How the Crow-Hen Killed the Black Snake

In a certain region grew a great banyan tree. In
it lived a crow and his wife, occupying the nest which
they had built. But a black snake crawled through



the hollow trunk and ate their chicks as fast as they

were born, even before baptism. Yet for all his sorrow

over this violence, the poor crow could not desert the
old familiar banyan and seek another tree. For

Three cannot be induced to

The deer, the cowardly man, the crow:

Three go when insult makes them pant
The lion, hero, elephant.


At last the crow-hen fell at her husband's feet
and said: "My dear lord, a great many children




mine have been eaten by that awful snake. And grief



for my loved and lost haunts me until I think of mov-
ing. Let us make our home in some other tree. For



No friend like health abounding
And like disease, no foe


No love like love of children;
Like hunger-pangs, no woe.



And again :



With fields o'erhanging rivers
With wife on flirting bent,
Or in a house with serpents,

No man can be content.

We are living in deadly peril/ 1

At this the crow was dreadfully depressed, and he
said: "We have lived in this tree a long time, my
dear. We cannot desert it. For



Where water may be sipped, and grass
Be cropped, a deer might live content

Yet insult will not drive him from

The wood where all his life was spent


Moreover, by some shrewd device I will bring death



upon this villainous and mighty foe.



"But," said his wife, "this is a terribly venomous
snake. How will you hurt him?" And he replied:
"My dear, even if I have not the power to hurt him,



still I have friends who possess learning, who have
mastered the works on ethics. I will go and get from
them some shrewd device of such nature that the



villain— curse him !— will soon meet his doom.


After this indignant speech he went at once to
another tree, under which lived a dear friend, a
jackal. He courteously called the jackal forth, related

his sorrow, then said: "My friend, what do you
consider opportune under the circumstances? The
killing of our children is sheer death to my wife and
me.

"My friend," said the jackal, "I have thought the
matter through. You need not put yourself out. That
villainous black snake is near his doom by reason
his heartless cruelty. For

Of means to injure brutal foes

You do not need to think,
Since of themselves they fall, like trees

Upon the river's brink.

And there is a story:

A heron ate what fish he could,
The bad, indifferent, and good;




His greed was never satisfied
Till, strangled by a crab, he died




How was that?" asked the crow. And the jackal



told the story of



THE HERON THAT LIKED CRAB-MEAT