“O Subāhu, to strive with Sudaṇshṭhra, possessor of complete excellence, agility, and force, is not right.”
The tiger also replied in a śloka, “O Sudaṇshṭhra, to strive with Subāhu, possessor of complete excellence, agility, and force, is not right.”
The lion asked, “Who spoke to you about this?”
The tiger replied, “The jackal.”
Then the tiger asked, “Who spoke to you about this?”
The lion replied, “The jackal.”
Then the lion thought, “This creature wanted to set us two at variance,” and struck the jackal dead with a slap in the face. Then a deity uttered this śloka—
“Friends ought not to be abandoned on account of the words of others, but the words of others ought to be tested. No reliance ought to be placed upon calumniators, who seek opportunities for sowing discord. See how the jackal, who desired to set friends at variance by means of lies, was put to death as a calumniator, while the friends were happy and rejoiced.” [[332]]
[1] Kah-gyur, vi. ff. 239–243. Benfey has called attention, in his Introduction to the Panchatantra, to the story in the Siddhi-Kûr of the fox which sets the lion and the bull at variance, and brings about the destruction of both. The story occurs as the twentieth tale in B. Jülg’s “Mongolischer Märchen-Sammlung,” Innsbruck, 1868, pp. 171–176. [“Mongolische Märchen,” pp. 35–40.]—S. [↑]