Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 482

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THE BRAHMIN AND THE CRAB
be of use to him should an opportunity offer itself. The
Brahmin, astonished at the crab's promise, asked how a
creature so weak and despicable as itself could possibly
be of any service to a man, and especially to a Brahmin.
To this the crab replied by the following fable
:
The King,
the Elephant,
and
the
Brahmin.
In the city of Prabavathi-Patna there lived a king named
Adita-Varma. One day the king, when out hunting with
a crowd of attendants in the midst of a dense forest,
observed a huge elephant approaching, whose sudden
appearance spread terror among his followers. The king,
however, succeeded in calming the fears of his people,
and told them that they must try to capture the animal
and lead it away to his palace. Accordingly, they dug
a deep pit, covering it with branches and leaves. This
done, the whole company surrounded the elephant, leaving
only one passage leading to the pit for him to escape, into
which, in fact, the elephant eventually fell. The king was
delighted at their success, and told them that before trying
to release the elephant from the pit they must keep it
starving there for eight days, when, having lost all its
Accord-
strength, it might be more easily made captive.
ingly, everybody retired, leaving the elephant in the trap.
Two days afterwards, a Brahmin who was travelling on
the banks of the river Jumna happened to pass that way,
and seeing the elephant in the pit, asked the animal by
what unfortunate accident it found itself there. The
elephant told him about its sad adventure, complaining at
the same time of the torments which it was endu