STORY I.

The leopard said, ‘They have related that a hungry Fox had come forth from his hole in quest of food, and was roaming about in every direction and was measuring the forest sides with the step of greediness and avidity in search of a morsel. Suddenly an odor which invigorated his soul reached his nostrils. Turning on the scent of it he saw a fresh piece of skin, the flesh of which had been eaten by some wild beast that had left the hide. When the eyes of the Fox lit upon that piece of skin they brightened up, and the greatest vigor was diffused through his limbs at viewing that quantity of food.

COUPLET.
The fragrance of my much-loved friend came to me e’en in death,
And to my body back returned life’s then departed breath.

The Fox, having got that piece of skin into the claw of possession, turned his face towards his own abode.

HEMISTICH.
Hast gained a friend? then privacy is best.

In the midst of the way he happened to pass beside a village, where he beheld fat fowls busy feeding in the wide plain, while a slave named Zírak* had girt the loins of guardianship in watching them. The Fox’s appetite for the flesh of the fowls was excited, and the delightful idea of the brains of their heads made him forget the piece of skin. In the midst of this state of things a Jackal chanced to pass by that hamlet. He inquired, saying, ‘O brother! I observe that thou art very thoughtful. What event has occurred and what occurrence has taken place?’ The Fox replied, ‘O friend! Thou seest those fowls, the tongue of whose individual condition continues to repeat the meaning of [the verse], ‘And the flesh of birds of the kind which they shall desire,’* and the mysterious meaning of [the verse], ‘Therein shall ye have that which your souls shall desire,’* pervades them from head to foot.

COUPLET.
From head to foot incarnate soul is there,
A soul so delicate and pure is rare.*

And after a long interval during which I have suffered from the pains of want and the torments of hunger, the treasurer of the stores of God’s bounties bestowed on me this piece of skin, and now the craving of appetite requires to get one of these fowls into its grasp, and cloy the palate of desire with the sweetness of its flesh, which possesses the deliciousness of life.

COUPLET.
My joy is soured, but if she from her honeyed lips bestow
Sharbat on me, my heart’s palate will straightway sweeter grow.

The Jackal said, ‘Alack! alack! a long time has passed over me, during which I have been in ambush for these fowls, and on the watch to make a prey of one of them, but that slave Zírak, who is their guide, keeps his eye on the path of protection after such a fashion, that the huntsman of imagina­tion, from dread of his guardianship, cannot bring their forms under the net of his scheming; and the painter of the mind, from fear of his defensive care, is unable to draw their lineaments on the tablet of fancy; and I pass my life in this longing, and live from day to night and from night to day on a mere idea. Thou that hast found a fresh piece of skin, regard it as a piece of good-fortune, and relinquish this vain pretension.

COUPLET.
To thine own mistress be thy heart inclined,
And shut thine eyelids upon all mankind.’

The Fox said, ‘O brother! till we can elevate ourselves according to our heart’s wish upon the higher apsis of desire, to sit down disappointed in the lower apsis of mortification and abasement would be a great pity; and until we can gaze on the rose of enjoyment in the parterre of repose, to direct our steps into the thorny wake of adversity and suffering would be a glaring fault.

COUPLET.
On honor’s cushion till our foot we place
Why in the dust sit down of foul disgrace?

And high spirit does not suffer me to cower over an insipid piece of skin, and give up the thought of the delicious flavour of fat flesh.’ The Jackal replied, ‘O thou of vain longings! to reprehensible greediness thou hast given the name of high spirit, and on culpable cupidity thou hast imposed the title of the preamble* of greatness, and art insensible to the maxim that greatness is in the poverty of the darvesh, and happiness in contentment.

COUPLET.
If in this market there be gain, ’tis what the poor contented know.
On me the blessings of content, O God! and poverty bestow.

Thou hast no better course than to be content with the portion which they have assigned to thee from the court of ‘Our daily bread is allotted by fate,’ and not tamper with vain and unsuitable aims, to which the result, ‘Who­ever seeks what does not concern him, verily he relinquishes what does concern him,’ is attached.

COUPLET.
Our daily food is destined, and the time, too, they allot,
Aught more or aught before this, by our struggles we win not.

And I fear that through this impertinent scheming thou wilt lose that piece of skin also, and wilt thyself be overthrown, and there is a close resemblance between thy story and the case of that Ass who sought a tail and lost his ears also.’ The Fox inquired, ‘How was that?’