Phrygian, gives him the preference to all other fabulists, both in
regard to matter and manner. He has left a prose translation of the
_Hitopadesa_, which, though it may not fully sustain his enthusiastic
preference, shows it not to be entirely groundless. We give a sample
of it, and select a fable which La Fontaine has served up as the
twenty-seventh of his eighth book. It should be understood that the
fable, with the moral reflections which accompany it, is taken from the
speech of one animal to another.

[1] _Vishnoo Sarmah_.--Sir William Jones has the name
_Vishnu-sarman_. He says, further, that the word
_Hitopadesa_ comes from _hita_, signifying fortune,
prosperity, utility, and _upadesa_, signifying advice,
the entire word meaning "salutary or amicable
instruction."--Ed.

"Frugality should ever be practised, but not excessive parsimony; for see
how a miser was killed by a bow drawn by himself!"

"How was that?" said Hiranyaca.

"In the country of Calyanacataca," said Menthara, "lived a mighty hunter,
named Bhairaza, or Terrible. One day he went, in search of game, into a
forest on the mountains Vindhya; when, having slain a fawn, and taken it
up, he perceived a boar of tremendous size; he therefore threw the fawn
on the ground, and wounded the boar with an arrow; the beast, horribly
roaring, rushed upon him, and wounded him desperately, so that he fell,
like a tree stricken with an axe.

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