As the days passed by, and Lusty-life picked about in the tender forest grass, he grew wonderfully well, and fat of carcase, and happy, and bellowed about the wood as though it were his own.  Now, the reigning monarch of the forest was King Tawny-hide the Lion, who ruled over the whole country absolutely, by right of having deposed everybody else.  Is not might right?—­

’Robes were none, nor oil of unction, when the King of Beasts was
crowned:—­
’Twas his own fierce roar proclaimed him, rolling all his kingdom
round.’

One morning, his Majesty, being exceedingly thirsty, had repaired to the bank of the Jumna to drink water, and just as he was about to lap it, the bellow of Lusty-life, awful as the thunder of the last day, reached the imperial ears.  Upon catching the sound the King retreated in trepidation to his own lair, without drinking a drop, and stood there in silence and alarm revolving what it could mean.  In this position he was observed by the sons of his minister, two jackals named Karataka and Damanaka, who began to remark upon it.

‘Friend Karataka,’ said the last,’what makes our royal master slink away from the river when he was dying to drink?’

‘Why should we care?’ replied Karataka.  ’It’s bad enough to serve him, and be neglected for our pains—­

    ’Oh, the bitter salt of service!—­toil, frost, fire, are not so keen:—­
    Half such heavy penance bearing, tender consciences were clean.’

‘Nay, friend! never think thus,’ said Damanaka—­

    ’What but for their vassals,
    Elephant and man—­
    Swing of golden tassels,
    Wave of silken fan—­
    But for regal manner
    That the “Chattra"[12] brings,
    Horse, and foot, and banner—­
    What would come of kings?’

‘I care not,’ replied Karataka; ’we have nothing to do with it, and matters that don’t concern us are best left alone.  You know the story of the Monkey, don’t you?’—­

    ’The Monkey drew the sawyer’s wedge, and died:—­
    Let meddlers mark it, and be edified.’

‘No!’ said Damanaka.  ‘How was it?’

‘In this way,’ answered Karataka:—­

THE STORY OF THE MONKEY AND THE WEDGE

“In South Behar, close by the retreat of Dhurmma, there was an open plot of ground, upon which a temple was in course of erection, under the management of a man of the Kayeth caste, named Subhadatta.  A carpenter upon the works had partly sawed through a long beam of wood, and wedged it open, and was gone away, leaving the wedge fixed.  Shortly afterwards a large herd of monkeys came frolicking that way, and one of their number, directed doubtless by the Angel of death, got astride the beam, and grasped the wedge, with his tail and lower parts dangling down between the pieces of the wood.  Not content with this, in the mischief natural to monkeys, he began to tug at the wedge; till at last it yielded to a great effort and came out; when the wood closed upon him, and jammed him all fast.  So perished the monkey, miserably crushed; and I say again—­