’A modest manner fits a maid,
      And Patience is a man’s adorning;
    But brides may kiss, nor do amiss,
      And men may draw, at scathe and scorning.’

‘Yet a man should measure his own strength first,’ said the Rajah, smiling; ‘how did you fare against King Jewel-plume’s fellows?’

‘Very scurvily,’ replied Long-bill.  “Thou rascal Crane,” they cried, “dost thou feed on his soil, and revile our Sovereign?  That is past bearing!” And thereat they all pecked at me.  Then they began again:  “Thou thick-skulled Crane! that King of thine is a goose—­a web-footed lord of littleness—­and thou art but a frog in a well to bid us serve him—–­ him forsooth!—­

    ’Serving narrow-minded masters dwarfs high natures to their size:—­
    Seen before a convex mirror, elephants do show as mice.’

Bad kings are only strong enough to spoil good vassals—­as a fiction once was mightier than a herd of elephants.  You know it, don’t you?—­

    ’Mighty may prove things insignificant:—­
    A tale of moonshine turned an elephant.’

‘No! how was that?’ I asked.

The birds related—­

THE STORY OF THE OLD HARE AND THE ELEPHANTS

“Once on a time, very little rain had fallen in the due season; and the Elephants being oppressed with thirst, thus accosted their leader:—­’Master, how are we to live?  The small creatures find something to wash in, but we cannot, and we are half dead in consequence; whither shall we go then, and what shall we do?’ Upon that the King of the Elephants led them away a little space; and showed them a beautiful pool of crystal water, where they took their ease.  Now it chanced that a company of Hares resided on the banks of the pool, and the going and coming of the elephants trampled many of them to death, till one of their number named Hard-head grumbled out, ’This troop will be coming here to water every day, and every one of our family will be crushed.’  ‘Do not disquiet yourself,’ said an old buck named Good-speed, ’I will contrive to avert it,’ and so saying, he set off, bethinking himself on his way how he should approach and accost a herd of elephants; for,

    ’Elephants destroy by touching, snakes with point of tooth beguile;
    Kings by favor kill, and traitors murder with a fatal smile.’

‘I will get on the top of a hill,’ he thought, ’and address the Elephants thence.’

“This being done, and the Lord of the herd perceiving him, it was asked of the Hare, ‘Who art thou? and whence comest thou?’

‘I am an ambassador from his Godship the Moon,’ replied Good-speed.

‘State your business,’ said the Elephant-king.

‘Sire,’ began the Hare, ’an ambassador speaks the truth safely by charter of his name.  Thus saith the Moon, then:  “These hares were the guardians of my pool, and thine elephants in coming thither have scared them away.  This is not well.  Am I not Sasanka, whose banner bears a hare, and are not these hares my votaries?"’