an be pursued: Assemble all of you in a body
about the close of the evening, and set up one general howl in his
hearing; and I'll warrant you, the natural disposition of his species
will incline him to join in the cry for:

"'Whatever may be the natural propensity of any one is very hard to be
overcome. If a dog were made king, would he not gnaw his shoe straps?'

"And thus, the tiger discovering that he is nothing but a Jackal, will
presently put him to death."

In short, the plan was executed, and the event was just as it had been
foretold. I repeat, therefore: "The fool who forsaketh his own party
and delighteth to dwell with the opposite side, may be killed by them."

[1]A dyer's vat, in Hindostan, is a large pan sunk in the ground, often
in the little court before the dyer's house.

The Mouse Who Became a Tiger

One of low degree, having obtained a worthy station, seeketh to
destroy his master; like the mouse, who having been raised to the state
of a Tiger, went to kill the Hermit.

In a certain forest, there once dwelt a Hermit whose name was
Maha-tapa. One day seeing a young Mouse fall from the mouth of a crow
near his hermitage, out of compassion be took it up and reared it with
broken particles of rice. He now observed that the cat was seeking to
destroy it; so, by the sacred powers of a saint, he metamorphosed his
Mouse into a cat; but his cat being afraid of his dog, he changed her
into a dog; and the dog being terrified at the tiger, at length he was
transformed into a Tiger. The holy man now regarded the Tiger as no
way superior to his Mouse. But the people who came to visit the
Hermit, used to tell one another that the Tiger which they saw there
had been made so by the power of the saint, from a Mouse; and this
being overheard by the Tiger, he was very uneasy, and said to himself:
"As long as this Hermit is alive, the disgraceful story of my former
state will be brought to my ears"; saying which he went to kill his
protector; but as the holy man penetrated his design with his
supernatural eye, he reduced him to his former state of a Mouse. I
repeat, therefore: "One of low degree, having obtained a worthy
station, may seek to destroy his master."

The Brahmin and the Goat

He who, judging by what passeth in his own breast, believeth a knave
to be a person of veracity, is deceived; as the Brahmin was concerning
his Goat.

In a certain forest, a Brahmin, having determined to make an