It is related that two Sparrows once made their nest in the roof of a
house; and, contenting themselves with a single grain, so lived. Once
on a time they had young ones, and both the mother and father used to
go out in search of food for their support; and what they procured they
made up into grains and dropped into their crops.
One day, the male Sparrow had gone out somewhere. When he came back he
beheld the female Sparrow fluttering in the greatest distress around
the nest, while she uttered piteous cries. He exclaimed, "Sweet
friend! what movements are these which I behold in thee?" She replied,
"How shall I not lament, since, when I returned after a moment's
absence, I saw a huge Snake come and prepare to devour my offspring,
though I poured forth piteous cries. It was all in vain, for the Snake
said, 'Thy sigh will have no effect on my dark-mirrored scales.' I
replied, 'Dread this, that I and the father of these children will gird
up the waist of vengeance, and will exert ourselves to the utmost for
thy destruction.' The Snake laughed on hearing me, and that cruel
oppressor has devoured my young and has also taken his rest in the
nest."
When the male Sparrow heard this story, his frame was wrung with
anguish; and the fire of regret for the loss of his offspring fell on
his soul. At that moment the master of the house was engaged in
lighting his lamp; and holding in his hand a match, dipped in grease
and lighted, was about to put it into the lamp-holder. The Sparrow
flew and snatched the match from his hand and threw it into the nest.
The master of the house, through fear that the fire would catch to the
roof, and that the consequences would be most pernicious, immediately
ran up on the terrace and began clearing away the nest from beneath, in
order to put out the fire. The Snake beheld in front the danger of the
fire, and heard above the sound of the pickaxe. It put out its head
from a hole which it had near the roof, and no sooner did it do so than
it received a blow of death from the pickaxe.
And the moral of this fable is, that the Snake despised its enemy, and
made no account of him, until in the end that enemy pounded his head
with the stone of vengeance.