A Brahmin once observed a snake |----A good man had become
in his field, and thinking it |friendly with the snake, who
the tutelary spirit of the |came into his house and brought
field, he offered it a libation |luck with it, so that the man
of milk in a bowl. Next day he |became rich through it.----One
finds a piece of gold in the |day he struck the serpent, which
bowl, and he receives this each |disappeared, and with it the
day after offering the libation. |man's riches. The good man tries
One day he had to go elsewhere, |to make it up, but the serpent
and he sent his son with the |declares their friendship at an
libation. The son sees the gold, |end, as it could not forget the
and thinking the serpent's hole |blow.----
full of treasure determines to |
slay the snake. He strikes at |Phæd. Dressl. VII. 28 (Rom. II. xi.)
its head with a cudgel, and the |
enraged serpent stings him to | BABRIAN.
death. The Brahmin mourns his |A serpent stung a farmer's son
son's death, but next morning as |to death. The father pursued the
usual brings the libation of |serpent with an axe, and struck
milk (in the hope of getting the |off part of its tail. Afterwards
gold as before). The serpent |fearing its vengeance he brought
appears after a long delay at |food and honey to its lair, and
the mouth of its lair, and |begged reconciliation. The
declares their friendship at an |serpent, however, declares
end, as it could not forget the |friendship impossible, as it
blow of the Brahmin's son, nor |could not forget the blow----nor
the Brahmin his son's death from |the farmer his son's death from
the bite of the snake. |the bite of the snake.
|
_Pants._ III. v. (Benf. 244-7). |Æsop, Halm 96^b (Babrius-Gitlb. 160).
|
In the Indian fable every step of the action is thoroughly justified,
whereas the Latin form does not explain why the snake was friendly in
the first instance, or why the good man was enraged afterwards; and
the Greek form starts abruptly, without explaining why the serpent had
killed the farmer's son. Make a composite of the Phædrine and Babrian
forms, and you get the Indian one, which is thus shown to be the
original of both.