Page:The Enchanted Parrot.djvu/80

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THE ENCHANTED PARROT


" Wisdom, not force, is the support of a people in fear:

Just as a mighty lion was killed by an insignificant hare.

The arrow shot by a mighty archer may or may not kill:

But the deliberations of a crafty minister will overturn both kingdom and people."

Story XXXII

IN Sântipura lived a person of some importance whose name was Mâdhava, and he had a daughter- in-law called Rajanî. She was beautiful and clever, but at the same time light and frivolous in her behaviour. One day her mother-in-law sent her to the market to buy some wheat. So she started on her errand, and having brought what was required, she tied up the wheat in a bundle and was returning home. Presently she met one of her admirers, so she put down her bundle in a comer of the market, and went off to amuse herself with him. Meanwhile a man happened to come by, and seeing the bundle, took out the wheat and filled it up with sand. Rajanî stayed longer than she had