Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 474

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A TYPICAL HINDU FABLE
when
the rays of the morning sun warned him that it was
time to continue his journey. As he was preparing to
descend, he cast his eyes downwards, and espied at the
foot of the tree a huge tiger eagerly and impatiently watch-
ing, as it were, for its prey.
Struck with terror at the sight
of the beast, the traveller remained for a while transfixed
to the spot where he sat.
At length, recovering himself
a little and looking all round him, he observed that near
the tree on which he sat were many others, with their
branches so interlaced that he could easily pass from one
to another, and thus escape the danger which threatened
him below. He was on the point of making his escape in
this way, when, raising his eyes, he saw a huge snake
hanging to the branch immediately over him, with its head
nearly touching his own.
The snake was apparently fast
asleep, but the slightest noise might rouse it.
At the sight
of this twofold danger to which he found himself exposed
the poor traveller lost all courage.
His mind wandered,
his trembling limbs could hardly support him, and he was
on the point of falling into the clutches of the tiger which
was watching for him below. Chilled with fright, he
remained motionless in face of the cruel death that awaited
him, expecting every moment to be his last. The unfortunate
man, however, having somewhat recovered his senses, once
more raised his eyes, and perceived, on one of the topmost
branches of the tree, a honeycomb, from which sweet drops
of honey were trickling down at his side.
Thereupon he
stretched forward his head, opened his mouth, and put out
his tongue to catch the drops of honey as they fell
and in
this delicious enjoyment he thought no more of the awful
dangers which surrounded him.'
Besides the detached apologues to be found in their
books, which they are very fond of alluding to in their
everyday conversations, the Hindus have a regular collec-
tion of old and popular fables called Pancka-tantra (the
Five Tricks), which have been translated into all the
languages of the country \ It is perhaps the only literary
work possessed by them which is instructive and worthy
;
1
Two volumes
of these fables, translated by the Abbe, were published
1872 and 1877, twenty years after his death.
The East, the land of myth and legend, is the natural home of the
in Paris in