a Brahmin and the thief who wished to steal his cows quarrelled over priority in evil-doing, so that the Brahmin woke up, drove off the ogre by a spell and the thief by his club. Only the owl, Red-eye, warns his foolish sovereign by the tale (8) of the silly carpenter who allowed his wife to dishonour him, but was deceived by her saying that she would not have any evil happen to him for the world. Red-eye also sees through the statement of the wily crow that he wishes to burn himself and be reborn an owl, proving that no such change of nature is possible by Tale 9. An ascetic rescued a mouse and made her a maiden, when she became ripe for marriage he sought a meet husband; the sun declined the proposals as the cloud was stronger than he, the cloud admitted inferiority to the wind, the wind to the mountain, and it to the mouse, so that the sage turned the maid to a mouse again. The owl king, however, persisted in permitting his enemy within the gates and is repaid by the destruction by fire of his home. The crow king warmly rewards his minister, and on questioning him how he could bear to associate with foes is told the tale of the serpent who pretended to the frogs that he had been cursed by a Brahmin to act as their carrier; the frog king enjoys riding on him, and finding his pace diminish owing to lack of food allows him to eat up the young frogs, which he does so energetically as to devour them all.