Elsewhere they saw a snake, and just the same as before happened up to the utterance of the words, “Then take charge of a commission from me also, and ask the king why I creep out of my hole with ease, but creep back into it only with pain.”
A snake and an ichneumon, which had quarrelled and were fighting with one another, likewise begged that the king might be asked on what account they, as soon as they saw each other, day by day became angry and began to fight. A young wife also commissioned them to ask wherefore she, so long as she lived in her father’s house, longed after the house of her father-in-law, but now, since she entered her father-in-law’s house, longed after the house of her father.
They went on and came to King Ādarśamukha’s; then Daṇḍin wished the king long life and victory, and took a seat at a certain spot, and the others also seated themselves. After they had paid reverence with their heads [[34]]to the king’s feet, the king asked Daṇḍin, “Wherefore have you come?”
“O king, I have been brought hither.”
“On what account?”
Daṇḍin related the whole story of why the householder had quarrelled with him. The king said to the householder, “Did you see the oxen, or did you not see them? Did Daṇḍin drive your oxen into the stalls?”
“Yes, O king.”
The king said, “As Daṇḍin gave this man no information, his tongue shall be cut off. As this man did not tie up his oxen, his eyes shall be put out.”
The householder said, “First I lost my oxen, in the second place my eyes are to be put out. Sooner than that, I prefer not to win my suit against Daṇḍin.”
The owner of the mare said, “O king, Daṇḍin has killed my mare.”