Long ages ago there lived in a northern country of India a lioness
who had her den in the side of a snow-capped mountain. One day she had
been so long without food that she was near to have devoured her cub;
determining, however, to make one effort first to spare it, she went
out on a long journey till she came to a fair plain where there were
a number of cows grazing. When she saw the herd of cows she could
not refrain a terrible roar; but the cows, hearing the roar of the
lioness, said one to another, "Let us make haste to escape from the
lioness," and they all went their way. But there was one of the cows
which had a calf, and because she could neither make the calf go fast
enough to escape the lioness, nor could bring herself to forsake it,
she remained behind and fell a prey to the wild beast. The lioness
accordingly made a great feast, chiefly on the blood of the cow,
and carried the flesh and the bones to her den.
The calf followed the traces of its mother's flesh, and when the
lioness lay down to sleep the calf came along with her own cub to suck,
and the lioness being overcome, and as it were drunken with the blood
she had taken, failed to perceive what the calf did. In the morning,
as the calf had drunk her milk, she forbore to slay it, and the calf
and the cub were suckled together. After two or three days, when there
was nothing left for the lioness to eat but a few bones of the cow,
she devoured them so greedily in her hunger that one big knuckle-bone
stuck in her throat, and as she could by no means get it out again,
she was throttled by it till she died. Before dying she spoke thus
to the calf and the cub, "You two, who have been suckled with the
same milk, must live at peace with each other. If some day an enemy
comes to you and tries to set you one against the other, pay no heed
to his words, but remain at one as before." Thus she charged them.
When the lioness was dead the cub betook himself into the forest,
and the calf found its way to the sunny slope of a mountain side;
but at the hour of evening they went down to the stream together to
drink, and after that they disported themselves together.
There was a fox, however, who had been used to feed on the remnants
of the lion's meals, and continued now to profit by those of the cub;
he saw with a jealous eye this growing intimacy with the calf, and
determined to set them at variance (2).
One day, therefore, when the cub had just killed a beast and lay
sucking its blood, the fox came to him with his tail no longer cockily
curled up on his back, but low, sweeping the ground, and his ears
drooping. When the cub saw him in this plight, he exclaimed, "Fox! what
hath befallen thee? Tell me thy grief, and console thyself the while
with a bite of this hind." But the fox, putting on a doleful tone,
answered him, "How should I, thine uncle, take pleasure in eating flesh
when thou hast an enemy? hence is all pleasure gone from me." But the
cub answered carelessly, "It is not likely any one should be my enemy,
fox; therefore set to and eat this hind's flesh." "If thou refusest in
this lighthearted way to listen to the words of thine uncle," answered
the fox, "so shall the day come when thou wilt berue it." "Who then,
pray, is this mine enemy?" at last inquired the cub. "Who should it
be but this calf? Saith he not always, 'The lioness killed my mother;
therefore when I am strong enough I will kill the cub.'" "Nay, but
we two are brothers," replied the cub; "the calf has no bad thoughts
towards me." "Knowest thou then really not that thy mother killed
his mother?" exclaimed the fox. And the cub thought within himself,
"What the fox says is nevertheless true; and, further, is he not mine
uncle, and what gain should he have to deceive me?" Then said he aloud,
"By what manner of means does the calf purpose to kill me? tell me,
I pray." And the fox made answer, "When he wakes to-morrow morning,
observe thou him, and if he stretches himself and then digs his horns
into the earth, and shakes his tail and bellows, know that it is a sure
token he is minded to kill thee." The cub, his suspicions beginning
to be excited, promised to be upon his guard and to observe the calf.
Having succeeded thus far the fox went his way, directing his steps to
the sunny side of the mountain slope where the calf was grazing. With
his tail trailing on the ground, and his ears drooping, he stood
before the calf. "Fox! what aileth thee?" inquired the calf cheerily;
"come and tell me thy grief." But the fox answered, "Not for myself
do I grieve. It is because thou, O calf! hast an enemy; therefore
do I grieve." But the calf answered, "Be comforted, fox, for it
is not likely any should be an enemy to me." Then replied the fox,
"Beware thou disregard not my words, for if thou do, of a certainty
a day shall come when thou shalt berue it." But the calf inquired,
saying, "Who then could this enemy possibly be?" And the fox told him,
saying, "Who should it be other than the lion-cub in the forest on
the other side the mountain? Behold! doth he not use to say, 'Even
as my mother killed and devoured his mother, so also will I kill and
devour him.'" "Let not this disturb thee, fox," interposed the calf,
"for we two are brothers; he hath no bad thoughts against me." But
the fox warned him again, saying, "Of a surety, if thou disregard
my words thou shalt berue it. Behold! I have warned thee." Then the
calf began to think within himself, "Is it not true what he says that
the cub's mother killed my mother; and, further, what gain should he,
mine uncle, have in deceiving me?" Then said he aloud, "If thy warning
be so true, tell me further, I pray thee, by what manner of means
doth he design to put me to death?" And the fox told him, saying,
"When he wakes to-morrow morning observe thou him, and if he stretch
himself and shake his mane, if he draws his claws out and in, and
scratches up the earth with them, then know that it is a sure token
he is minded to slay thee." The calf, his suspicions beginning to be
awakened, promised to be upon his guard and to observe the cub.
The next morning, when they woke, each observed the other as he had
promised the fox, and each by natural habit, which the fox had observed
of old, but they not, gave the signs he had set before them for a
token. At this each was filled with wrath and suspicion against the
other, and when at sunrise they both went down to the stream to drink,
the cub growled at the calf, and the calf bellowed at the cub. Hence
further convinced of each other's bad intentions, they each determined
at the same instant to be beforehand with the other. The calf dug his
horns into the breast of the cub and gored it open, and the cub sprang
upon the calf's throat and made a formidable wound, from whence the
blood poured out. Thus they contended together till all the blood of
both was poured out, and they died there before the face of the fox.
Then came a voice out of svarga (3), saying, "Put never thy trust
in a false friend, for so doing he shall put thee at enmity with him
who is thy friend in truth."
"Nevertheless, as the cub was killed as well as the calf, the perfidy
of the fox profited him nothing as soon as he had made an end of
eating their flesh!" exclaimed the Khan.
And as he let these words escape him, the Siddhî-kür replied,
"Forgetting his health, the Well-and-wise-walking Khan hath opened
his lips." And with the cry, "To escape out of this world is good!" he
sped him through the air, swift out of sight.