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had built a hut in a forest and lived there, performing austerities. He, while living there, by his power rescued living beings in distress and Piśáchas, and others he gratified by presents of water and jewels. One day, as he was roaming about in the wood to assist others, he saw a great well and looked into it. And a woman, who was in it, said to him in a loud voice; " Noble sir, here are four of us; myself a woman, a lion, and a golden-crested bird, and a snake, fallen into this well in the night; so take us out; have mercy upon us." When he heard this, he said, " Granted that you three fell in because the darkness made it impossible for you to see your way, but how did the bird fall in?" The woman answered him, " It fell in by being caught in a fowler's net." Then the ascetic tried to lift them out by the supernatural power of his asceticism, but he could not; on the contrary, his power was gone. He reflected, " Surely this woman is a sinner, and owing to my having conversed with her, my power is gone from me. So I will use other means in this case." Then he plaited a rope of grass, and so drew them all four up out of the well, and they praised him. And in his astonishment he said to the lion, the bird, and the snake; " Tell me, how come you to have articulate voice, and what is your history?" Then the lion said, " We have articulate speech and we remember our former births, and we are mutual enemies; hear our stories in turns." So the lion began to tell his own story as follows:
The lion's story.:— There is a splendid city on the Himálayas, called Vaidúryaśringa; and in it there is a prince of the Vidyádharas named Padmaveśa, and to him a son was born named Vajravega. That Vajravega, while he dwelt in the world of the Vidyádharas, being a vain-glorious person, quarrelled with any body and every body, confiding in his courage. His father ordered him to desist, but he paid no attention to his command. Then his father cursed him, saying, " Fall into the world of mortals." Then his arrogance
Hist. Maj. London, 1571, pp. 240-242, where it is told of Richard Cœurde Lion; Gesta Romanorum, c. 119 ; Gower, Confessio Amantis, Book V; E. Meier Schwäbische Volks- märchen. (Benfey's Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 192 and ff.) Cp. also for the gratitude of the animals the IVth story in Campbell's Tales of the West Highlands. The animals are a dog, an otter and a falcon, p. 74 and ff. The Mongolian form of the story is to be found in Sagas from the Far East, Tale XIII. See also the XIIth and XXIInd of Miss Stokes's Indian Fairy Tales. There is a striking illustration of the gratitude of animals in Grimm's No. 62, and in Bartsch's Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Vol I, p. 483. De Gubernatis in a note to p. 129 of Vol. II, of his Zoological Mythology, mentions a story of grateful animals in Afanassief. The hero finds some wolves fighting for a bone, some bees fighting for honey, and some shrimps fighting for a carcase; he makes a just division, and the grateful wolves, bees, and shrimps help him in need. See also p. 157 of the same volume. No. 25 in the Pentamerone of Basile belongs to the same cycle.
