nd oil-cake, but now I am dry they yoke
me here, and give me refuse as fodder!"

The Brahman, still more sad, asked the Road to give him its opinion.

"My dear sir," said the Road, "how foolish you are to expect anything
else! Here am I, useful to everybody, yet all, rich and poor, great and
small, trample on me as they go past, giving me nothing but the ashes of
their pipes and the husks of their grain!"

On this the Brahman turned back sorrowfully, and on the way he met a
Jackal, who called out: "Why, what's the matter, Mr. Brahman? You look
as miserable as a fish out of water!"

The Brahman told him all that had occurred.

"How very confusing!" said the Jackal, when the recital was ended;
"would you mind telling me again, for everything has got so mixed up?"

The Brahman told it all over again, but the Jackal shook his head in a
distracted sort of way, and still could not understand.

"It's very odd," said he, sadly, "but it all seems to go in at one ear
and out of the other! I will go to the place where it all happened, and
then perhaps I shall be able to give a judgment."

So they returned to the cage, by which the Tiger was waiting for the
Brahman, and sharpening his teeth and claws.

"You've been away a long time!" growled the savage beast, "but now let
us begin our dinner."

"Our dinner!" thought the wretched Brahman, as his knees knocked
together with fright; "what a remarkably delicate way of putting it!"

"Give me five minutes, my lord!" he pleaded, "in order that I may
explain matters to the Jackal here, who is somewhat slow in his wits."

The Tiger consented, and the Brahman began the whole story over again,
not missing a single detail, and spinning as long a yarn as possible.

"Oh, my poor brain! oh, my poor brain!" cried the Jackal, wringing its
paws. "Let me see! How did it all begin? You were in the cage, and the
Tiger came walking by--"

"Pooh!" interrupted the Tiger, "what a fool you are! I was in the cage."

"Of course!" cried the Jackal, pretending to tremble with fright; "yes!
I was in the cage--no I wasn't--dear! dear! where are my wits? Let me
see--the Tiger was in the Brahman, and the cage came walking by--no,
that's not it, either! Well, don't mind me, but begin your dinner, for I
shall never understand!"

"Yes, you shall!" returned the Tiger, in a rage at the Jackal's
stupidity; "I'll make you understand! Look here! I am the Tiger--"

"Yes, my lord!"

"And that is the Brah