A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s3.t2.217

v2.c19.s3.t2.217

There was once a king who had a wicked son, called Prince Rascal. He was like a poisonous snake, never spoke a pleasant word to anyone, and was “like grit in the eye.” Once when he wishes to bathe during a great storm, the people bring him out into the river in order to let him drown. But he escapes on to a tree trunk in company with a snake, a rat and a parrot. All the four are pulled out of the water by an ascetic and taken home, where the pious man first attends to the animals as being the weaker, and only then attends to the prince. The latter is enraged at this. All the three animals promise the ascetic to prove their gratitude to him; so also does the prince, while, internally he vows vengeance on him. After some time the ascetic wishes to put the rescued ones to a test. The three animals immediately prove their gratitude, but the prince, who has meanwhile become king, causes the ascetic, as soon as he recognises him, to be whipped, and wants to have him executed. At every stroke of the whip the latter utters the verse :