Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/84

 the air above, saw it, and said; "You fools, are there not other birds, cuckoos and so on, that you must make this cruel-eyed unpleasant-looking wicked bird king? Out on the inauspicious owl ! You must elect a heroic king whose name will ensure prosperity. Listen now, I will tell you a tale.

Story of the elephant, and the hare.* :— There is a great lake abounding in water, called Chandrasaras. And on its bank there lived a king of the hares, named Śilímukha. Now, once on a time, a leader of a herd of elephants, named Chaturdanta, came there to drink water, because all the other reservoirs of water were dried up in the drought that prevailed. Then many of the hares, who were the subjects of that king, were trampled to death by Chaturdanta's herd, while entering the lake. When that monarch of the herd had departed, the hare-king Śilímukha, being grieved, said to a hare named Vijaya in the presence of the others; " Now that that lord of elephants has tasted the water of this lake, he will come here again and again, and utterly destroy us all, so think of some expedient in this case. Go to him, and see if you have any artifice which will suit the purpose or not. For you know business and expedients, and are an ingenious orator. And in all cases in which you have been engaged the result has been fortunate." When despatched with these words, the hare was pleased, and went slowly on his way. And following up the track of the herd, he overtook that elephant-king and saw him, and being determined somehow or other to have an interview with the mighty beast, the wise hare climbed up to the top of a rock, and said to the elephant ; " I am the ambassador of the moon, and this is what the god says to you by my mouth; * I dwell in a cool lake named Chandrasaras; † there dwell hares whose king I am, and I love them well, and thence I am known to men as the coolrayed and the hare-marked;‡ now thou hast defiled that lake and slain those hares of mine. If thou do that again, thou shalt receive thy due recompense from me.' " When the king of elephants heard this speech of the crafty hare's, he said in his terror; " I will never do so again: I must shew respect to the awful moon-god." The hare said,— " So come, my