Spot's Captivity
[This story is inserted into The Winning of Friends.]
[This story is inserted into The Winning of Friends.]
Long ago, when I was six months old, I used to gambol in front of all the rest, as a youngster does. Out of sheer spirits I would run far ahead, then wait for the herd. Now we deer have two gaits, called the Jump-Up and the Straightaway. Of these I knew the Straightaway, but not the Jump-Up.
While amusing myself one day, I lost touch with the herd. At this I was dreadfully worried, gazed about the horizon to learn where they might be, and discovered them ahead. Now they had avoided a snare by means of the Jump-Up; they stood in a body ahead of me, and waited, all looking at me. But I, ignorant of the Jump-Up, was caught in the hunter's snare.
While I was trying to drag it toward the herd, the hunter bound all my limbs and I fell to the ground, head foremost. And the herd of deer vanished, seeing no hope of saving me.
When the hunter came up, he did not put me to death, for pity softened his heart at the thought: "He is a fawn, fit only for a pet." Instead, he carefully took me home and gave me as a plaything to a prince, who showed his delight at seeing me by giving the hunter a generous reward.
The prince treated me kindly, providing ointments, massage, baths, food, perfumes, and salves, while my means were appropriate and palatable. But as I was passed from hand to hand by the curious women and princes at court, I was seriously inconvenienced by petting and scratching, which did not spare neck, eye, front hoof hind hoof, or ear. Finally, one day in the rainy season, as the prince reclined on a couch, I observed the lightning, listened to the thunder, and, my heart wistful for my fondly remembered herd, I recited:
When shall I follow on the herd
Of coursing deer again?
When brace myself against the wind
That whistles by? Ah, when?
"Who said that?" cried the prince, and looked about him, terrified. When he saw me, he thought: "No man said it, but a deer. It is a prodigy. I am undone," and like one possessed by a devil, he tottered from the house, his garments in disarray.
Thinking himself ridden by a demon, he tempted the sorcerers and magicians with a great reward, saying: "If any free from this torment, I will pay him no small honour."
Meanwhile, overhasty individuals were striking me with sticks, bricks, and cudgels, but - further life being predestined - I was rescued by a certain holy many who said: "Why kill the poor beast?" Furthermore, he penetrated the cause of my malady, and respectfully said to the prince: "Dear sir, in the rainy season he wistfully remembers his native herd, and therefore recited:
When shall I follow on the herd
Of coursing deer again?
When brace myself against the wind
That whistles by? Ah, when?"
On hearing this, the prince was cured of his feverish malady, returned to his normal state, and said to his men: "Douse the poor deer's head in plenty of water, and set him free in the forest he came from." And they did so.
"Thus, though having suffered a previous captivity, I am caught again through constraining destiny."
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