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sorely with his weapons, that ho with difficulty escaped to his den alive. When the king was gone, the lion still remained in the den, and his minister, the jackal, who lived on his leavings, being exhausted for want of food, said to him; " My lord, why do you not go out and seek for food to the best of your ability, for your own body is being famished as well as your attendants?" When the jackal said this to the lion, he answered; "My friend, I am exhausted with wounds, and I cannot roam about outside my don. If I could get the heart and ears of a donkey to eat, my wounds would heal, and I should recover my former health. So go and bring me a donkey quickly from somewhere or other." The jackal agreed to do so and sallied out. As he was wandering about, he found a washerman's ass in a solitary place, and he went up to him, and said in a friendly way; " Why are you so exhausted?" The donkey answered, " I am reduced by perpetually carrying this washerman's load." The jackal said, " Why do you endure all this toil ? Come with me and I will take you to a forest as delightful as Heaven, where you may grow fat in the society of she-asses." When the donkey, who was longing for enjoyment, heard this, ho went to the forest, in which that lion ranged, in the company of that jackal. And when the lion saw him, being weak from impaired vitality, he only gave him a blow with his paw behind, and the donkey, being wounded by the blow, was terrified and fled immediately, and did not come near the lion again, and the lion fell down confused and bewildered. And then the lion, not having accomplished his object, hastily returned to his den. Then the jackal, his minister, said to him reproachfully; " My lord, if you could not kill this miserable donkey, what chance is there of your killing deer and other animals?" Then the lion said to him, " If you know how, bring that donkey again. I will be ready and kill him."
When the lion had despatched the jackal with these words, he went to the donkey and said; " Why did you run away, sir? And the donkey answered, " I received a blow from some creature." Then the jackal laughed and said, " You must have experienced a delusion. There is no such creature there, for I, weak as I am, dwell there, in safety. So come along with me to that forest, where pleasure is without restraint."*[1] When he said this, the donkey was deluded, and returned to the forest. And as soon as the lion saw him, he came out of his den, and springing on him from behind, tore him with his claws and killed him. And the lion, after he had
and ff.) See also Weber's article in Indische Studien, Vol. III, p. 338. He consi- ders that the fable came to India from Greece. Cp. also De Gubernatia, Zoological Mythology, Vol. I, p. 377.
- ↑ * I have followed the Sanskrit College MS. in reading nirbádhasukham.
