The Kathá Sarit Ságara; or, Ocean of the Streams of Story
next day, thus reflected:--"I require water and fire, for bathing,
burning incense, and other purposes; so I will put them together,
that I may quickly obtain them when I want them." Thus reflecting, he
threw the fire into the pitcher of water, and then went to bed. And
in the morning, when he came to look, the fire was extinct, and the
water was spoiled. And when he saw the water blackened with charcoal,
his face was blackened also, and the faces of the amused people were
wreathed in smiles.
"You have heard the story of the man who was famous on account of
the pitcher of fire, now hear the story of the nose-engrafter."
Story of the man who tried to improve his wife's nose.
There lived in some place or other a foolish man of bewildered
intellect. He, seeing that his wife was flat-nosed, and that his
spiritual instructor was high-nosed, [50] cut off the nose of the
latter when he was asleep: and then he went and cut off his wife's
nose, and stuck the nose of his spiritual instructor on her face,
but it would not grow there. Thus he deprived both his wife and his
spiritual guide of their noses.
"Now hear the story of the herdsman who lived in a forest."
Story of the foolish herdsman.
There lived in a forest a rich but silly herdsman. Many rogues
conspired together and made friends with him. They said to him,
"We have asked the daughter of a rich inhabitant of the town in
marriage for you, and her father has promised to give her. When he
heard that, he was pleased and gave them wealth, and after a few days
they came again and said, "Your marriage has taken place." He was very
much pleased at that, and gave them abundance of wealth. And after
some more days they said to him: "A son has been born to you." He
was in ecstasies at that, and he gave them all his wealth, like
the fool that he was, and the next day he began to lament, saying,
"I am longing to see my son." And when the herdsman began to cry,
he incurred the ridicule of the people on account of his having been
cheated by the rogues, as if he had acquired the stupidity of cattle
from having so much to do with them.
"You have heard of the herdsman; now hear the story of the
ornament-hanger."
Story of the fool and the ornaments. [51]
A certain villager, while digging up the ground, found a splendid
set of ornaments, which thieves had taken from the palace and placed
there. He immediately took them and decorated his wife with them;
he put the girdle on her head, and the necklace round her waist,
and the anklets on her wrists, and the bracelets on her ears.
When the people heard of it, they laughed, and bruited it about. So the
king came to hear of it, and took away from the villager the ornaments,
which belonged to himself, but let the villager go unharmed, because
he was as stupid as an animal.
Story of the Fool and the Cotton. [52]
I have told you, prince, of the ornament-finder, now hear the story
of the cotton-grower. A certain blockhead went to the market to
sell cotton, but no one would buy it from him on the ground that
it was not properly cleaned. In the meanwhile he saw in the bazar
a goldsmith selling gold, which he had purified by heating it, and
he saw it taken by a customer. When the stupid creature saw that,
he threw the cotton into the fire in order to purify it, and when it
was burnt up, the people laughed at him.
"You have heard, prince, this story of the cotton-grower, now hear
the story of the men who cut down the palm-trees."
Story of the Foolish Villagers who cut down the palm-trees.
Some foolish villagers were summoned by the king's officers, and
set to work to gather some dates in accordance with an order from
the king's court. [53] They, perceiving that it was very easy to
gather the dates of one date-palm that had tumbled down of itself,
cut down all the date-palms in their village. And after they had
laid them low, they gathered from them their whole crop of dates,
and then they raised them up and planted them again, but they did not
succeed in making them grow. And then, when they brought the dates,
they were not rewarded, but on the contrary punished with a fine by
the king, who had heard of the cutting down of the trees. [54]
"I have told you this joke about the dates, now I am going to tell
you about the looking for treasure."
Story of the Treasure-finder who was blinded.
A certain king took to himself a treasure-finder. And the wicked
minister of that king had both the eyes of the man, who was able to
find the places where treasure was deposited, torn out, in order that
he might not run away anywhere. The consequence was that, being blind,
he was incapacitated from seeing the indications of treasure in the
earth, whether he ran away or remained; and people, seeing that,
[55] laughed at the silly minister.
"You have heard of the searching for treasure, now hear about the
eating of salt."
Story of the Fool and the Salt.
There was once on a time an impenetrably stupid man living in
a village. [56] He was once taken home by a friend who lived in
the city, and was regaled on curry and other food, made savoury by
salt. And that blockhead asked, "What makes this food so savoury?" His
friend told him that its relish was principally due to salt. He came
to the conclusion that salt was the proper thing to eat, so he took
a handful of crushed salt and threw it into his mouth, and ate it;
the powdered salt whitened the lips and beard of the foolish fellow,
and so the people laughed at him till his face became white also.
"You have heard, prince, the story of the devourer of salt, now hear
the story of the man who had a milch-cow."
Story of the Fool and his Milch-cow. [57]
There was once on a time a certain foolish villager, and he had one
cow. And that cow gave him every day a hundred palas of milk. And once
on a time it happened that a feast was approaching. So he thought;
"I will take all the cow's milk at once on the feast-day, and so get
very much." Accordingly the fool did not milk his cow for a whole
month. And when the feast came, and he did begin to milk it, he found
its milk had failed, but to the people this was an unfailing source
of amusement.
"You have heard of the fool who had a milch-cow, now hear the story
of these other two fools."
Story of the Foolish Bald Man and the Fool who pelted him.
There was a certain bald man with a head like a copper pot. Once on
a time a young man, who, being hungry, had gathered wood-apples,
as he was coming along his path, saw him sitting at the foot of a
tree. In fun he hit him on the head with a wood-apple; the bald man
took it patiently and said nothing to him. Then he hit his head with
all the rest of the wood-apples that he had, throwing them at him one
after another, and the bald man remained silent, even though the blood
flowed. So the foolish young fellow had to go home hungry without his
wood-apples, which he had broken to pieces in his useless and childish
pastime of pelting the bald man; and the foolish bald man went home
with his head streaming with blood, saying to himself; "Why should
I not submit to being pelted with such delicious wood-apples?" And
everybody there laughed, when they saw him with his head covered with
blood, looking like the diadem with which he had been crowned king
of fools.
"Thus you see, prince, that foolish persons become the objects of
ridicule in the world, and do not succeed in their objects; but wise
persons are honoured."
When Naraváhanadatta had heard from Gomukha these elegant and amusing
anecdotes, he rose up and performed his day's duties. And when night
came on, the prince was anxious to hear some more stories, and at
his request, Gomukha told this story about wise creatures.
Story of the Crow and the King of the Pigeons, the Tortoise and the
Deer. [58]
There was in a certain forest region a great Salmali tree; and in
it there lived a crow, named Laghupátin, who had made his dwelling
there. One day, as he was in his nest, he saw below the tree a
terrible-looking man arrive with a stick, net in hand. And while the
crow looked down from the tree, he saw that the man spread out the
net on the ground, and strewed there some rice, and then hid himself.
In the meanwhile the king of the pigeons, named Chitragríva, as he was
roaming through the air, attended by hundreds of pigeons, came there,
and seeing the grains of rice scattered on the ground, he alighted
on the net out of desire for food, and got caught in the meshes with
all his attendants. When Chitragríva saw that, he said to all his
followers; "Take the net in your beaks, and fly up into the air as
fast as you can." All the terrified pigeons said,--"So be it"--and
taking the net, they flew up swiftly, and began to travel through
the air. The fowler too rose up, and with eye fixed upwards, returned
despondent. Then Chitragríva, being relieved from his fear, said to his
followers; "Let us quickly go to my friend the mouse Hiranya, he will
gnaw these meshes asunder and set us at liberty." With these words he
went on with those pigeons, who were dragging the net along with them,
and descended from the air at the entrance of a mouse's hole. And
there the king of the pigeons called the mouse, saying,--"Hiranya,
come out, I, Chitragríva, have arrived." And when the mouse heard
through the entrance, and saw that his friend had come, he came out
from that hole with a hundred openings. The mouse went up to him,
and when he had heard what had taken place, proceeded with the utmost
eagerness to gnaw asunder the meshes, that kept the pigeon-king and
his retinue prisoners. And when he had gnawed the meshes asunder,
Chitragríva took leave of him with kind words, and flew up into the
air with his companions.
And when the crow, who had followed the pigeons, saw that, he came to
the entrance of the hole, and said to the mouse who had re-entered it;
"I am Laghupátin, a crow; seeing that you tender your friends dearly,
I choose you for my friend, as you are a creature capable of delivering
from such calamities." When the mouse saw that crow from the inside
of his hole, he said, "Depart! what friendship can there be between
the eater and his prey?" Then the crow said,--"God forbid! If I were
to eat you, my hunger might be satisfied for a moment, but if I make
you my friend, my life will be always preserved by you." When the
crow had said this, and more, and had taken an oath, and so inspired
confidence in the mouse, the mouse came out, and the crow made friends
with him. The mouse brought out pieces of flesh and grains of rice,
and there they both remained eating together in great happiness.
And one day the crow said to his friend the mouse: "At a considerable
distance from this place there is a river in the middle of a forest,
and in it there lives a tortoise named Mantharaka, who is a friend of
mine; for his sake I will go to that place where flesh and other food
is easily obtained; it is difficult for me to obtain sustenance here,
and I am in continual dread of the fowler." When the crow said this
to him, the mouse answered,--"Then we will live together, take me
there also; for I too have an annoyance here, and when we get there,
I will explain the whole matter to you." When Hiranya said this,
Laghupátin took him in his beak, and flew to the bank of that forest
stream. And there he found his friend, the tortoise Mantharaka,
who welcomed him, and he and the mouse sat with him. And after they
had conversed a little, that crow told the tortoise the cause of his
coming, together with the circumstance of his having made friends
with Hiranya. Then the tortoise adopted the mouse, as his friend on
an equal footing with the crow, and asked the cause of the annoyance