The Birds and the Monkeys
A wise man is worthy to be advised; but an ignorant one never. Certain birds,
having given advice to a troop of monkeys, have their nests torn to pieces, and
are obliged to fly away.
On the banks of the river Navmoda, upon a neighbouring mountain, there was a
large Salmalee tree wherein certain Birds were wont to build their nests and
reside, even during the season of the rains. One day the sky being overcast with
a troop of thick dark clouds, there fell a shower of rain in very large streams. The
Birds seeing a troop of Monkeys at the foot of the tree, all wet, and shivering
with cold, called out to them; "Ho, Monkeys! why don't you invent something to
protect you from the rain? We build ourselves nests with straws collected with
nothing else but our bills. How is this, that you, who are blessed with hands and
feet, yield to such sufferings?"
The Monkeys hearing this, and understanding it as a kind of reproach, were
exceedingly irritated and said amongst themselves: "Those Birds there, sitting
comfortably out of the wind within their warm nests, are laughing at us! So let
them, as long as the shower may last." In short, as soon as the rain subsided, the
whole troop of them mounted into the tree, where tearing all the nests to pieces,
the eggs fell upon the ground and were broken. I say, therefore: "A wise man is
worthy to be advised, but an ignorant one never."
The Rabbits and the Elephants
Great things may be effected by wise counsel, when a sovereign enemy may be
too powerful. Certain Rabbits were enabled to live in comfort, through the policy
of one of their brethren.
Once upon a time, for want of rain in due season, a troop of Elephants being
greatly distressed for water, addressed their chief in these words: "What resource
have we, except in that hollow sinking ground inhabited by those little animals!
but deprived of that too, whither, sir, shall we go? What shall we do?"
Upon hearing their complaints, their chief, after travelling with them a great
way, discovered a fountain of clear water. But, as many Rabbits who happened,
to be in their burrows were crushed to death under the feet of so many Elephants