Atondido Stories
Pride Goeth Before a Fall
In a certain village there lived ten cloth merchants, who always
went about together. Once upon a time they had travelled far
afield, and were returning home with a great deal of money
which they had obtained by selling their wares. Now there hap-
pened to be a dense forest near their village, and this they
reached early one morning. In it there lived three notorious rob-
bers, of whose existence the traders had never heard, and while
they were still in the middle of it the robbers stood before them,
with swords and cudgels in their hands, and ordered them to lay
down all they had. The traders had no weapons with them, and
so, though they were many more in number, they had to submit
themselves to the robbers, who took away everything from
them, even the very clothes they wore, and gave to each only a
small loin-cloth a span in breadth and a cubit in length.
The idea that they had conquered ten men and plundered all
their property, now took possession of the robbers' minds. They
seated themselves like three monarchs before the men they had
plundered, and ordered them to dance to them before returning
home. The merchants now mourned their fate. They had lost all
they had, except their loin- cloth, and still the robbers were not
satisfied, but ordered them to dance.
There was, among the ten merchants, one who was very clev-
er. He pondered over the calamity that had come upon him and
his friends, the dance they would have to perform, and the mag-
nificent manner in which the three robbers had seated them-
selves on the grass. At the same time he observed that these last
had placed their weapons on the ground, in the assurance of
having thoroughly cowed the traders, who were now commenc-
ing to dance. So he took the lead in the dance, and, as a song is
487