48
night came on, the prince was anxious to hear some more stories, and at his request, Gomukha told this story about wise creatures.
Stonj of the Crow and the King of the Pigeons, the Tortoise and the Deer*[1]:— There was in a certain forest region a great Śalmali tree; and in it there lived a crow, named Laghupátin, who had made his dwelling there. One day, as he was in his nest, he saw below the tree a terrible-looking man arrive with a stick, net in hand. And while the crow looked down from the tree, he saw that the man spread out the net on the ground, and strewed there some rice, and then hid himself.
In the meanwhile the king of the pigeons, named Chitragríva, as he was roaming through the air, attended by hundreds of pigeons, came there, and seeing the grains of rice scattered on the ground, he alighted on the net out of desire for food, and got caught in the meshes with all his attendants. When Chitragríva saw that, he said to all his followers; " Take the net in your beaks, and fly up into the air 'as fast as you can." All the terrified pigeons said,— " So be it"— and taking the net, they flew up swiftly, and began to travel through the air. The fowler too rose up, and with eye fixed upwards, returned despondent. Then Chitragríva, being relieved from his fear, said to his followers; " Let us quickly go to my friend the mouse Hiranya, he will gnaw these meshes asunder and set us at liberty." With these words he went on with those pigeons, who were dragging the net along with them, and descended from the air at the entrance of a mouse's hole. And there the king of the pigeons called the mouse, saying,— " Hiranya, come out, I, Chitragríva, have arrived." And when the mouse heard through the entrance, and saw that his friend had come, he came out from that hole with a hundred openings. The mouse went up to him, and when he had heard what had taken place, proceeded with the utmost eagerness to gnaw asunder the meshes, that kept the pigeon-king and his retinue prisoners. And when he had gnawed the meshes asunder, Chitragríva took leave of him with kind words, and flew up into the air with his companions.
And when the crow, who had followed the pigeons, saw that, he came to the entrance of the hole, and said to the mouse who had re-entered it; " I am Laghupátin, a crow; seeing that you tender your friends dearly, I
- ↑ * Benfey shows that this introduction is probably of Buddhistic origin. He quotes from Upham's Sacred and Historical books of Ceylon a story about some snipe, which escape in the same way, but owing to disunion are afterwards caught again. Cp. also Mahábhárata, V(II, 180) v. 2455 and ff, also Baldo Fab. X, in Edélestand du Méril Poesies Inéditcs, pp. 229, 230, La Fontaine, XII, 15. (Benfey, Vol. I, p. 304, and ff.) See the first book of the Hitopadeśa, (page 3, Johnson's translation) and the 2nd book of the Panchatantra (page 176, Benfey's translation). It is to be found in Rhys Davids' translation of the Játakas, which has just reached India, pp. 296— 298.
