One day, when the old
birds were gone, Long-ear, the Cat, came there to get a meal of the
nestlings; and they, alarmed at perceiving him, set up a chirruping that
roused Grey-pate.
'Who comes there?' croaked Grey-pate.
"Now Long-ear, on espying the Vulture, thought himself undone; but as
flight was impossible, he resolved to trust his destiny and approach.
'My lord,' said he, 'I have the honor to salute thee.'
'Who is it?' said the Vulture.
'I am a Cat,'
'Be off, Cat, or I shall slay thee,' said the Vulture.
'I am ready to die if I deserve death,' answered the Cat; 'but let what
I have to say be heard,'
'Wherefore, then, comest thou?' said the Vulture.
'I live,' began Long-ear, 'on the Ganges, bathing, and eating no flesh,
practising the moon-penance,[8] like a Bramacharya. The birds that
resort thither constantly praise your worship to me as one wholly given
to the study of morality, and worthy of all trust; and so I came here to
learn law from thee, Sir, who art so deep gone in learning and in years.
Dost thou, then, so read the law of strangers as to be ready to slay a
guest? What say the books about the householder?--
'Bar thy door not to the stranger, be he friend or be he foe,
For the tree will shade the woodman while his axe doth lay it low,'
And if means fail, what there is should be given with kind words, as--
'Greeting fair, and room to rest in; fire, and water from the well--
Simple gifts--are given freely in the house where good men dwell,'--
and without respect of person--
'Young, or bent with many winters; rich, or poor, whate'er thy guest,
Honor him for thine own honor--better is he than the best,'
Else comes the rebuke--
'Pity them that ask thy pity: who art thou to stint thy hoard,
When the holy moon shines equal on the leper and the lord!'
And that other, too,
'When thy gate is roughly fastened, and the asker turns away,
Thence he bears thy good deeds with him, and his sins on thee doth lay
For verily,
'In the house the husband ruleth, men the Brahmans "master" call;
Agni is the Twice-born Master--but the guest is lord of all,'
"To these weighty words Grey-pate answered,
'Yes! but cats like meat, and there are young birds here, and therefore
I said, go,'
'Sir,' said the Cat (and as he spoke he touched the ground, and then his
two ears, and called on Krishna to witness to his words), 'I that have
overcome passion, and practised the moon-penance, know the Scriptures;
and howsoever they contend, in this primal duty of abstaining from
injury they are unanimous.
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