43. Look to thy end, O silly bee, says one, that art now so giddy with thy drink of the sweet honey of flower, and treadst on the heads of elephants, to sip and suck their exuding ichor, and ramblest at large among the blooming lotuses, that the winter of scarcity is fast approaching to thee, when thou shalt be constrained to live upon the dewdrops drizzling on blades of grass or dripping from stones. 44. O lord! the milk white swan with wide stretched wings entered into the lotus bush, to see after his young ones, they on seeing him, begin to cackle, as a child does on seeing his father before him. The young ones said, O father, it is all delusion, like white pearl in silver and one sees fog over his head at mid-day. 45. The swan is as silently floating over the limpid waters of the lake, as the bright moon is gently gliding along the translucent atmosphere of the firmament; and as it passes through, the beds of lotuses, its wings bruise against the blossoms, causing them to distil their fragrant fluid, which is gulped in by fishes, in the manner of the holy water of Ganges. CHAPTER CXVIII. DESCRIPTION OF DEER, PEACOCKS, CRANES &C. Argument:--This chapter is devoted to the description of some beasts and birds, some fishes and a traveller. Some companion said:--Behold the crane, which notwithstanding its destitution of all good qualities, has one special instinct of uttering the onomatopoeia signifying the rain. 2. O crane that resemblest the swan in the colour of thy feathers, thou mightest well be taken for a young swan, wert thou but without the rapacity of the king-fisher (mudgu). 3. So there is a line of king-fishers, that are expert in diving amidst deep waters, and catching the fishes in its wide extended beaks, now sitting idle on the shore, and not venturing to dart themselves into the water, for fear of the sharks, floating there with their open mouths and wide stretched jaws. 4. Thus murderers also dart upon men, in the manner of diving king-fishers, and cry out saying, “_madgu madguru_, this king-fisher is our instructor in killing.” 5. Seeing a white heron with its long neck and uplifted head, sitting silently and watching on the shore, the people took it at first for a _hansa_ or hernshaw; but finding it afterward to catch a shrimp from the marsh water, they came to know it as a heron at last. 6. A crane was observed by a woman, to be sitting on the shore like a devotee the live long day, while it was in reality watching for prey, until the evening shade, as the day labourers are wont to do for their bread. 7. Look there, says a wayfaring woman to her companion, how these rustic women are culling the lotuses amidst the frosty lake; if you like you can follow them, but I will fall back from you. 8. Look there, O lord! (says the companion to the king), how that traveller appeases his angry mate, and leads her to the flowery bower of the weedy bush.