re this vile wretch may be found?"
Accordingly the Rabbit conducted the Lion to the brink of a deep well,
where being arrived, "There," said the Rabbit, "look down and behold
him"; at the same time he pointed to the reflected image of the Lion in
the water; who swelling with pride and resentment, leaped into the
well, as he thought, upon his adversary, and thus put an end to his own
life. I repeat, therefore: "He who hath sense, hath strength."
[1]Hard to go near.
The Birds and the Monkeys
A wise man is worthy to be advised; but an ignorant one never.
Certain birds, having given advice to a troop of monkeys, have their
nests torn to pieces, and are obliged to fly away.
On the banks of the river Navmoda, upon a neighbouring mountain, there
was a large Salmalee tree wherein certain Birds were wont to build
their nests and reside, even during the season of the rains. One day
the sky being overcast with a troop of thick dark clouds, there fell a
shower of rain in very large streams. The Birds seeing a troop of
Monkeys at the foot of the tree, all wet, and shivering with cold,
called out to them; "Ho, Monkeys! why don't you invent something to
protect you from the rain? We build ourselves nests with straws
collected with nothing else but our bills. How is this, that you, who
are blessed with hands and feet, yield to such sufferings?"
The Monkeys hearing this, and understanding it as a kind of reproach,
were exceedingly irritated and said amongst themselves: "Those Birds
there, sitting comfortably out of the wind within their warm nests, are
laughing at us! So let them, as long as the shower may last." In
short, as soon as the rain subsided, the whole troop of them mounted
into the tree, where tearing all the nests to pieces, the eggs fell
upon the ground and were broken. I say, therefore: "A wise man is
worthy to be advised, but an ignorant one never."
The Rabbits and the Elephants
Great things may be effected by wise counsel, when a sovereign enemy
may be too powerful. Certain Rabbits were enabled to live in comfort,
through the policy of one of their brethren.
Once upon a time, for want of rain in due season, a troop of Elephants
being greatly distressed for water, addressed their chief in these
words: "What resource have we, except in that hollow sinking ground
inhabited by those little animals! but deprived of that too, whither,
sir, shall we go? What shall we do?"
Upon hearing the
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