Hindu Literature
Book Excerpt
'Ho! ho!' says the Tiger, 'art thou stuck in a slough? stay, I will fetch thee out!'
So saying he approached the wretched man and seized him--who meanwhile bitterly reflected--
'Be his Scripture-learning wondrous, yet the cheat will be a cheat; Be her pasture ne'er so bitter, yet the cow's milk will be sweet.'
And on that verse, too--
'Trust not water, trust not weapons; trust not clawed nor horned things; Neither give thy soul to women, nor thy life to Sons of Kings.'
And those others--
'Look! the Moon, the silver roamer, from whose splendor darkness flies With his starry cohorts marching, like a crowned king through the skies. All the grandeur, all the glory, vanish in the Dragon's jaw; What is written on the forehead, that will be, and nothing more,'
Here his meditations were cut short by the Tiger devouring him. "And that," said Speckle-neck, "is why we counselled caution."
"Why, yes!