Hindu literature : Comprising The Book of good counsels, Nala and Damayanti, The Ramayana, and Sakoontala
Hindu literature : Comprising The Book of good counsels, Nala and Damayanti, The Ramayana, and Sakoontala-4
'Simple milk, when serpents drink it, straightway into venom turns;
And a fool who heareth counsel all the wisdom of it spurns.'
For, indeed, no reflecting person wastes time in admonishing
blockheads—
'The birds that took the apes to teaching,
Lost eggs and nests in pay for preaching.'
'How did that befall?' asked the King.
The Crane related:—
The Story of the Weaver-Birds and the Monkeys
"In a nullah that leads down to the Nerbudda river there stood a large
silk-cotton tree, where a colony of weaver-birds had built their hanging
nests, and lived snugly in them, whatever the weather. It was in the
rainy season, when the heavens are overlaid with clouds like
indigo-sheets, and a tremendous storm of water was falling. The birds
looked out from their nests, and saw some monkeys, shivering and starved
with the cold, standing under a tree. 'Twit! twit! you Monkeys,' they
began to chirrup. 'Listen to us!—
'With beaks we built these nests, of fibres scattered;
You that have hands and feet, build, or be spattered.'
On hearing that the Monkeys were by no means pleased. 'Ho! ho!' said
they, 'the Birds in their snug nests are jeering at us; wait till the
rain is over,' Accordingly, so soon as the weather mended, the Monkeys
climbed into the tree, and broke all the birds' eggs and demolished
every nest. I ought to have known better,' concluded the Crane, 'than to
have wasted my suggestions on King Jewel-plume's creatures.'
'But what did they say?' asked Silver-sides.
'They said, Rajah,' answered the Crane, 'who made that Swan of thine a
King?'
'And what was your reply?' asked Silver-sides.
'I demanded,' replied the Crane, 'who made a King of that Peacock of
theirs. Thereupon they were ready to kill me for rage; but I displayed
my very best valor. Is it not written—
'A modest manner fits a maid,
And Patience is a man's adorning;
But brides may kiss, nor do amiss,
And men may draw, at scathe and scorning.'
'Yet a man should measure his own strength first,' said the Rajah,
smiling; 'how did you fare against King Jewel-plume's fellows?'
'Very scurvily,' replied Long-bill. "Thou rascal Crane," they cried,
"dost thou feed on his soil, and revile our Sovereign? That is past
bearing!" And thereat they all pecked at me. Then they began again:
"Thou thick-skulled Crane! that King of thine is a goose—a web-footed
lord of littleness—and thou art but a frog in a well to bid us serve
him—- him forsooth!—
'Serving narrow-minded masters dwarfs high natures to their size:—
Seen before a convex mirror, elephants do show as mice.'
Bad kings are only strong enough to spoil good vassals—as a fiction
once was mightier than a herd of elephants. You know it, don't you?—
'Mighty may prove things insignificant:—
A tale of moonshine turned an elephant.'
'No! how was that?' I asked.
The birds related—
The Story of the Old Hare and the Elephants
"Once on a time, very little rain had fallen in the due season; and the
Elephants being oppressed with thirst, thus accosted their
leader:—'Master, how are we to live? The small creatures find something
to wash in, but we cannot, and we are half dead in consequence; whither
shall we go then, and what shall we do?' Upon that the King of the
Elephants led them away a little space; and showed them a beautiful pool
of crystal water, where they took their ease. Now it chanced that a
company of Hares resided on the banks of the pool, and the going and
coming of the elephants trampled many of them to death, till one of
their number named Hard-head grumbled out, 'This troop will be coming
here to water every day, and every one of our family will be crushed.'
'Do not disquiet yourself,' said an old buck named Good-speed, 'I will
contrive to avert it,' and so saying, he set off, bethinking himself on
his way how he should approach and accost a herd of elephants; for,
'Elephants destroy by touching, snakes with point of tooth beguile;
Kings by favor kill, and traitors murder with a fatal smile.'
'I will get on the top of a hill,' he thought, 'and address the
Elephants thence.'
"This being done, and the Lord of the herd perceiving him, it was asked
of the Hare, 'Who art thou? and whence comest thou?'
'I am an ambassador from his Godship the Moon,' replied Good-speed.
'State your business,' said the Elephant-king.
'Sire,' began the Hare, 'an ambassador speaks the truth safely by
charter of his name. Thus saith the Moon, then: "These hares were the
guardians of my pool, and thine elephants in coming thither have scared
them away. This is not well. Am I not Sasanka, whose banner bears a
hare, and are not these hares my votaries?"'
'Please your worship,' said the Elephant-king with much trepidation, 'we
knew nothing of this; we will go there no more.'
'It were well,' said the sham ambassador, 'that you first made your
apologies to the Divinity, who is quaking with rage in his pool, and
then went about your business.'
'We will do so,' replied the Elephant with meekness; and being led by
night to the pool, in the ripples of which the image of the Moon was
quivering, the herd made their prostrations; the Hare explaining to the
Moon that their fault was done in ignorance, and thereupon they got
their dismissal.'
'Nay,' I said, 'my Sovereign is no fiction, but a great King and a
noble, and one that might govern the Three Worlds, much more a kingdom,'
'Thou shalt talk thy treason in the presence,' they cried; and therewith
I was dragged before King Jewel-plume.
'Who is this?' asked the Rajah.
'He is a servant of King Silver-sides, of the Island of Camphor,' they
replied; 'and he slights your Majesty, on your Majesty's own land.'
'Sirrah Crane!' said the Prime Minister, a Vulture, 'who is chief
officer in that court?'
'A Brahmany Goose,' I answered, 'named "Know-all"; and he does know
every possible science.'
'Sire,' broke in a Parrot, 'this Camphor-isle and the rest are poor
places, and belong to Jambudwipa. Your Majesty has but to plant the
royal foot upon them.'
'Oh! of course,' said the King.
'Nay,' said I, 'if talking makes your Majesty King of Camphor-island, my
Liege may be lord of Jambudwipa by a better title.'
'And that?' said the Parrot.
'Is fighting!' I responded.
'Good!' said the King, with a smile; 'bid your people prepare for war.'
'Not so,' I replied; 'but send your own ambassador.'
'Who will bear the message?' asked the Rajah. 'He should be loyal,
dexterous, and bold.'
'And virtuous,' said the Vulture, 'and therefore a Brahman:—
'Better Virtue marked a herald than that noble blood should deck;
Shiva reigns forever Shiva while the sea-wave stains his neck.'
'Then let the Parrot be appointed,' said the Rajah.
'I am your Majesty's humble servant,' replied the Parrot; 'but this
Crane is a bad character, and with the bad I never like to travel. The
ten-headed Ravana carried off the wife of Ramchundra! It does not do,
'With evil people neither stay nor go;
The Heron died for being with the Crow.'
'How did that befall?' asked the King. The Parrot related:—
The Story of the Heron and the Crow
'The high-road to Oogein is a very unshaded and sultry one; but there
stands upon it one large Peepul-tree, and therein a Crow and a Heron had
their residence together. It was in the hot weather that a tired
traveller passed that way, and, for the sake of the shade, he laid his
bow and arrows down, and dropped asleep under the tree. Before long the
shadow of the tree shifted, and left his face exposed to the glare;
which the Heron perceiving, like the kindly bird he was, perched on the
Peepul-tree, and spread his wings out so as to cast a shadow on the
traveller's face. There the poor fellow, weary with his travel,
continued to sleep soundly, and snored away comfortably with open mouth.
The sight of his enjoyment was too much for the malevolent Crow, who,
perching over him, dropped an unwelcome morsel into the sleeper's mouth,
and straightway flew off. The traveller, starting from his slumber,
looked about, and, seeing no bird but the Heron, he fitted an arrow and
shot him dead. No!' concluded the Parrot, 'I like the society of honest
folk.'
'But why these words, my brother?' I said; 'his Majesty's herald is to
me even as his Majesty.'
'Very fine!' replied the Parrot; 'but—
'Kindly courtesies that issue from a smiling villain's mouth
Serve to startle, like a flower blossoming in time of drouth.'
Needs must that thou art a bad man; for by thy talk war will have
arisen, which a little conciliation had averted:—
'Conciliation!—weapon of the wise!
Wheedled therewith, by woman's quick device,
The Wheelwright let his ears betray his eyes.'
'How came that about?' asked the King. The Parrot related:—
The Story of the Appeased Wheelwright
"There was a Wheelwright in Shri-nuggur, whose name was 'Heavy-head,' He
had good reason to suspect the infidelity of his wife, but he had no
absolute proof of it. One day he gave out that he should go to a
neighboring town, and he started accordingly; but he went a very little
way, and then returning, hid himself in his wife's chamber. She being
quite satisfied that he was really gone away, invited her gallant to
pass the evening with her, and began to spend it with him in
unrestrained freedom. Presently, by chance, she detected the presence of
her husband, and her manner instantly changed.
'Life of my soul! what ails you?' said her lover; 'you are quite dull
to-night.'
'I am dull,' she replied,' because the lord of my life is gone. Without
my husband the town is a wilderness. Who knows what may befall him, and
whether he will have a nice supper?'
'Trouble thyself no more about the quarrelsome dullard,' said her
gallant.
'Dullard, quotha!' exclaimed the wife. 'What matter what he is, since he
is my all? Knowest thou not—
'Of the wife the lord is jewel, though no gems upon her beam;
Lacking him, she lacks adornment, howsoe'er her jewels gleam?'
Thou, and the like of thee, may serve a whim, as we chew a betel-leaf
and trifle with a flower; but my husband is my master, and can do with
me as he will. My life is wrapped up in him—and when he dies, alas! I
will certainly die too. Is it not plainly said—
'Hairs three-crore, and half-a-crore hairs, on a man so many grow—
And so many years to Swerga shall the true wife surely go?'
And better still is promised; as herein—
'When the faithful wife, embracing tenderly her husband dead,
Mounts the blazing pile beside him, as it were the bridal-bed;
Though his sins were twenty thousand, twenty thousand times o'er-told,
She shall bring his soul to splendor, for her love so large and bold.'
All this the Wheelwright heard. 'What a lucky fellow I am,' he thought,
'to have a wife so virtuous,' and rushing from his place of concealment,
he exclaimed in ecstasy to his wife's gallant, 'Sir I saw you ever truer
wife than mine?'
'When the story was concluded,' said Long-bill, 'the King, with a
gracious gift of food, sent me off before the Parrot; but he is coming
after me, and it is now for your Majesty to determine as it shall please
you.'
'My Liege,' observed the Brahmany-goose with a sneer, 'the Crane has
done the King's business in foreign parts to the best of his power,
which is that of a fool.'
"Let the past pass," replied the King, "and take thought for the
present."
"Be it in secret, then, your Majesty," said the Brahmany-goose—
'Counsel unto six ears spoken, unto all is notified:—
When a King holds consultation, let it be with one beside,'
Thereupon all withdrew, but the Rajah and the Minister.
'What think you?' said Silver-sides.
'That the Crane has been employed to bring this about,' replied the
other.
'What shall we do?' asked the King.
'Despatch two spies—the first to inform and send back the other, and
make us know the enemy's strength or weakness. They must be such as can
travel by land and water, so the Crane will serve for one, and we will
keep his family in pledge at the King's gate. The other must be a very
reserved character; as it is said—
'Sick men are for skilful leeches—prodigals for prisoning—
Fools for teachers—and the man who keeps a secret, for a King,'
'I know such a one,' said his Majesty, after a pause.
'It is half the victory,' responded the Minister.
At this juncture a chamberlain entered with a profound obeisance, and
announced the arrival from Jambudwipa of the Parrot.
'Let him be shown to a reception-room,' commanded the Goose, in reply to
a look from the King. 'He shall presently have audience.'
'War is pronounced, then,' said the King, as the attendant withdrew.
'It is offered, my Liege; but must not be rashly accepted,' replied the
other—
'With gift, craft, promise, cause thy foe to yield;
When these have failed thee, challenge him a-field.'
To gain time for expedients is the first point. Expedients are good for
great and little matters equally, like
'The subtle wash of waves, that smoothly pass,
But lay the tree as lowly as the grass.'
Let his Excellency the Parrot, then, be cajoled and detained here, while
we place our fort in condition to be useful. Is it not said—
'Ten true bowmen on a rampart fifty's onset may sustain;
Fortalices keep a country more than armies in the plain?'
And your Majesty,' continued the Goose, 'will recall the points of a
good fortress—
'Build it strong, and build it spacious, with an entry and retreat;
Store it well with wood and water, fill its garners full with wheat.'
'Whom, then, shall we entrust with this work?' asked King Silver-sides.
'The Paddy-bird is a good bird, and a skilful,' replied his
Minister.
'Let him be summoned!' said the King. And upon the entrance of the
Paddy-bird, the superintendence of the fortress was committed to him,
and accepted with a low prostration.
'As to the fort, Sire!' remarked the Paddy-bird, 'it exists already in
yonder large pool; the thing is to store the island in the middle of it
with provisions—
'Gems will no man's life sustain;
Best of gold is golden grain.'
'Good!' said King Silver-sides; 'let it be looked to.' Thereupon, as the
Paddy-bird was retiring, the Usher entered again, and making
prostration, said: 'May it please your Majesty, the King of all the
Crows, Night-cloud by name, has just arrived from Singhala-dwipa, and
desires to lay his homage at your Majesty's feet.'
'He is a wise bird, and a far-travelled,' said the King; 'I think we
must give him audience.'
Nevertheless, Sire,' interrupted the Goose, 'we must not forget that he
is a land-bird, and therefore not to be received as a water-fowl. Your
royal memory doubtless retains the story of
'The Jackal's fate, who being colored blue,
Leaving his party, left his own life too.'
'No! How was that?' asked King Silver-sides. The Goose related—
The Story of the Dyed Jackal
"A Jackal once on a time, as he was prowling about the suburbs of a
town, slipped into an indigo-tank; and not being able to get out he laid
himself down so as to be taken for dead. The dyer presently coming and
finding what seemed a dead Jackal, carried him into the jungle and then
flung him away. Left to himself, the Jackal found his natural color
changed to a splendid blue. 'Really,' he reflected, 'I am now of a most
magnificent tint; why should I not make it conduce to my elevation?'
With this view, he assembled the other Jackals, and thus harangued
them:—
'Good people, the Goddess of the Wood, with her own divine hand, and
with every magical herb of the forest, has anointed me King. Behold the
complexion of royalty!—and henceforward transact nothing without my
imperial permission."
"The Jackals, overcome by so distinguished a color, could do nothing but
prostrate themselves and promise obedience. His reign, thus begun,
extended in time to the lions and tigers; and with these high-born
attendants he allowed himself to despise the Jackals, keeping his own
kindred at a distance, as though ashamed of them. The Jackals were
indignant, but an old beast of their number thus consoled them:—
"Leave the impudent fellow to me. I will contrive his ruin. These tigers
and the rest think him a King, because he is colored blue; we must show
them his true colors. Do this, now!—in the evening-time come close
about him, and set up a great yell together—he is sure to join in, as
he used to do—
'Hard it is to conquer nature: if a dog were made a King,
Mid the coronation trumpets, he would gnaw his sandal-string.'
And when he yells the Tigers will know him for a Jackal and fall upon
him.'
'The thing befell exactly so, and the Jackal,' concluded the Minister,
'met the fate of one who leaves his proper party.'
'Still,' said the King, 'the Crow has come a long way, and we might see
him, I think.'
'Admit the Parrot first, Sire,' said the Goose; 'the fort has been put
in order and the spy despatched.'
"Thereupon a Court was called, and the Parrot introduced, followed by
Night-cloud, the Crow. A seat was offered to the parrot, who took it,
and, with his beak in the air, thus delivered his mission:—
'King Silver-sides!—My master, the King Jewel-plume, Lord of Lords,
bids thee, if life and lands be dear to thee, to come and make homage at
his august feet; and failing this to get thee gone from Camphor-island.'
'S'death!' exclaimed the Rajah, 'is there none that will silence this
traitor?'
'Give the sign, your Majesty,' said the Crow, starting up, and I will
despatch this audacious bird.'
'Sir,' said the Goose, 'be calm! and Sire, deign to listen—
'Tis no Council where no Sage is—'tis no Sage that fears not Law;
'Tis no Law which Truth confirms not—'tis no Truth which Fear can awe.'
An ambassador must speak unthreatened—
'Though base be the Herald, nor hinder nor let,
For the mouth of a king is he;
The sword may be whet, and the battle set,
But the word of his message is free.'
Thereat the Rajah and Night-cloud resumed their composure; and the
Parrot took his departure, escorted by the Minister, and presented with
complimentary gifts of gold and jewels. On reaching the palace of
Jewel-plume, the King demanded his tidings, and inquired of the country
he had visited.
'War must be prepared, may it please you,' said the Parrot: 'the
country is a country of Paradise.'
'Prepare for war, then!' said the King.
'We must not enter on it in the face of destiny,' interposed the
Vulture-Minister, whose title was 'Far-sight.'
'Let the Astrologer then discover a favorable conjuncture for the
expedition, and let my forces be reviewed meantime,' said the King.
'We must not march without great circumspection,' observed Far-sight.
'Minister!' exclaimed the King, 'you chafe me. Say, however, with what
force we should set out.'
'It should be well selected, rather than unwieldy,' replied the
Vulture—
'Better few and chosen fighters than of shaven crowns a host,
For in headlong flight confounded, with the base the brave are lost.'
And its commanders must be judiciously appointed; for it is said—
'Ever absent, harsh, unjustly portioning the captured prey—
These, and cold or laggard leaders make a host to melt away.'
'Ah!' interrupted the Rajah, 'what need of so much talk? We will go,
and, if Váchaspati please, we will conquer.'
Shortly afterwards the Spy returned to Camphor-island. 'King
Silver-sides,' he cried, 'the Rajah, Jewel-plume, is on his way hither,
and has reached the Ghauts. Let the fort be manned, for that Vulture is
a great minister; and I have learned, too, that there is one among us
who is in his pay.'
'King!' said the Goose, 'that must be the Crow.'
'But whence, then, did he show such willingness to punish the Parrot?'
objected his Majesty. 'Besides, war was declared long after the Crow
came to Court.'
'I misdoubt him,' said the Minister, 'because he is a stranger.'
'But strangers surely may be well-disposed,' replied the King. 'How say
the books?—
'Kind is kin, howe'er a stranger—kin unkind is stranger shown;
Sores hurt, though the body breeds them—drugs relieve, though desert-grown.'
Have you never heard of King Sudraka and the unknown Servant, who gave
his son's life for the King?
'Never,' answered the Goose.
The Story of the Faithful Rajpoot
"I will tell you the tale," said the King, "as I heard it from
'Lilyflower,' daughter of the Flamingo 'White-flag,' of whom I was once
very fond:—A soldier presented himself one morning at King Sudraka's
gate, and bade the porter procure an audience for 'Vira-vara, a
Rajpoot,' who sought employment. Being admitted to the presence, he
thus addressed the King:—
'If your Highness needs an attendant, behold one!'
'What pay do you ask?' inquired the King.
'Five hundred pieces of gold a day,' said Vira-vara.
'And your accoutrements?' asked the King.
'Are these two arms, and this sabre, which serve for a third,' said
Vira-vara, rolling up his sleeve.
'I cannot entertain you,' rejoined his Majesty; and thereupon the
Rajpoot made salaam, and withdrew. Then said the Ministers, 'If it
please your Majesty, the stipend is excessive, but give him pay for four
days, and see wherein he may deserve it.' Accordingly, the Rajpoot was
recalled, and received wages for four days, with the complimentary
betel.—Ah! the rare betel! Truly say the wise of it—
'Betel-nut is bitter, hot, sweet, spicy, binding, alkaline—
A demulcent—an astringent—foe to evils intestine;
Giving to the breath a fragrance—to the lips a crimson red;
A detergent, and a kindler of Love's flame that lieth dead.
Praise the gods for the good Betel!—these be thirteen virtues given,
Hard to meet in one thing blended, even in their happy heaven.'
'Now the King narrowly watched the spending of Vira-vara's pay, and
discovered that he bestowed half in the service of the Gods and the
support of Brahmans, a fourth part in relieving the poor, and reserved a
fourth for his sustenance and recreation. This daily division made, he
would take his stand with his sabre at the gate of the palace; retiring
only upon receiving the royal permission.
'It was on the fourteenth night of the dark half of the month that King
Sudraka heard below a sound of passionate sobbing. 'Ho! there,' he
cried, 'who waits at the gate?'
'I,' replied Vira-vara, 'may it please you.'
'Go and learn what means this weeping,' said the King.
'I go, your Majesty, answered the Rajpoot, and therewith departed.
'No sooner was he gone than the King repented him of sending one man
alone into a night so dark that a bodkin might pierce a hole in it, and
girding on his scimitar, he followed his guard beyond the city gates.
When Vira-vara had gone thus far he encountered a beautiful and
splendidly dressed lady who was weeping bitterly; and accosting her, he
requested to know her name, and why she thus lamented.
'I am the Fortune of the King Sudraka,' answered she; 'a long while I
have lived happily in the shadow of his arm; but on the third day he
will die, and I must depart, and therefore lament I.'
'Can nothing serve, Divine Lady, to prolong thy stay?' asked the
Rajpoot.
'It might be,' replied the Spirit, 'if thou shouldst cut off the head of
thy first-born Shaktidhar, that hath on his body the thirty-two
auspicious marks of greatness. Were his head offered to the all-helpful
Durga, the Rajah should live a hundred years, and I might tarry beside
him.'
'So speaking, she disappeared, and Vira-vara retraced his steps to his
own house and awoke his wife and son. They arose, and listened with
attention until Vira-vara had repeated all the words of the vision. When
he had finished, Shaktidhar exclaimed, 'I am thrice happy to be able to
save the state of the King. Kill me, my father, and linger not; to give
my life in such a cause is good indeed,' 'Yes,' said the Mother, 'it is
good, and worthy of our blood; how else should we deserve the King's
pay?' Being thus agreed, they repaired together at once to the temple of
the Goddess Durga, and having paid their devotions and entreated the
favor of the deity on behalf of the King, Vira-vara struck off his son's
head, and laid it as an offering upon the shrine. That done, Vira-vara
said, 'My service to the King is accomplished, and life without my boy
is but a burden,' and therewith he plunged his sword in his own breast
and fell dead. Overpowered with grief for her husband and child, the
mother also withdrew the twice-blooded weapon, and slew herself with it
on the bodies of Vira-vara and Shaktidhar.
'All this was heard and seen by King Sudraka, and he stood aghast at the
sad sight. 'Woe is me!' he exclaimed—
'Kings may come, and Kings may go;
What was I, to bring these low?
Souls so noble, slain for me,
Were not, and will never be!'
What reck I of my realm, having lost these?' and thereat he drew his
scimitar to take his own life also. At that moment there appeared to him
the Goddess, who is Mistress of all men's fortunes. 'Son,' said she,
staying his lifted hand, 'forbear thy rash purpose, and bethink thee of
thy kingdom.'
"The Rajah fell prostrate before her, and cried—'O Goddess! I am done
with life and wealth and kingdom! If thou hast compassion on me, let my
death restore these faithful ones to life; anywise I follow the path
they have marked,' 'Son,' replied the Goddess, 'thine affection is
pleasing to me: be it as thou wilt! The Rajpoot and his house shall be
rendered alive to thee.' Then the King departed, and presently saw
Vira-vara return, and take up again his station as before at the
palace-gate.
'Ho! there, Vira-vara!' cried the King, 'what meant the weeping?'
'Let your Majesty rest well!' answered the Rajpoot, 'it was a woman who
wept, and disappeared on my approach.' This answer completed the Rajah's
astonishment and delight; for we know—
'He is brave whose tongue is silent of the trophies of his sword;
He is great whose quiet bearing marks his greatness well assured.'
So when the day was come, he called a full council, and, declaring
therein all the events of the night, he invested the faithful guard with
the sovereignty of the Carnatic.
"Thus, then," concluded King Silver-sides, "in entertaining strangers a
man may add to his friends."
"It may well be," replied the Goose; "but a Minister should advise what
is expedient, and not what is pleasing in sentiment:—
'When the Priest, the Leech, the Vizir of a King his flatterers be,
Very soon the King will part with health, and wealth, and piety.'
'Let it pass, then,' said Silver-sides, 'and turn we to the matter in
hand. King Jewel-plume is even now pitched under the Ghauts. What think
you?'
'That we shall vanquish him,' replied the Goose; 'for he disregards, as
I learn, the counsel of that great statesman, the Vulture Far-sight; and
the wise have said—
'Merciless, or money-loving, deaf to counsel, false of faith,
Thoughtless, spiritless, or careless, changing course with every breath,
Or the man who scorns his rival—if a prince should choose a foe,
Ripe for meeting and defeating, certes he would choose him so.
He is marching without due preparation; let us send the Paddy-bird at
the head of a force and attack him on his march."
Accordingly the Paddy-bird, setting out with a force of water-fowl, fell
upon the host of the Peacock-king, and did immense execution.
Disheartened thereat, King Jewel-plume summoned Far-sight, his Minister,
and acknowledged to him his precipitation.
'Wherefore do you abandon us, my father?' he said. 'Correct for us what
has been done amiss.
'My Liege,' replied the Vulture, 'it has been well observed—
'By the valorous and unskilful great achievements are not wrought;
Courage, led by careful Prudence, unto highest ends is brought.'
You have set Strength in the seat of Counsel, your Majesty, and he hath
clumsily spoiled your plans. How indeed could it fall otherwise? for—
'Grief kills gladness, winter summer, midnight-gloom the light of day,
Kindnesses ingratitude, and pleasant friends drive pain away;
Each ends each, but none of other surer conquerors can be
Than Impolicy of Fortune—of Misfortune Policy.'
I have said to myself, 'My Prince's understanding is affected—how else
would he obscure the moonlight of policy with the night-vapors of talk;'
in such a mood I cannot help him—
'Wisdom answers all who ask her, but a fool she cannot aid;
Blind men in the faithful mirror see not their reflection made.'
And therefore I have been absent.'
'My father!' said the King, joining his palms in respect, 'mine is all
the fault! Pardon it, and instruct me how to withdraw my army without
further loss.'
Then the Vulture's anger melted, and he reflected—
'Where the Gods are, or thy Guru—in the face of Pain and Age,
Cattle, Brahmans, Kings, and Children—reverently curb thy rage.'
And with a benignant smile, he answered the King thus, 'Be of good
heart, my Liege; thou shalt not only bring the host back safely, but
thou shalt first destroy the castle of King Silver-sides.'
'How can that be, with my diminished forces?' asked the Rajah.
'It will come to pass!' answered the Vulture. 'Break up to-day for the
blockade of the fort.'
Now, when this was reported by the spies to King Silver-sides, he was
greatly alarmed. 'Good Goose!' said he, 'what is to be done? Here is the
King of the Peacocks at hand, to blockade us—by his Minister's advice,
too.'
'Sire,' replied the Goose, 'separate the efficient and the inefficient
in your force; and stimulate the loyalty of the first, with a royal
bounty of gold and dresses, as each may seem to merit. Now is the time
for it—
'Oh, my Prince! on eight occasions prodigality is none—
In the solemn sacrificing, at the wedding of a son,
When the glittering treasure given makes the proud invader bleed,
Or its lustre bringeth comfort to the people in their need,
Or when kinsmen are to succor, or a worthy work to end,
Or to do a mistress honor, or to welcome back a friend.'
'But is this expenditure needed?' said the King.
'It is needed, my Liege,' said the Goose, 'and it befits a Monarch;
for—
'Truth, munificence, and valor, are the virtues of a King;
Royalty, devoid of either, sinks to a rejected thing.'
'Let it be incurred then!' replied the King.
At this moment Night-cloud, the Crow, made his appearance. 'Deign me one
regard, Sire,' said he, 'the insolent enemy is at our gates; let your
Majesty give the word, and I will go forth and show my valor and
devotion to your Crown.'
'It were better to keep our cover,' said the Goose. 'Wherefore else
builded we this fortalice? Is it not said?—
'Hold thy vantage!—alligators on the land make none afraid;
And the lion's but a jackal that hath left his forest-shade.'
But go, your Majesty, and encourage our warriors." Thereupon they
repaired to the Gateway of the Fort, and all day the battle raged there.
It was the morning after, when King Jewel-plume spake thus to his
Minister the Vulture—'Good sir, shall thy promise be kept to us?'