61 - Tale
of the Mouse and the Ichneumon*
Ichneumon =
An African or Egyptian mongoose with gray coat and black tail. Egyptians
believe that it devours crocodile's eggs.
Shaharzaad
said - "O King, A mouse and an ichneumon once lived in the house of
a farmer who was very poor. Once one of his friends got ill, so a doctor
suggested him to eat husked sesame. So the farmer asked a man to give him
the sesame for his friend. The man gave him a measure of sesame and he
took it home to his wife and asked her to dress it. So she steeped it and
husked it and spread it out to dry.
When
the ichneumon saw the grain, she went up to it and started carrying it
away to her hole. She carried it all day and she took away most of it. In
the evening, when the farmer's wife came and found most sesame gone, first
she stood wondering, then she sat down to watch who took her sesame. After
a while came the ichneumon to carry the grain, but found the woman on
vigil. She thought "I think this matter is now over here. She is sitting her
to watch on me. Now there is no help for it, still I did a fair deed, now
I can show my innocence and wash out all my ill doings."
So
thinking, she began to take the sesame out of her hole and carry it to the
place from where she took. The farmer's wife stood up and saw the
ichneumon doing this thought that "this is not the cause of our loss,
for she is bringing it back from his hole who has stolen it and is
returning to its place. She is doing us good, and the reward for good
should also be good. I am sure that she had not taken our grain and I will
continue to watch for the one who had taken the grains.
Meanwhile
the ichneumon went to the mouse and said to her - "O sister, That is
not a good person who does not show loyalty in friendship." The mouse
said - "I feel happy in your company and in your neighborhood, but
why do you say this?" Ichneumon said - "The house master has
brought some sesame and has eaten them to his satisfaction. Everybody has
eaten it to his full, still he is left with much amount, if you take it
you will be wealthier than any other one."
This
pleased the mouse and she went there where the sesame was lying to dry.
She did not see that the farmer's wife was sitting there with a stick. She
ran up to the sesame and began eating them. As the woman saw her eating,
she hit her head with her stick and the mouse died then and there. This
was the end of the mouse' greed and heedlessness of consequences."
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