Page:Folk-lore of the Telugus.djvu/128

120 Do not cake this grain.' So this rat cannot have such strength and this fixed abode here without a cause.'

While Vinakarna told this tale, Chudakarna heard it, searched and found a hole where the rat was residing. 'Why should it reside here? I shall dig it up. 'So saying he took up an axe and dug into my hole and took away all the treasure stored up from many a long day. Being sorely vexed, and unable to earn my daily bread, I was creeping sadly about when Chudakarna one day saw me and said:—"Wealth is the root of all welfare. What is the good of life without money. This rat having lost all his wealth has lost with it his original strength." When the Sannyasin said this I grew dejected and thought thus within myself:— 'It is not right for me to live here any longer. Nor is it proper to communicate my story to others. Chudakarna seeing me not quitting the place aimed a fatal blow at me with his stick which I fortunately escaped. Had it struck me I must have been for long an inhabitant of Yamaloka. So musing I left the place and came to the jungle where