Page:Folk-lore of the Telugus.djvu/121

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113

at the crow, and said:—'You too were a newcomer when you took up with the deer. Is not a castor oil plant considered a huge tree in a treeless plain? It is only the ignorant that make a difference between a friend and a foe.' Hearing this, the deer said:—'Why all this wrangling? Let us all spend our days in one place in peace.' On hearing this, the crow consented. The deer, the jackal and the crow lived together in harmony. After some days had passed the jackal said to the deer:—'Friend I I have seen in the forest a field fully ripe. Accompany me. I will show you the field. So saying the fox took the deer with him and showed him the place. After this the deer began to graze there. The owner of the field noticed it and resolved to kill the beast. So he laid a net at a corner of the field and went home. The animal, as usual, came the next day to the field to graze and was entangled in the meshes and began to think:—'Alas! I am caught in a net! What can I do ? Who is there to rescue me ? If my friend the crow chance to come, he might save me.' The