When she heard this outburst, the lioness laughed quietly—for she did not wish him to die—and said:
"Handsome you are, and valorous;
You have a scholar's brain:
But in your family, my boy,
No elephants are slain.
Now listen carefully, my dear. Your mother was a jackal, and I fattened you with my own milk because I pitied you. Now while my twins are babies and do not know you for a jackal, hurry away and join your own people. If not, they will fight you, and you will tread the path of death." When the jackal heard this, he was terror stricken, and softly stole away to join his own people.
"Just so you, too, had best decamp before these veterans learn that you are a potter. If not, you will be hooted and killed." And the potter, hearing this absconded.
"And that is why I say:
The heedless trickster who forgets, . . . .
and the rest of it. Oh, fool, fool! To undertake such a thing for your wife! Never trust a woman. You must have heard the pat little anecdote:
I left my family for her;
I gave her half my life;
She leaves me now without a thought;
What man can trust his wife?"
