trail. And he pitied it because it was a baby. So he held it between his teeth and carefully carried it home, giving it to the lioness alive.
Then the lioness said: "Have you brought any food, sweetheart?" And he answered: "My dear, I didn't find a thing today except this jackal cub. Even him I did not kill, for I thought: 'He is a creature much like us, and a baby at that.’ You know the proverb:
Never strike a hermit mild,
Woman, clergyman, or child:
Give your life, if needs you must—
Do not falsify their trust.
"Now suppose you eat him, and feel better. In the morning I will bring something else."
"Sweetheart," said she, "you did not kill him because you thought: 'He is a baby.' So how can I destroy him for my belly's sake? You know the verse of Scripture:
No man may plead the death-god's might
For doing wrong, or shirking right.
So he shall be my third son."
After this reply, she gave him her own milk and made him very fat. So the three cubs spent their babyhood in the same business and amusements, not recognizing any difference in parentage.
Now one day a wild elephant came wandering into that forest. The two lion-cubs, when they saw him, wrathfully started for him, eager to kill. But
