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" The fact is, prince, a fool, who spends his labour on a chimera, makes himself ridiculous."
Story of the foolish boy that went to the village for nothing.:— There was a certain foolish son of a Bráhman, and his father said to him one evening, " My son, you must go to the village early to-morrow." Having heard this, he set out in the morning, without asking his father what ho was to do, and went to the village without any object, and came back in the evening fatigued. He said to his father, " I have been to the village." " Yes, but you have not done any good by it," answered his father.
" So a fool, who acts without an object, becomes the laughing-stock of people generally; he suffers fatigue, but does not do any good." When the son of the king of Vatsa had heard from Gomukha, his chief minister, this series of tales, rich in instruction, and had declared that he was longing to obtain Śaktiyaśas, and had perceived that the night was far spent, he closed his eyes in sleep, and reposed surrounded by his ministers.
CHAPTER LXIV.
Then, the next evening, as Naraváhanadatta was again in his private apartment, longing for union with his beloved, at his request Gomukha told the following series of tales to amuse him.
Story of the Bráhman and the mungoose.*[1]:— There was in a certain village a Bráhman, named Devaśarman; and
- ↑ * Benfey does not appear to have been aware that this story was to be found in Somadeva's work. It is found in his Panchatantra, Vol. II, p. 326. He refers to Wolff, II, 1 ; Knatchbull, 268; Symeon Seth, 76; John of Capua, k., 4; German translation, (Ulm, 1483) R., 2; Spanish translation, XLV. a; Doni, 66; Anvár-i- Suhaili, 404; Cabinet des Fées, XVIII, 22; Baldo fab. XVI, (in Edéléstand du Méril p. 240). Hitopadeśa IV, 13, (Johnson's translation, page 116.) In Sandabar and Syntipas the animal is a dog. It appears that the word dog was also used in the Hebrew translation. John of Capua has canis for ichneumon in another passage, so perhaps he has it here. Benfey traces the story in Calumnia Novercalis C, 1 ; Historia Septem Sapientum, Bl. n.; Romans des Sept Sages, 1139; Dyocletian, Einleitung, 1212; Grässe, Gesta Romanorum II, 176; Keller, Romans, CLXXVIII; Le Grand d' Aussy, 1779, II, 303; Grimm's Märchen, 48. (Benfey, Vol. I, pp. 479—483.) To Englishmen the story suggests Llewellyn's faithful hound Gelert, from which the parish of Bethgelert in North Wales is named. This legend has been versified by the Hon'ble William Robert Spencer. It is found in the English Gosta, (see Bohn's Gesta Romanorum, introduction, page xliii.) The story (as found in the Seven Wise Masters) is admirably told in Simrock's Deutache Volksbücher, Vol. XII, p. 135. See also Baring Gould's Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, 1st Series, p. 126.
