Page:A history of Sanskrit literature (1900), Macdonell, Arthur Anthony.djvu/385

 And another—
 * Who joins in conversation with
 * A hunter who has chased in vain,
 * Or with a fool who has become
 * Involved in ruin, comes to grief.

"The bird, however, without paying any attention to him, continually said to the monkeys, ʽHo, why this vain endeavour?ʼ So, as he did not for a moment cease to chatter, one of the monkeys, enraged at their futile efforts, seized him by the wings and dashed him against a stone. And so he (de)ceased.

"Hence I say—


 * Unbending wood cannot be bent,
 * A razor cannot cut a stone:
 * Mark this, O Needlebeak! Try not
 * To lecture him who will not learn."

A similar collection of fables is the celebrated Hitopadeça, or "Salutary Advice," which, owing to its intrinsic merit, is one of the best known and most popular works of Sanskrit literature in India, and which, because of its suitability for teaching purposes, is read by nearly all beginners of Sanskrit in England. It is based chiefly on the Panchatantra, in which twenty-five of its forty-three fables are found. The first three books of the older collection have been, in the main, drawn upon; for there is but one story, that of the ass in the tiger's skin, taken from Book IV., and only three from Book V. The introduction is similar to that of the Panchatantra, but the father of the ignorant and vicious princes is here called Sudarçana of Pāṭaliputra (Patna). The Hitopadeça is divided into four books. The framework and titles of the first two agree with the first two of the Panchatantra, but in inverted order. The third and fourth books are