35t FOLK-TALES OF INDIA.
" Well, come and attend upon me, and I'll let you eat the best kinds of flesh." So saying he and the jackal went off to the Koncana cave.
From that time forth the jackal ate the lion's leavings, and after a time he became very corpulent. One day, as the lion was lying down in the cave, he said, " Go, jackal, and stand on the mountain- crest. When you have caught sight of any animal among the elephants, horses, buffalos, &c., roaming about the base of the mountain, whose flesh you'd like to eat, come and say, ' I am desirous of eating the flesh of such and such an animal.' Then salute me and say, ' Master, show thyself.'* After I've killed that animal and eaten its flesh I'll give you some too."
The jackal ascended the mountain-top, and beheld various sorts of animals whose flesh he was desirous of eating ; and entering the Koncana cave he even informed the lion of it. Falling at his feet he said, "Master, show thyself."
The lion sprang hurriedly out of his cave, and killed whatever animal he happened to meet with, even though it were a huge rut- elephant, ate the best portions of the flesh himself, and gave the leavings to the jackal.
When the jackal had eaten his bellyful he entered the cave and there fell asleep. After some time he grew proud, thinking, " I, forsooth, am a quadraped — why should I day by day live dependent on others for my support ? From this time forth I, too, striking down elephants and the rest, will eat their flesh. The lion, the king of beasts, kills an elephant merely through my saying the words, ' Master, show thyself ! ' I, too, will make the lion say to me,
- Jackal, show thyself ! ' then I wifl kill a noble elephant and eat its
flesh."
He drew near to the lion and said: "Master, for a long time I have eaten the flesh of noble elephants that you have slain ; but now I, too, want to bring down an elephant myself and eat its flesh, so I'll lie down in the Koncana cave, in the very spot where you are wont to lie, and do you go and observe what elephants, &c., are roaming
- The original is virooa, i.e. shine, be conspicuous.
