nfully travelling along, until a hunter, who
was beating the wood for game, had overtaken him. The fellow, who was
very hungry, picked him up, fastened him on his bow-stick, and set off
for home; while the Deer, the Crow, and the Mouse, who had witnessed
the capture, followed them in terrible concern. 'Alas!' cried the
Mouse-king, 'he is gone!--and such a friend!

'Friend! gracious word!--the heart to tell is ill able
Whence came to men this jewel of a syllable.'

'Let us,' continued he to his companions, 'let us make one attempt, at
least, to rescue Slow-toes before the hunter is out of the wood!'

'Only tell us how to do it,' replied they.

'Do thus,' said Golden-skin: 'let Dapple-back hasten on to the water,
and lie down there and make himself appear dead; and do you, Light o'
Leap, hover over him and peck about his body. The hunter is sure to put
the Tortoise down to get the venison, and I will gnaw his bonds.'

'The Deer and the Crow started at once; and the hunter, who was sitting
down to rest under a tree and drinking water, soon caught sight of the
Deer, apparently dead. Drawing his wood-knife, and putting the Tortoise
down by the water, he hastened to secure the Deer, and Golden-skin, in
the meantime, gnawed asunder the string that held Slow-toes, who
instantly dropped into the pool. The Deer, of course, when the hunter
got near, sprang up and made off, and when he returned to the tree the
Tortoise was gone also. "I deserve this," thought he--

'Whoso for greater quits his gain,
Shall have his labor for his pain;
The things unwon unwon remain,
And what was won is lost again.'

And so lamenting, he went to his village. Slow-toes and his friends,
quit of all fears, repaired together to their new habitations, and there
lived happily.

Then spake the King Sudarsana's sons, "We have heard every word, and are
delighted; it fell out just as we wished."

"I rejoice thereat, my Princes," said Vishnu-Sarman; "may it also fall
out according to this my wish--

"Lakshmi give you friends like these!
Lakshmi keep your lands in ease!
Set, your sovereign thrones beside,
Policy, a winsome bride!
And He, whose forehead-jewel is the moon
Give peace to us and all--serene and soon."

[3] Used in many religious observances by the Hindoos.

[4] Heaven, earth, and the lower regions.

[5] The Hindoo accounts for the origin of evil by this theory of a
series of existenc