Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/92

 And the king of the crows, having destroyed his enemies with the help of Chirajívin, was highly delighted, and returned with his tribe of crows to his own banyan-tree. Then Chirajívin told the story of how he lived among his enemies, to king Meghavarna, the king of the crows, and said to him; " Your enemy, king, had one good minister named Raktáksha; it is because ho was infatuated by confidence, and did not act on that minister's advice, that I was allowed to remain uninjured. Because the villain did not act on his advice, thinking it was groundless, I was able to gain the confidence of the impolitic fool, and to deceive him. It was by a feigned semblance of submission that the snake entrapped and killed the frogs " Story of the snake and the frogs.* :— A certain old snake, being unable to catch frogs easily on the bank of a lake, which was frequented by men, remained there motionless. And when he was there, the frogs asked him, keeping at a safe distance; " Toll us, worthy sir, why do you no longer eat frogs as of old?" When the snake was asked this question by the frogs, he answered, " While I was pursuing a frog, I one day bit a Bráhman's son in the finger by mistake, and he died. And his father by a curse made me a bearer of frogs. So how can I eat you now? On the contrary I will carry you on my back."

When the king of the frogs heard that, he was desirous of being carried, and putting aside fear, he came out of the water, and joyfully mounted on the back of the snake. Then the snake, having gained his good-will by carrying him about with his ministers, represented himself as exhausted, and said cunningly; " I cannot go a step further without food, so give me something to eat. How can a servant exist without subsistence?" When the frog-king, who was fond of being carried about, heard this, he said to him; " Eat a few of my followers then." So the snake ate all the frogs in succession, as he pleased, and the king of the frogs put up with it, being blinded with pride at being carried about by the snake.

"Thus a fool is deceived by a wise man who worms himself into his confidence. And in the same way I ingratiated myself with your enemies and brought about their ruin. So a king must be skilled in policy and

story by Arnauld of Carcassès (Liebrecht's translation of Dunlop's History of Fiction p. 203.) Benfey thinks that this idea originally came from Greece (Panchatantra, Vol. I, p. 383.) Cp. also Pliny's account of the " incendiaria avis in Kuhn's Herabkunft des Feuer's, p. 31.