Page:Tales of the Punjab.pdf/166

Rh NE moonlight night, a miserable half-starved jackal, skulking through the village, found a worn-out pair of shoes in the gutter.They were too tough for him to eat, so, determined to make some use of them, he strung them to his ears like earrings, and, going down to the edge of the pond, gathered all the old bones he could find together, and built a platform with them, plastering it over with mud.

On this he sat in a dignified attitude, and when any animal came to the pond to drink, he cried out in a loud voice, 'Hi! stop!You must not taste a drop till you have done homage to me.So respect these verses, which I have composed in honour of the occasion:

'Silver is his daïs, plastered o'er with gold;

In his cars are jewels,some prince I must behold!'