Indian Antiquary Vol 03

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 16

10
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
and the prince fetched some leaves and bark from the tree and offered a sacrifice, and the Bhût could remain there no longer and was driven away, and the king gave the prince his daughter in marriage. After that the prince took a maund of ghee made of dogs' milk and made a sacrifice, and took all the gold mohurs from the other Bhût. The two Bhûts then concluded that their conversation must have been overheard by some one in the well, so they determined for the future that when they sat on the trees and talked they would always examine the well carefully first.
After some days the kotwal's son came to the king's son and was very much pleased to hear all that had befallen him, and next day went and sat in the well; but the Bhûts caught him there and pulled him out, and cut him in pieces and killed him. Meanwhile the king's son ruled his kingdom in perfect happiness.
The Jackal and the Crocodile.
In the middle of a wood there is a pond near which a herd of deer used to live; in the pond was a crocodile, who used to seize one of the deer every day when they came to drink, so that they became afraid to go there. One day a jackal passing by that way saw that they were alarmed, and asked them the cause of their uneasiness; the deer replied, "Brother, our story is very sad, we will say no more about it." The jackal urged them, and at last they told him how the crocodile used to catch and eat one of them every day they went to drink. The jackal replied, "You can find no plan for yourselves, so I will tell you of one: divide yourselves into two parties and go one on each side of the pond, and when the crocodile comes to seize those on one side, those on the other side will be able to drink, and so he will never be able to catch you." So saying the jackal went away. The next time the deer went to the pond to drink they followed the advice of the jackal, and the crocodile being unable to catch them thought to himself that the jackal must have been advis ing them; so he determined to kill him, and said to himself, "Wait a while, you jackal, and see if I cannot manage to come across you somehow or other." Two or three days after that, the jackal was drinking at the pond, and the crocodile saw him directly and seized his foot tightly; but
[JANUARY, 1874.
the jackal said cunningly, "You have seized a stick which is put here for measuring the height of the water." The crocodile looked at it and thought, "It is like a stick, and it may be a stick;" and so saying he let it go;, and the jackal leaped out of the water and exclaimed, "I have escaped, or else he would have killed and eaten me." The crocodile hearing this, and feeling hungry, came out of the water to catch the jackal, and began to pursue him, but not being able to catch him that day, he returned home thinking how he could kill him; at last he determined that he would go into his house and remain there until he returned home, and then seize him and kill him. Accordingly he went and stopped there. In the evening the jackal returned home and saw that the crocodile had entered his house, and that if he did not take care he would not come out; so he called out, "O house, O house of earth, what have you to say?" The crocodile then made a noise inside, and the jackal concluded that he had entered the house and was coming out. And then he came out and pursued the jackal, but after they had gone a little way the jackal passed between two trees which grew near together, and the crocodile followed and stuck in the middle, and so he died.
The King who married a Pali* woman. There was a certain Râja who had a son whom he wished to marry, so he assembled a great many learned pandits and ordered them to consult about it ; they searched the Sastras and then with one accord replied, "Your Majesty, we fear to tell you what we have discovered." The king said, "What fear can there be to tell the truth ?" and they said "Your son will marry a Pali woman." The king was very grieved to hear it, and inquired where she lived; and they all replied, "In the city of Durbachal there is a very large tamarind tree 3300 cubits in length, and she lives beneath it." No sooner did the king's son hear this than he called a groom and ordered him to saddle a horse and bring it at once, and he mounted and rode to the tree, and underneath it he saw a house, and began to wonder whether it was the right house or not. When he drew near, he saw a Pali woman sitting at the door, so he said, "Give me a cup of water to drink," and when she came near to
Conf. Ind. Ant. vol. I. p. 336.