of journeying, be pleased to halt some days in this neighbourhood, that [this fatigue] may be exchanged for repose and if the case be aught else, explain it, that to the extent of my power I may exert myself to remedy it. The sparrow loosed his tongue, and represented to the salamander his piteous condition, after a fashion, that had he told it to a rock it would have been rent in pieces by his distress. COUPLET. To whomsoe'er the story I of my sad grief impart, I fresh inflict a dozen wounds upon his helpless heart. After hearing this tale, the salamander, too, felt the fire of compassion kindled, and he said, 'Grieve not! for I will this night take such measures as to consume his abode and nest and all that therein is. Do thou point out to me thy dwelling, and go to thy offspring until the time I come to thee. The sparrow indicated his dwelling in such a way as not to leave a doubt in the mind of the salamander; and with a glad heart and a mind freed from the load of grief, turned towards his own nest. When the night came on, the salamander, with a number of its own kind, each carrying a quantity of naphtha and brimstone, set off in the direction of that spot, and under the guidance of that sparrow, conveyed themselves to the vicinity of the falcon's nest. The latter unaware of that [impending] misfortune, had, with its young, eaten plentifully, and fallen asleep. The salamanders cast upon their nest all the naphtha and brimstone that they had brought with them, and turned back and the blast of divine justice having blown the flame of vengeance, fell upon those oppressors. They rose up from the sleep of negligence, at a time when the hand of prevention was unequal to the quenching of that flame; and all of them, with their abode and nest, were at once consumed to ashes. COUPLET. Oppression's flame, lit with the tyrant's breath, When it burst forth consumed him first to death. And I have given this instance that thou mayest know that every one who labors to repel an enemy, though he may be small and weak, and his foe great and strong, may yet hope for victory and triumph. Kalílah said, 'Now that the Lion has distinguished him above the rest, and has exalted the banner of his fortune; to expel the lion's attachment to him from his heart, and to alter the Lion's feelings towards him, appears very difficult; and kings, when they shew favor to any one do not disgrace him without full cause, nor cast from their sight any one whom they have exalted, unless on the occurrence of some extraordinary act.' COUPLET. Water engulfs not wood-and wherefore so? It swallows not that which itself made grow. Damnah said, 'What cause can be fuller than this, that the King has gone to excess in favoring him, and has indulged in contempt for his other ministers, till, as a necessary consequence, they have become disgusted with his service, and the advantage of their services and benefit of their advice has been cut off from him; and from this state of things great calamities are to be expected: and sages have said, danger arises to a King, and misfortune to a country, from one of six things. First, disappointment, that is to say, making his loyal subjects destitute of hope in him, and abandoning people of judgment and experience, to disgrace. Secondly, mischievous embroilment, and this may be characterised as causeless war, and the occurrence of ill-digested undertakings, and provoking hostile parties to unsheath their swords. Thirdly, sensuality, which is being passionately fond of women, and being too addicted to the chase, and engaging in drinking, and shewing an inclination for idle amusements. Fourthly, adverse fortune, being such accidents as time produces, as plague, famine, earthquakes, conflagrations and inundations, and the like. Fifthly, violence of temper, which is carrying anger to great lengths, and being excessive in tortures and punishments. Sixthly, ignorance, which is such that in a crisis that calls for peace the king has recourse to war, and at the moment for war he inclines to peace, and when he should use gentle measures he adopts roughness, and when he ought to close up the barriers of severity he opens the door of kindness.' COUPLET. Inopportunely war or peace comes ill, Let flowers or thorns the place that suits them fill. Kalílah said, 'I saw that thou hadst girded thyself for revenge, and wast lying in wait for Shanzabah; and thou wishest that some evil may befall him by what proceeds from thee; and I know that to inflict injury has no good result, and that by way of retribution, every one's mischief recoils on himself. COUPLET. All who do ill-no end but ill attain; Swift on them back the ill recoils again. And whoever will open the eye of experience, and observe the retribution of good and bad, there is no doubt that he will incline to goodness and gentleness, and will keep his hand and tongue from annoyance and injury, as the just King said.' Damnah asked, 'How was that?' STORY X. Kalílah said, 'I have heard that in former times there was a King, who had opened the hand of despotic power and oppression, and had set the foot of obstinate wickedness beyond the beaten path of justice and beneficence. COUPLET, World-burning, merciless, and prone to blood, Earth was embittered by his bitter mood. The people night and day had lifted up their hands in prayer against his injustice, and had loosed the tongue of detestation. One day this King went to the chase, and when he returned, he ordered a proclamation, saying, O people! the eye of my heart has to this day been covered with a veil from beholding the aspect of rectitude, and the hand of my transgression has drawn the scymitar of tyranny against the countenances of the despairing oppressed, and the unhappy objects of persecution. Now I have become sincerely disposed to cherish my subjects, and steadfast in the office of administration of justice. My hope is that after to-day the hand of an oppressor will not strike the ring of vexation on the door of any peasant, nor the foot of a persecutor reach the court of the dwelling of any poor man.' COUPLET. Expect not ease that realm or clime among, Where the folks' heart is by the monarch wrung. The people felt new life at these tidings, and to the poor, the rose of desire blossomed in the garden of hope. COUPLET. When this glad news its sudden influence shed, Transport the heart, and joy the soul, o'erspread. In short the felicitous influence of his justice reached such a point, that the lambs drank milk from the dugs of the savage lioness, and the pheasant sported in communion with the hawk, and on this account they bestowed on him the title of 'The Justice-dispensing King.' COUPLET. So firm the basis, he to justice set, Sulphur and flame as guard and guarded met. One of the confidential ministers of the cabinet of state, took an opportunity to ask the state of the case, and inquired into the change of the bitterness of oppression and tyranny for the sweetness of mercy and good faith. The King said, 'That day that I went to hunt, I was galloping on every side, when suddenly I observed a dog pursue a fox, and bite through the bone of his leg with his teeth :-the hapless fox escaped into a hole with a maimed leg, and the dog came back. Presently a footman threw a stone and broke the leg of that dog, and had not yet gone on a few steps, when a horse kicked the footman, and his leg was fractured, and the horse too had advanced no distance, when his foot went down in a hole and snapped.' I came to myself and said, 'Sawest thou what they did, and what they experienced? Whoever does what he ought not, suffers what he would not.' VERSE. Seek to do good, shun evil, and take heed: For as thou actest, so too shalt thou speed. Ever in good dost thou incline to tread? Thou shalt then aye behold upraised thy head. And I have hit off this example with this view, that thou mayest dread retribution, and abandon a malevolent disposition, lest disastrous results should reach thee, and the meaning [of the saying] Whoever dug a pit for his brother assuredly fell into it himself,' be manifested in thy case; and a sage has said, 'Do not evil, that thou mayest keep back evil;' dig not a pit, lest thou fall therein thyself.' Damnah said, 'In this matter I am the oppressed-not the oppressor, and I am he that suffers cruelty-not he that inflicts it; and if the oppressed should be occupied with the design of revenging himself upon his oppressor, what retribution can there be for that? and if injury should result from him to the injurer, what harm can therein ensue to him?' Kalílah said, 'Granted that by this proceeding no obstruction occurs to thy fortunes, but in what manner wilt thou exert thyself for the destruction of the Ox? since his power surpasses thine, and his friends and allies are more numerous than those who befriend and support thee.' said, 'One must not base one's proceedings on the greatness of one's strength, and the infinite number of one's allies; but prudence and counsel must be esteemed as superior to these, since it is probable that what can be effected by skill and stratagem, is unattainable by violence and force; and has it never reached thee how a Raven destroyed a Serpent by stratagem?' Kalílah said, 'How was that?' Damnah STORY XI. Damnah said, 'They have related that a Raven had taken up its abode on the side of a mountain, and had made its nest in the fissure of a rock, and in the vicinity of it was the hole of a Snake, the water of whose mouth was deadly poison and the locality of death, and the venom of the roots of whose teeth was destructive to the constitution of existence and life. Whenever the Raven had young, the Serpent devoured them, and consumed the liver of the Raven with the brand of the loss of her offspring. When the cruelty of the Serpent had passed all bounds, the Raven, reduced to despair, made complaint of her plight to a jackal who was her friend, and said, 'I am thinking how I can deliver myself from the calamity of this Snake and the affliction of this life-pursuing tyrant.' The jackal asked, 'What steps wilt thou take in this emergency? and by what artifice wilt thou get rid of his annoyance?' The Raven said, 'I intend, when the Snake is asleep, to peck out with my blood-drinking beak the eyes with which he surveys the 1 I read with the best MS. I have bad makun kih bad aftí, taking aft to be the verbal noun of afat, and to signify keeping back,' so as not to conclude both sentences with ufti, 'thou mayst fall,' according to the erroneous (as I think) reading of the lithographed and printed editions, and according to Keene's translation, which gives for the English, lest thou fall into evil.' 2 The word Damnah is, by a typographical error, omitted in the printed edition, at the beginning of the story, and also in the Index. world, that he may not be again able to attack those that are the lustre of my eyes; and that my offspring, the light of my vision, may remain secure from the wickedness of that malignant one.' The jackal said, 'This plan swerves from the right course, for wise men ought to attack their enemy in such a manner that there may be no peril of losing their life by it. Take care that thou abandonest this thought, that thou mayest not destroy thyself like the Heron who exerted himself for the destruction of the Crab, and gave his own dear life to the winds.' The Raven asked, 'How was that?' STORY XII. The jackal said, 'There was a Heron which had made its home on the margin of a piece of water, and had turned the countenance of his heart from all other objects to the pursuit of fish. In proportion to his wants he used to catch fish, and pass his life in comfort. When the infirmity of old age found its way to him, and his bodily faculties inclined to decay, he was unequal to the pursuit of fish, and being overtaken with the noose of grief, said to himself, COUPLET. Alas! the caravan of years so traceless disappear That no not e'en their dust has reached my country's atmosphere. Alas! that I have wasted in sport my precious life, and that I have not stored up anything which could afford me assistance in the season of old age, or be a support to me; and at this day my vigour has failed, yet I cannot do without victuals. My best course is to base my proceedings on artifice, and spread the snare of deceit and pretended abstinence; HEMISTICH. By this pretext I may, perhaps, live on. He then seated himself at the brink of the water, lamenting and sighing and weeping. A Crab beheld him from a distance and, advancing, accosted him familiarly, and said, 'Friend! I observe thee sorrowful, what is the reason of this?' He replied, 'How can I not be grieved, for thou knowest that the material of my sustenance and the support of my life was the one or two fishes which I daily used to catch and by which I obtained enough to keep in the breath of life, and food sufficient to prevent me from dying. No extraordinary detriment accrued to the fishes therefrom, and my days, too, were decked with tho ornament of contentment and happiness. To-day two fishermen passed by this spot, and were saying, 'In this lake there is an abundance of fish-we must settle them.' One said, 'In such a lake there 1 'Caravan' is made a noun of multitude in the text, with a plural verb; and I have accordingly given it a plural verb in English. 2 Keene translates pai mardi, 'traces of manhood,' which is indeed the etymological meaning of the word, but the Dictionary furnishes a more apt secondary signification, of which I have availed myself. |