Page:Folk-lore of the Telugus.djvu/13



I. AN UNSEASONABLE ADVICE.

In the country of Kandahar,* a certain king, Mahavira by name, at a great expense, caused a tank to be dug, two palm-trees deep and a yojana wide, and constructed a bank around it. But all the water in it dried up, notwithstanding a heavy rainfall. The king, seeing that no water remained in the tank he had constructed at so great an expense, was sitting on the bank with a grieved heart, when one Erunda Muni passed that way. The king immediately rose, went and prostrated himself before the sage, seated him, and began to converse with him; when the sage, looking at the sorrowful countenance of the king, asked him the reason for it. To which the king replied:—

"Sir, I had this tank dug at an enormous expense, but not a drop of water remains in it, and this is why I am feeling grieved."