Panchatantra: How the Crow-Hen Killed the Black Snake*

From The Panchatantra of Vishnu Sharma, translated by Arthur W. Ryder (1925).

How the Crow-Hen Killed the Black Snake

[This story is inserted into The Loss of Friends.]

(from Directorium Humanae Vitae, 1484)

In a certain region grew a great banyan tree. In it lived a crow and his wife, occupying the nest which they had built. But a black snake crawled through the hollow trunk and ate their chicks as fast as they were born, even before baptism.

Yet for all his sorrow over this violence, the poor crow could not desert the old familiar banyan and seek another tree. For

Three cannot be induced to go -
The deer, the cowardly man, the crow:
Three go when insult makes them pant -
The lion, hero, elephant. 

At last the crow-hen fell at her husband's feet and said: "My dear lord, a great many children of mine have been eaten by that awful snake. And grief for my loved and lost haunts me until I think of moving. Let us make our home in some other tree. For

"No friend like health abounding;
And like disease, no foe;
No love like love of children;
Like hunger-pangs, no woe.

"And again:

"With fields overhanging rivers,
With wife on flirting bent,
Or in a house with serpents,
No man can be content.

"We are living in deadly peril."

At this the crow was dreadfully depressed, and he said: "We have lived in this tree a long time, my dear. We cannot desert it. For

"Where water may be sipped, and grass
Be cropped, a deer might live content;
Yet insult will not drive him from
The wood where all his life was spent.

"Moreover, by some shrewd device I will bring death upon this villainous and mighty foe."

"But," said his wife, "this is a terribly venomous snake. How will you hurt him?"

And he replied: "My dear, even if I have not the power to hurt him, still I have friends who possess learning, who have mastered the works on ethics. I will go and get from them some shrewd device of such nature that the villain curse him! will soon meet his doom."

After this indignant speech he went at once to another tree, under which lived a dear friend, a jackal. He courteously called the jackal forth, related all his sorrow, then said: "My friend, what do you consider opportune under the circumstances? The killing of our children is sheer death to my wife and me."

"My friend," said the jackal, "I have thought the matter through. You need not put yourself out. That villainous black snake is near his doom by reason of his heartless cruelty. For

"Of means to injure brutal foes
You do not need to think,
Since of themselves they fall, like trees
Upon the river's brink.

"And there is a story:

A heron ate what fish he could,
The bad, indifferent, and good;
His greed was never satisfied
Till, strangled by a crab, he died."

"How was that?" asked the crow. And the jackal told the story of The Heron That Liked Crab-Meat.*

(14th-century Egyptian ms. of Kalila-wa-Dimna)

"And that is why I say:

"A heron ate what fish he could,
The bad, indifferent, and good;
His greed was never satisfied
Till, strangled by a crab, he died."

"My friend," said the crow, "tell me how this villainous snake is to meet his doom."

And the jackal answered: "Go to some spot frequented by a great monarch. There seize a golden chain or a necklace from some wealthy man who guards it carelessly. Deposit this in such a place that when it is recovered, the snake may be killed."

So the crow and his wife straightway flew off at random, and the wife came upon a certain pond. As she looked about, she saw the women of a king's court playing in the water, and on the bank they had laid golden chains, pearl necklaces, garments, and gems. One chain of gold the crow-hen seized and started for the tree where she lived. But when the chamberlains and the eunuchs saw the theft, they picked up clubs and ran in pursuit.

Meanwhile, the crow-hen dropped the golden chain in the snake's hole and waited at a safe distance.

Now when the king's men climbed the tree, they found a hole and in it a black snake with swelling hood. So they killed him with their clubs, recovered the golden chain, and went their way.

Thereafter the crow and his wife lived in peace.

And that is why I say:

In cases where brute force would fail,
A shrewd device may still prevail:
The crow-hen used a golden chain,
And so the dreadful snake was slain.