148 CfctLON BRANCH — ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



head from his body, as a flower is severed from its stalk with 

 shears, and descended into the water. The god who resided in 

 the tree, seeing this wonderful transaction, caused the woods to 

 resound with his plaudits, and with a mellifluous voice said, 



Fraudful cunning does not in the end produce permanent ad- 

 vantage : the fraudulent person may be circumvented as the 

 crane was by the crab. 



He who was the crane at that time is now the Dewaram 

 priest : the crab is now the country priest by whom the other 

 has been taken in, and I Budha was then the god residing in the 

 tree who witnessed the transaction, 



