A History of Sanskrit Literature c18.s3.8

c18.s3.8

Book iv illustrates the loss of one's gettings by the tale of the ape and the crocodile¹ who lived in such amity that the crocodile's wife became jealous, and falling sick would be content with nothing save her rival's heart. The crocodile, though sad, seeks to entice the ape to visit him, but the ape finds out his plan and saves himself by saying that his heart is kept on a fig-tree, escaping when the crocodile seeks to obtain it from the tree. The crocodile seeks to renew the friendship, but is told instead that the ape is not like the ass who came back. This constitutes the one Tale: an ass's heart and ears are demanded by a sick lion; the jackal induces an ass to come by pretending he is taking him to a she-ass; the lion springs too soon and the ass escapes, but is deluded by the jackal into a second and fatal visit. The lion then departs to perform due ceremonial before partaking of the remedy; the jackal eats heart and ears, and, when the lion demands them, asserts as irrefutable that the ass had neither heart nor ears, or else he would never have come back. Book v warns against inconsiderate action. A Brahmin is dreaming of the son to be born; his wife warns him of day-dreams by the case of Somaçarman's father; he was a Brahmin who dreamed that he would sell for twenty rupees the groats he had to buy goats, have in five years a flock sufficient to obtain 100 cows, and so become rich until he had a son born; the child would come home, and the busy mother would neglect him, whereon the chivalrous father would beat her, an action he accomplished in his dream, destroying at one stroke all hope of the riches he coveted. In point of fact a boy is born, and the wife goes to wash, leaving the child to her husband's care as they had no maid. A summons arrives from the queen and the Brahmin goes to the palace, leaving his pet mungoose in charge of the babe. On his return he finds the mungoose rushing to meet him with bloody paws and mouth; in a rage he deems his son killed and slays the beast, only to find that the blood was that of a cobra which the faithful guardian had destroyed. His wife shares his grief, and reminds him by Tale 2 of hasty action. A young merchant is bidden in a dream to slay three monks who shall present themselves, as they are treasures stored by his father in this odd form and will become when slain *dīnāras*. He obeys, carrying out the rite with a barber's aid; the barber foolishly tries to repeat the trick, but his murdered monks do not become *dīnāras*, and he perishes at the hands of outraged justice. The tone of this book, as becomes its themes, is decidedly sombre. The brevity of the two books is remarkable, but it is just as likely to have been original as to have been the product of rehandling.