Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/108

 " The fact is, prince, a fool, who spends his labour on a chimera, makes himself ridiculous."

Story of the foolish boy that went to the village for nothing.:— There was a certain foolish son of a Bráhman, and his father said to him one evening, " My son, you must go to the village early to-morrow." Having heard this, he set out in the morning, without asking his father what ho was to do, and went to the village without any object, and came back in the evening fatigued. He said to his father, " I have been to the village." " Yes, but you have not done any good by it," answered his father.

" So a fool, who acts without an object, becomes the laughing-stock of people generally; he suffers fatigue, but does not do any good." When the son of the king of Vatsa had heard from Gomukha, his chief minister, this series of tales, rich in instruction, and had declared that he was longing to obtain Śaktiyaśas, and had perceived that the night was far spent, he closed his eyes in sleep, and reposed surrounded by his ministers.

Then, the next evening, as Naraváhanadatta was again in his private apartment, longing for union with his beloved, at his request Gomukha told the following series of tales to amuse him.

Story of the Bráhman and the mungoose.* :— There was in a certain village a Bráhman, named Devaśarman; and