The Panchatantra (Purnabhadra's Recension of 1199 CE)/Book 1/How the Crow-Hen Killed the Black Snake
At last the crow-hen fell at her husband's feet and said: "My dear lord, a great many children of mine have been eaten by that awful snake. And grief for my loved and lost haunts me until I think of moving. Let us make our home in some other tree. For
No friend like health abounding;
And like disease, no foe;
No love like love of children;
Like hunger-pangs, no woe.
And again:
With fields o'erhanging rivers,
With wife on flirting bent,
Or in a house with serpents,
No man can be content.
We are living in deadly peril."
At this the crow was dreadfully depressed, and he said: "We have lived in this tree a long time, my dear. We cannot desert it. For
Where water may be sipped, and grass
Be cropped, a deer might live content;
Yet insult will not drive him from
The wood where all his life was spent.
Moreover, by some shrewd device I will bring death upon this villainous and mighty foe."
"But," said his wife, "this is a terribly venomous snake. How will you hurt him?" And he replied: "My dear, even if I have not the power to hurt him, still I have friends who possess learning, who have mastered the works on ethics. I will go and get from them some shrewd device of such nature that the villain—curse him!—will soon meet his doom."
After this indignant speech he went at once to another tree, under which lived a dear friend, a jackal. He courteously called the jackal forth, related all his sorrow, then said: "My friend, what do you consider opportune under the circumstances? The killing of our children is sheer death to my wife and me."
"My friend," said the jackal, "I have thought the matter through. You need not put yourself out. That villainous black snake is near his doom by reason of his heartless cruelty. For
Of means to injure brutal foes
You do not need to think,
Since of themselves they fall, like trees
Upon the river's brink.
And there is a story:
A heron ate what fish he could,
The bad, indifferent, and good;
His greed was never satisfied
Till, strangled by a crab, he died."
"How was that?" asked the crow. And the jackal told the story of