ou; choose a denizen of earth like me"--They become
friends--Jackal leads him to snare--Stag is trapped--"I cannot help you,
because there is leather in the snare, and it is the Ekadashi (eleventh
day of the lunar fortnight) when I fast"--Crow advises him to feign
death--He does so, and escapes.

39.--The Monkey and the Crows

Told by SARIJU PRASAD, teacher of the school at Subhikha,
Bahraich district, Oudh.

Crows build nests in a cotton-tree (_semal_)--In the rains a Monkey
arrives soaking--Said the Crows, "We build nests with only a beak: can
you not make a better with two hands and two feet?" "Wait till
morning"--Then he tears down their nests--"Good advice given to a fool
only kindles his malice."

40.--The Swan and the Paddy-bird

Told by DEVI DIN, student, and recorded by BADARI PRASAD,
of the school at Musanagar, Cawnpur district.

No change. The lake in the original is the famous Mana Sarovar lake in
Tibet. The Swan at the end repeats this couplet:--

Bit chhoto, chit saugun, bit men chit na samae:
So murak binsat sadan, jirni bakuli nariyar khae.

("Desire is one thing, capacity is another. The desire exceeds the
power. Thus die the foolish, as did the Paddy-bird when she tried to eat
the cocoa-nut.")

The Paddy-bird is the Bagla, or Bagula, a sort of small heron (_Ardea
torra_), which frequents the banks of ponds and catches little fish and
frogs. In folk-lore, from its quaint appearance, it is the type of
demure cunning, and a sanctimonious rogue ascetic is often compared to
it.

Compare a similar tale of a crane: _J[=a]taka_, No. 236 (Cambridge
translation, ii. 161).

41.--What is a Man?

Told by _Shibba Sinh Gaur_, Brahman, resident in
Saharanpur, N.W.P.

No change, except that the order of the animals is Elephant, Camel, Ox.

Another version makes the man a carpenter--He goes away and makes a
cage--Induces the Lion to enter--Leaves him to starve.

The complaints of the animals against men form the subject of a very
amusing Hindustani book derived from the Persian, the Akhwan-us-safa.

42.--The Wound and the Scar

Told by SHAIKH FARID AHMAD, and recorded by the teacher of
the village school, Barhauli, district Bahraich, Oudh.

No change, except the Wound is dealt by the Woodman's axe, at the
command of the Lion, when first he visits him after the sickness. The
verses are--