Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/89

 crows, will be to our advantage, as the quarrel between the thief and the Rákshasa was to the advantage of the Bráhman." When Vakranása said this, the king of the owls asked his minister Prákárakarna for his opinion, and he answered him; " This Chirajívin should be treated with compassion, as he is in distress, and has applied to us for protection: in old time Śivi offered his flesh for the sake of one who sought his protection.* When the king of the owls heard this from Prákárakarna, he asked the advice of his minister Krúralochana, and he gave him the same answer.

Then the king of the owls asked a minister named Raktáksha, and he, being a discreet minister, said to him; " King, these ministers have done their best to ruin you by impolitic advice. Those, who know policy, place no confidence in the acts of a hereditary enemy. It is only a fool that, though he sees the fault, is satisfied with insincere flattery."

Story of the carpenter and his wife.† :— For once on a time there was a carpenter, who had a wife whom he loved dearly; and the carpenter heard from his neighbours that she was in love with another man; so, wishing to test the fidelity of his wife, he said to her one day: " My dear, I am by command of the king going a long journey to-day, in order to do a job, so give me barley-meal and other things as provision for the journey. She obeyed and gave him provisions, and he went out of the house; and then secretly came back into it, and with a pupil of his hid himself under the bed. As for the wife, she summoned her paramour. And while she was sitting with him on the bed, the wicked woman happened to touch her husband with her foot, and found out that he was there. And a moment after, her paramour, being puzzled, asked her which she loved the best, himself or her husband. When she heard this, the artful and treacherous woman said to that lover of hers; " I love my husband best, for his sake I would surrender my life. As for this unfaithfulness of mine, it is natural to women; they would even eat dirt, if they had no noses."

When the carpenter heard this hypocritical speech of the adulteress, he came out from under the bed, and said to his pupil; " You have seen, you are my witness to this; though my wife has betaken herself to this lover, she is still so devoted to me; so I will carry her on my head." When the silly fellow had said this, he immediately took them both up, as