THE CROW AND THE CRAB 445
No sooner had the crow perceived that the Brahmin pilgrim was sound asleep than it gave the serpent notice by the usual signal. The snake immediately issued from
its retreat and bit the Brahmin, killing him instantly by its deadly venom. The crow hastened to summon its friends and relations, and the whole of them pounced together on
the corpse. But as they were preparing to devour it, the head crow espied something moving in the bag of the
traveller, and curious to know what it was, put its head into the bag. Thereupon the crab caught it by the neck
with its claws and proceeded to strangle it to death. The crow cried aloud for mercy, but the crab swore that it would not let go, unless the Brahmin whose death the crow had just caused was restored to life. The crow made
known to its companions the extremity in which it found itself and the conditions under which the crab agreed to
spare its life. It besought its comrades to go in all haste and tell its friend the snake of its critical situation, and to
request it to reanimate the body of the Brahmin without delay. The snake, informed of the misfortune that had
befallen its friend, approached the deceased, applied its
mouth to the spot where it had bitten him, sucked out all the venom with which it had poisoned him, and restored
him to life.
When the Brahmin regained his senses he was not a little surprised to see his crab holding a crow fast imprisoned in its claws. The crab gave him an account of what had just happened, at which the traveller, who had believed himself to be waking from a sweet slumber, was exceedingly
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amazed. However,' said he to the crab, ' since the crow
has satisfied the conditions which thou didst ask of him, thou must also fulfil the promise which thou madest to him of sparing his life; let him, therefore, go now.'
But the crab, desiring to punish the wicked crow in a proper manner, and fearing to carry out its design in the neighbourhood of the snake, answered that it would set its captive free only at some distance from the spot where they were. The Brahmin, therefore, carried them both
a little farther on, and then, opening his bag, told the crab to hesitate no longer in fulfilling his promise.
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Foolish man! answered the crab, can we attach the '