Page:Folk-lore of the Telugus.djvu/134

126 dala had spread in his trap as a lure. Gretting upon the trap the little animal began to eat the flesh, and even got upon his enemy entangled hopelessly in it. Intent upon eating the flesh, he did not mark his own danger, until suddenly he saw another terrible foe in the person of a restless mungoose with fiery eyes, standing on his haunches, with head upraised, licking the corners of his mouth with his tongue. At the same time he beheld yet another foe sitting on a branch of the banyan tree in the shape of a sharp-beaked night-jar.

Encompassed on all sides by danger, and seeing fear in every direction, the mouse, filled with alarm for his safety, made a high resolve. Of his three enemies the cat was in dire distress, and so the mouse, conversant with the science of profit and well acquainted with the occasions on which war should be declared or peace made, gently addressed the cat, saying:—

"I address thee in friendship, cat! Art thou alive? I wish thee to live! I desire the good of us both. O amiable one, thou hast no