'Then Lusty-life the Bull was sorely troubled, and he fell a-musing thus—
"Woman's love rewards the worthless—kings of knaves exalters be;
Wealth attends the selfish niggard, and the cloud rains on the sea."
'Can this be the Jackal's doing?' he reflected. Going with honest folk will not make one honest—
'Many a knave wins fair opinions standing in fair company,
As the sooty soorma pleases, lighted by a brilliant eye.'
Then he said aloud, 'wherein can I have angered the King? Do kings hate without cause? I can tell nothing, except that there is no happiness which abides long—
'Where the azure lotus[[15]] blossoms, there the alligators hide;
In the sandal-tree are serpents. Pain and pleasure live allied.'
I thought his Majesty noble as the sandal-tree; but that, indeed, is not wholly noble—
'Rich the sandal—yet no part is but a vile thing habits there;
Snake and wasp haunt root and blossom; on the boughs sit ape and bear.'
'Bull,' said Damanaka, 'I knew the King of old for one whose tongue was honey and whose heart was poison.'
'But how very hard!' said the Bull, 'that he, being a lion, should attack me, an innocent eater of grass!'