The youth did so, and anew demanded the fulfilment of the promise. The householder said, “As the early rice has come to an end, make preparations for one more harvest.”
The youth thought, “As these things cannot be done at that time, and he is playing with me, I will go into one of the great assemblies of the people, and compel him to give me an answer. If he will not give me his daughter, I will bring it about so that I shall receive her in a friendly way out of the king’s palace.”
So he went into a large assembly of the people, and said, “O uncle, celebrate the wedding.” The householder reviled him, and said, “O friends, I certainly will not give my daughter to this man, who works for me as a day-labourer.” The young man thought, “As I have received from him neither money nor his daughter, I will do him some small injury and then go away.”
After ploughing with the oxen all day he beat them with the goad, fastened them to a dry tree in the sun, and then went away.
Now it was part of the nature of things, not long after the creation of the world, that even brute beasts could speak. And so the two oxen said to him, “O man, you have constantly been for us, as it were, a father and a mother, and have always treated us with kindness. Why have you now beaten us with the goad, after ploughing with us through the day, and why are you going away, after fastening us to a dry tree in the sun? O man, have we wronged you in any way?” [[318]]
“Ye have not wronged me in the least, but your master has wronged me.”
“In what way?”
“He promised me his daughter, but he has not given her to me.”
“Why do not you go to the palace of the king?”
“I have no witnesses.”