Told by DEVI DÍN, student, and recorded by BADARI PRASÁD,
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 samáe:
So murak binsat sadan, jirni bakuli nariyar kháe.
("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 _Shibbá 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 Akhwán-us-safa.