weaver. There was no
gratitude in the case. 'I'll try to marry you,' said the jackal,
off-hand, 'to the daughter of the king of this country.' The weaver
said, 'Yes, when the sun rises in the west.' But the jackal had his
plan. He trotted off to the palace, many miles away, and on the road he
plucked quantities of the leaves of the betel plant. Then he lay down at
the entrance of the tank where the princess bathed twice a day, and
began ostentatiously chewing betel-leaves. 'Why,' said the princess,
'what a rich land this jackal must have come from. Here he is chewing
betel, a luxury that thousands of men and women among us cannot afford.'
The princess asked the jackal whence he came, and he said he was the
native of a wealthy country. 'As for our king, his palace is like the
heaven of Indra; your palace here is a miserable hovel compared to it.'
So the princess told the queen, who at once, and most naturally, asked
the jackal if his king were a bachelor. 'Certainly,' said the jackal,
'he has rejected princesses from all parts.' So the queen said _she_ had
a pretty daughter, still _zu haben_, and the jackal promised to try to
persuade his master to think of the princess. The jackal returned on his
confidential mission, telling the weaver to follow his instructions
closely. He went back to court, and suggested that his master should
come in a private manner, not in state, as his retinue would eat up the
substance of his future father-in-law. He returned and made the weaver
borrow a decent suit of clothes from the washermen. Then he made
interest with the king of the jackals, the paddy-birds, and the crows,
each of whom lent a contingent of a thousand beasts or birds of their
species. When they had all arrived within two miles of the palace, the
jackal bade them yell and cry, which they did so furiously that the king
supposed an innumerable company of people were attending his son-in-law.
He therefore implored the jackal to ask his master to come quite alone.
'My master will come alone in undress,' said the jackal; 'send a horse
for him.' This was done, and the jackal explained that his master
arrived in mean clothes that he might not abash the king by his glory
and splendour. The weaver held his tongue as commanded, but at night his
talk was of looms and beams, and the princess detected him. The jackal
explained that his philanthropic prince was establishing a colony of
weavers, and that his mind ran a good deal on this ben