Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/49

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again returned to the forest, and induced his master the lion to grant the bull assurance of protection. And he went and encouraged Sanjívaka with this promise of protection, and so brought him into the -presence of the lion. And when the lion saw him come and bow before him, he treated him with politeness, and said— " Remain here now about my person, and entertain no fear." And the bull consented, and gradually gained such an influence over the lion, that he turned his back on his other dependents, and was entirely governed by the bull.

Then Damanaka, being annoyed, said to Karataka in secret: " See ! our master has been taken possession of by Sanjívaka, and does not trouble his head about us. He eats his flesh alone, and never gives us a share. And the fool is now taught his duty by this bull.*[1] It was I that caused all this mischief by bringing this bull. So I will now take steps to have him killed, and to reclaim our master from his unbecoming infatuation." When Karataka heard this from Damanaka, he said— " Friend, even you will not be able to do this now." Then Damanaka said— " I shall certainly be able to accomplish it by prudence. What can he not do whose prudence does not fail in calamity? As a proof, hear the story of the makara[2] that killed the crane."

Story of the crane and the Makara. ‡[3]:— Of old time there dwelt a crane in a certain tank rich in fish; and the fish in terror used to flee out of his sight. Then the crane, not being able to catch the fish, told them a lying tale: " There has come here a man with a net who kills fish. He will soon catch you with a net and kill you. So

  1. * I follow the reading of the Sanskrit College MS. múdhabuddih prabhur nyáyam ukshndnenddya śikihyate. This satisfies the metre, which Brockhaus's reading does not.
  2. † This word generally means crocodile. But in the Hitopadeśa the creature that kills the crane is a crab.
  3. ‡ This fable is the 7th in Benfey's translation of the Panchatantra, Vol. II, p. 58. It is found in the 4th hook of the Hitopadeśa, Johnson's translation, p. 103. It is also found in the Arabic version (Wolff, I, 41, Knatchbull, 114), Symeon Seth (Athenian edition, p. 16,) John of Capua, c. 4, b., German translation (Ulm., p. 1483. D., V, b.,) Spanish translation, XIII, 6. Firenzuola, 39, Doni, 59, Anvar-i-Suhaili, 117, Livre des Lumieres, 92, Cabinet des Fees, XVII, 221, Thousand and one Nights (Weil, III, 915.) Cp. Lafontaine, X, 4. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 175). Benfey shews that it may be Buddhistic in origin, quoling a story from Upham's Sacred and Historical Books of Ceylon, III, 292. He also shews that it may have come into Buddhist books from the Greek, as Alcæus appears to have been acquainted with a similar Greek fable, (Æsopus, Furia 231, Cor., 70). See also Weber's Indische Studien, III, 343. I may as well mention that in the notes taken from Benfey's Panchatantra I substitute Johnson's translation of the Hitopadeśa for Max Mueller's. The story is found in Rhys Davids' translation of the Játakas, (pp. 317— 321,) which has just been published.