Atondido Stories
The Brahman, still more sad, asked the road to give him its
opinion.
"My dear sir," said the road, "how foolish you are to expect
anything else! Here am I, useful to everybody, yet all, rich and
poor, great and small, trample on me as they go past, giving me
nothing but the ashes of their pipes and the husks of their grain!"
On this the Brahman turned back sorrowfully, and on the way
he met a jackal, who called out, "Why, what's the matter, Mr.
Brahman? You look as miserable as a fish out of water!"
The Brahman told him all that had occurred. "How very con-
fusing!" said the jackal, when the recital was ended; "would you
mind telling me over again, for everything has got so mixed up?"
The Brahman told it all over again, but the jackal shook his head
in a distracted sort of way, and still could not understand.
"It's very odd," said he, sadly, "but it all seems to go in at one
ear and out at the other! I will go to the place where it all hap-
pened, and then perhaps I shall be able to give a judgment."
So they returned to the cage, by which the tiger was waiting for
the
Brahman, and sharpening his teeth and claws.
"You've been away a long time!" growled the savage beast,
"but now let us begin our dinner."
"Our dinner!" thought the wretched Brahman, as his knees
knocked together with fright; "what a remarkably delicate way
of putting it!"
"Give me five minutes, my lord!" he pleaded, "in order that I
may explain matters to the jackal here, who is somewhat slow in
his wits."
The tiger consented, and the Brahman began the whole story
over again, not missing a single detail, and spinning as long a
yarn as possible.
452