Lamenting his bride,
The cock, bald and bare,
Sobs loud in despair;
The pipal tree grieves
By shedding its leaves;
The buffalo mourns
By casting her horns!'
'Dreadful!' cried the river, and wept so fast that water became quite salt.
By and by a cuckoo, coming to bathe in the stream, called out, 'Why, river! what has happened?You are as salt as tears!'
'Don't ask me!' mourned the stream; 'it is too dreadful for words!'
Nevertheless, when the cuckoo would take no denial, the river replied
'The ugly hen painted.
By jealousy tained,
The pretty hen dyed.
Lamenting his bride,
The cock, bald and bare
Sobs loud in despair;
The pipal tree grieves
By shedding its leaves;
The buffalo mouns
By casting her horns;
The stream, weeping fast,
Grow briny at last!'
'Oh dear! oh dear me!' cried the cuckoo, 'how very very sad!I must mourn too!'So it plucked out an cye, and going to a corn-merchant's shop, sat on the doorstep and wept.
