not catch her.

While the crow was chasing the Kasaykasay, a hawk happened to pass
by the tree where the crow had left his meat. The hawk saw the meat,
and at once seized it in his claws and flew away.

Although the crow pursued the Kasaykasay a long time, he could not
overtake her: so at last he gave up his attempt, and flew back to
the tree where he had left his meat. But when he came to the spot,
and found that the meat was gone, he was almost ready to die of
disappointment and hunger. By and by the hawk which had taken the
meat passed the tree again. He called to the crow, and said to him,
"Mr. Crow, do you know that I am the one who took your meat? If not,
I will tell you now, and I am very sorry for you."

The crow did not answer the hawk, for he was so tired and weak that
he could hardly breathe.

The moral of this story is this: Do not be greedy. Be contented with
what you have, and do not wish for what you do not own.

Notes.

This fable appears to be distantly related to the European fable
of "The Dog and his Shadow." More closely connected, however,
is an apologue incorporated in a Buddhistic birth-story, the
"Culladhanuggaha-jataka," No. 374. In this Indian story,--

An unfaithful wife eloping with her lover arrives at the bank of a
stream. There the lover persuades her to strip herself, so that he
may carry her clothes across the stream, which he proceeds to do,
but never returns. Indra, seeing her plight, changes himself into
a jackal bearing a piece of meat, and goes down to the bank of the
stream. In its waters fish are disporting; and the Indra-jackal, laying
aside his meat, plunges in after one of them. A vulture hovering
near seizes hold of the meat and bears it aloft; and the jackal,
returning unsuccessful from his fishing, is taunted by the woman,
who had observed all this, in the first gatha:--

"O jackal so brown! most stupid are you;
No skill have you got, not knowledge, nor wit;
Your fish you have lost, your meat is all gone,
And now you sit grieving all poor and forlorn."

To which the Indra-jackal repeats the second gatha:--

"The faults of others are easy to see,
But hard indeed our own are to behold;
Thy husband thou hast lost, and lover eke,
And now, I ween, thou grievest o'er thy loss."

The same story is found in the "Pancatantra" (V, viii; see Benfey,
I : 468), whence it made its way into the "Tuti-n