In a certain country, when a Deer and a Crow were friends while a
long time was going, one day the Deer met with a Jackal. The Jackal,
having seen the Deer, says, "I also should be pleased to be friendly
with you. Because of it, are you willing or not?" he asked.
Then the Deer says, "I indeed am willing. I don't know if the Crow
which has become my friend is willing or not."
Then the Jackal asked the Crow. The Crow says, "I am not willing,
but if the Deer is willing, remain," he said. After that the whole
three were friendly. The Crow's dwelling was in a tree; the dwelling
of the other two was under the tree.
One day when the Jackal is going to seek food, having seen a rice
field and come back, he says to the Deer, "Friend, let us two go for
food. I have seen a good rice field to-day. You eat the rice there;
I will eat crabs there," he said.
The Deer says, "I will not. It is not good to go there; should we go
there we shall come into danger," he said.
The Jackal, on the following day having gone [there] and come back,
says to the Deer, "Nothing having been done [to me] there, let us
very two go to-morrow." This Jackal says thus with the intention that
having killed the Deer he may eat the flesh.
The Deer, trusting the word of the Jackal, went. Having gone, when
he looked there is a paddy field. Having seen it and eaten the paddy
(growing rice) that day, he came back. On the following day, too,
the Jackal said, "Let us go." And because the Deer could not break
the Jackal's word, on that day, also, he went.
That day, the man whose field it is, the owner of the field, having
come, when he looked saw that deer had eaten it; and having come home,
and gone back taking a noose which was twisted from hides, he set it
at the gap [in the fence] through which the Deer came.
Thereupon, in order to eat the paddy the Jackal and Deer came to the
field. While they were coming [through the fence] the Deer was caught
in the noose which had been set. Then the Deer says, "Friend, to-day
having come they will kill me. Because of it bite this noose," he said.
Thereupon the Jackal says, "I cannot. This is Sunday; [6] how shall
I bite hides to-day?" Having said this, the Jackal got hid and waited.
The Crow, also, having seen that the Deer does not come for a long
time, the Crow also came to seek the Deer. Having come, when he
looked he saw that the Deer had been caught in the noose, and asked,
"Friend, what is [the reason of] it?"
And the Deer says, "This indeed is the Jackal's contrivance. To-day
how shall I get free?" he asked the Crow.
The Crow says, "I will tell you a stratagem. At the time when the
rice-field owner is coming I will peck at your eye [as though you
were dead]. I will caw at a [certain] time. At that time spring up
and run away," he said.
Thereupon the rice-field owner came, taking a cudgel. Having come,
when he looked he saw that the Deer, having been caught in the noose,
is dead. Then he began the folding up of the noose. When the Crow
was cawing the Deer sprang up and ran away.
Having seen the running Deer and thrown the cudgel that was in his
hand, [it struck the Jackal, and] at the blow which was struck the
Jackal died.
(This is the story as it is found in the Hitopadesa, with an antelope
in place of the deer.)
North-western Province.