Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 3 1885.djvu/80

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72
FOLK-TALES OF INDIA.

she looked about for traces of the jackal. He had heard their footsteps, and thought, "The goat has come, I suppose." Raising his head, he rolled his eyes and looked around. The goat seeing him do this turned back and fled, thinking "This ill-disposed creature wishes to take me in and eat me, therefore he lies feigning to be dead."

To the female jackal, who asked her why she fled, she replied in the following gâtha:

"Melikes not much the looks of thy dead lord,
From such a friend I fain would flee away."

And when she had done speaking she turned back and went straight to her own abode. The female jackal, however, unable to stop her, waxed wroth with her. Then she went and sat near her husband, grieving over her failure.

Then the jackal, upbraiding his wife, spake the following gâtha:

"Much wanting in wit is this Venî of mine;
Her husband she told what a friend she had got.
She brought her full near then let her go back,
And now doth she grieve o'er the prey she hath lost."[1]

On hearing this the goat made the following reply:—

"O husband unwise, full witless were you,
No skill did you show when Mela drew near,
You feigned to be dead, yet open'd your eyes
A little too soon your prey to secure."

However, Venî soothed Putimamsa, saying, "Don't grieve about it, husband; I'll find some means to bring her here again, and when she comes be careful and get hold of her."

She made her way to the goat, and said, "Friend, your coming with me turned out a most fortunate thing for us, for actually as soon

  1. The original of this gâtha is somewhat obscure:

    "Foolish is this Venî! she described to her husband a friend,

    She bewails Melamâtâ returning [that had] come [so far]."


    Venî was foolish because she had described Melamâtâ as a true friend, and had given her husband to understand that perfect confidence existed between the two, and that therefore the she-goat was ready to fall into the trap that was being laid for her. But as the goat ran back without coming close enough to the jackal to be caught, it would seem that this confidence did not exist, and that the goat was no real friend, inasmuch as she did not trust the jackal to the fullest extent. The male jackal, in his reproachful speech, leaves out of view that he was the real cause of the goat's running away.