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Story of the teacher and his two jealous pupils.*[1]:— A Certain teacher had two pupils who were jealous of one another. And one of those pupils washed and anointed every day the right foot of his instructor, and the other did the same to the left foot. Now it happened that one day the pupil, whose business it was to anoint the right foot, had been sent to the village, so the teacher said to the second pupil, whose business it was to anoint the left foot,— "To-day you must wash and anoint my right foot also." When the foolish pupil received this order, he coolly said to his teacher; " I cannot anoint this foot that belongs to my rival." When he said this, the teacher insisted. Then that pupil, who was the very opposite of a good pupil, took hold of his teacher's foot in a passion, and exerting great force, broke it. Then the teacher uttered a cry of pain, and the other pupils came in and beat that wicked pupil, but he was rescued from them by that teacher, who felt sorry for him. The next day, the other pupil came back from the village, and when he saw the injury that had been done to bis teacher's foot, he asked the history of it, and then he was inflamed with rage, and he said, " Why should I not break the foot that belongs to that enemy of mine?" So he laid hold of the teacher's second leg, and broke it. Then the others began to beat that wicked pupil, but the teacher, both of whose legs were broken, in compassion begged him off too. Then those two pupils departed, laughed to scorn by the whole country, but their teacher, who deserved so much credit for his patient temper, gradually got well.
Thus foolish attendants, by quarrelling with one another, ruin their master's interests, and do not reap any advantage for themselves. Hear the story of the two-headed serpent.
Story of the snake with two heads.†[2]:— A certain snake had two heads, one in the usual place and one in his
- ↑ * There is a certain resemblance between this story and a joke in Philogeles, p. 16. (Ed. Eberhard, Berlin, 1869.) Scholasticus tells his boots not to creak, or he will break their legs.
- ↑ † This corresponds to the 14th story in the 5th book of the Panchatantra, Benfey, Vol. II, p. 360. At any rate the loading idea is the same. See Benfey, Vol. I, p. 537. It has a certain resemblance to the fable of Menenius. There is a snake in Bengal with a knob at the end of his tail. Probably this gave rise to the legend of the double-headed serpent. Sir Thomas Browne devotes to the Amphisbæna Chapter XV of the third book of his Vulgar Errors, and craves leave to " doubt of this double-headed serpent," until he has " the advantage to behold, or iterated ocular testimony." See also Liebrecht zur Volkskunde, p. 120, where he treats of the Avadánas. The story is identical with that in our text. M. Lévèque shews that this story, as found in the Avadánas, forms the basis of one of La Fontaine's fables, VII, 17. La Fontaine took it from Plutarch's life of Agis.
