“Do not do that, but bore Breakstump’s nose. Then, when he wants to eat grass or drink water, we will seize his nose with our horns and hold it up in the air. At the same time you must say, ‘They are pointing to the sun, because they wish to show that the sun, as the fifth guardian of the world, is a witness.’ ”
So the youth set to work to bore the nose of the ox. Breakstump said, “Honoured ones, see how scandalously he is treating me!” They replied, “Hold your peace, he wishes to embellish you.”
On the seventh day the king, after calling his ministers together, had these oxen driven to a spot rich in grass and water. Breakstump was about to pluck a mouthful of grass, when the other oxen seized his nose with their [[320]]horns and looked up towards the sun. The king asked his ministers, “O honoured ones, wherefore look these oxen towards the sun?” Then one of the ministers said, “That is done because they wish to show that not they alone are witnesses, but the sun, the fifth guardian of the world, is also a witness.” The king wondered and said to the ministers, “O honoured ones, as the beasts have thus borne witness, do ye take care that the householder gives his daughter to this young man.”
Overcome by the householder-son, the householder bestowed upon him his daughter. [[321]]
[1] Kah-gyur, vi. ff. 228–231. [↑]
XXXI.
THE STUBBORN AND THE WILLING OXEN.[1]
Long ago two merchants, with five hundred waggons apiece, were journeying along a forest road, where at one time there was too little grass, at another too little water, and sometimes there was nothing at all to be had. So when the merchants, who, as well as their oxen, were in a state of great exhaustion, saw from the forest road a region in which meadows and water were plentiful, they unharnessed their oxen, and they bathed and drank much water. Now when the oxen, which had been greatly exhausted by the want of grass and water, had drunk water and eaten their fill of grass and recovered their strength, the leading one among the first set said to its comrades, “O honoured ones, as we have been completely exhausted by the want of grass and water, and this place is full of water and pasture, if ye are so inclined, we will remain here.”