________________
JANUARY, 1897.]
MISCELLANEA.
27
"May it do yon much good," said he; "and pray. may good friend, which doctor attends
youp"
kept up for some time. Some time after, it fell to the lot of a fox to be sent to the lion, who, by no means relishing the idea of being devoured, walked slowly along, thinking all the while of some plan by which to put an end to the lion and save his own life. The lion, not finding the ani. mal at the proper moment, was very much enraged, and insisted upon an explanation of the delay. The fox rejoined :-"Sir, another fox was sent under my charge by all the animals of the forest 18 an offering for you, but on the road I met another lion, who took away your meal, and told me to tell you of it."
The lion ordered the fox to take him instantly to the place of his enemy. The cunning for took the lion to the side of a well, and, saying that the other lion was in it, begged the lion to take him in his arms that he might also have & peep into the well. When the lion saw the reflection of himself in the waters with the for in his arms, he instantly came to the onclusion that he was looking on his enemy; and having let the fox drop: made a furious leap into the well and immediately perished.
VII.
"The sick merchant, boiling with wrath, cried :" Doctor Denth himself."
"Very well, may God speed his medicines !" said the deaf companion, and returned home.
V. Sultan Mahmud' used to wage war on foreign countries and to oppress his people at home. His whole dominions lay consequently desolate. Upon this his minister thought that it was inperative to contrive some stratagem by which the kins would turn out a good ruler. Accordingly, whenever he spoke to the king he used to relate how he had once been a pupil of a certain sannydsin and had learnt the language of birds.
One day, as the king and the minister were returning from the hunt, two owls were sitting screaming upon a tree by the road-side. The king, hearing the noises, called upon his minister to tell him what the birds were conversing upon. The premier listened for a short time, as though he really understood the conversation, and then told the king that they were not words fit for him to hear. The king, however, insisted upon hearing the words.
The vizier, therefore, represented the conversation to be as follows:-- One of the owls has a son and the other a daughter, and the two pareut birds are negotiating a marriage between their children. The former parent said to the latter :- Then, you will give your daughter to my son, but will you give him fifty ruined villages ? To which the latter parent replied:--
While our Sultan Mahmud by the grace of the Almighty rules so happily, can there be a dearth of ruined villages ? You only asked me for a paltry fifty, I will give you five hundred.'”
When the Sultan heard this, he was very much grieved at heart. So he at once ordered the rebuilding of all the ruined villages in the realm, and made bis subjects happy and prosperous.
VI. In the Dandaks forest was a lion which was in the habit of attacking and consuming all the beasts thereof. To rid themselves from the constant fear in which they were kept on his approach, all the other animals proposed to supply the lion with an animal a day if it would not attack them any longer. This promise was agreed to, and
1 [There have been so many Mahmud Shahs in the Dakhan that it is diffioult to say which of them is meant in this story. The probability is it refers to the very
There was a harlot in the city of KalyAnapura, who was in the habit of fleecing a hundred pagodas from whomsoever might appear to her in her dreams. it yame to pass that on a certain right a Brahman appeared to her in a dream. She described him to her servants, and told them to fetch him and extort the money from him. They seized the Brahman as he was going along the road, and told him of the affair, and demanded the money. The Brahman was very much troubled, and pleaded poverty, but they would not let him grounder any circumstances. He accordingly represented his grievances to the king who sent for the woman and demanded an explanation of her procedure.
She replied that she demanded the money as the Brahman appeared to her in her dream. The king said that he would pay her the amount if she should wait a little. He accordingly caused post to be fixed in the street and the sum tied to the hem of a garment and suspended from the top of the pole. He then placed a mirror underneath, and sent for the woman, and told her what he had done and called upon her to put her hand into the mirror and receive the money. She informed him of the impossibility of taking the money by putting her hand into the mirror, and notable duings of the Tughlak, of whom Sultan Mabmod Tughlag was the lust (1394-1413 A.D.). - ED.)
