Latest / Sandman Stories Presents / EP 341: Panchatantra- CH 28 The Unteachable Monkey; CH 29 Right Mind and Wrong Mind; CH30 A Remedy Worse Than The Disease (Ryder)

Transcript

EP 341: Panchatantra- CH 28 The Unteachable Monkey; CH 29 Right Mind and Wrong Mind; CH30 A Remedy Worse Than The Disease (Ryder) · Sandman Stories Presents

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  Welcome back, listeners to Sam Mann Stories Presents, a
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  folklore podcast where I read you to sleep or until the next
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  story. I'm your host, Dustin, and if
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  you're looking for the stories that are too spicy for the main
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  feed, come on over to Patreon and you can get all the stuff
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  for free. And today we are back in the
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  Indian epic The Panchatantra, translated by Arthur Ryder.
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  In the previous chapters, Victor and Cheek are still arguing
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  about what right counsel was. We also heard about a king who
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  believed lies until a wise counselor helped him.
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  Let's jump back into it at chapter 28 called The
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  Unteachable Monkey. OK, let's resume and Cheek told
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  the story of the unteachable monkey.
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  Chapter 28. In a part of the forest was a
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  troop of monkeys who found a Firefly 1 winter evening when
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  they were dreadfully depressed. On examining the insect, they
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  believed it to be fire, so they lifted it with care, covered it
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  with dry grass and leaves, thrust forward their arms, sides
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  and stomachs and chests, and scratch themselves, and enjoyed
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  imagining that they were warm. One of the arboreal creatures in
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  particular, being especially chilly, blew repeatedly and with
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  concentrated attention on the Firefly.
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  Thereupon a bird named Needleface, driven by hostile
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  fate to her own destruction, flew down from her tree and said
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  to the monkey, My dear Sir, do not put yourself through
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  unnecessary trouble. This is not fire.
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  This is a Firefly. He, however, did not heed her
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  warning, but blew again, nor did he stop when she tried once more
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  to check him. To cut a Long story short, she
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  vexed him by coming close and shouting in his ear.
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  He seized her and dashed her on a rock, crushing her face, eyes,
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  head, and neck, so that she died.
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  And that is why I say no knife prevails against a stone and the
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  rest of it. For after all, educating minds
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  unfit cannot rescue sluggish wit, just as house lamps wasted
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  are set within a covered jar. Plainly you're what is known as
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  worst born. The technical explanation runs
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  son of four. Divergent kinds are discerned by
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  well trained minds born and like born better born.
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  Lastly, worst born has their scorn born the mother image
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  gives like born like the father lives better born more nobly
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  acts worse born morally subtracts.
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  Ah, there's wisdom in the saying by whom?
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  Far piercing wisdom or great wealth or power is 1.
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  To lift a family in him a mother has a son.
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  Again, a merely striking beauty is not so hard to find A rarer
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  gemma's wisdom far reaching power of mind.
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  Yes, there is sense in the story.
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  Right mind was one and wrong mind was 2.
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  I know the tale by heart. The son in smoke made father
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  choke by being super smart. How was that asked?
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  Victor and Cheek told the story of right mind and wrong mind.
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  Chapter 29. In a certain city live 2
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  friends, sons of merchants. Their names were Right Mind and
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  Wrong Mind. These two travelled to another
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  country far away in order to earn money.
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  There the one named Rightmind, as a consequence of favoured
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  fortune, found a pot containing 1000 dinars which have been
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  hidden long ago by a holy man. He indebted the matter to
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  Wrongmind and they decided to go home since their object was
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  attained. So they were turned together
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  when they drew near their native city.
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  Rightmind, said My good friend, half of this falls on your
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  share. Pray take it so that now that we
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  are at home, we may cut a brilliant figure before our
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  friends and those less friendly but wrong mind, with a sneaking
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  thought of his own advantage said to the other, My good
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  friend, so long as we 2 hold this treasure in common, so long
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  will our virtuous friendship suffer no interruption.
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  Let us each take 100 dinars and go to our homes after bearing
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  the remainder. The decrease or increase of this
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  treasure will serve as a test of our virtue.
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  Now right Mind and the nobility of his nature did not comprehend
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  the hidden duplicity of his friend and agreed to take the
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  proposal. Each then took a certain sum of
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  money. They carefully hid the residue
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  in the ground and made their entrance into the city.
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  Before long, Wrong Mind exhausted his preliminary
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  portion. Because he practiced the vice of
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  unwise expenditure and because his predetermined fate offered
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  him vulnerable points. He therefore made a second
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  division with Right Mind, each taking a second hundred.
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  Within a year, this too had slipped into the same way
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  through Wrong Minds fingers. As a result, his thoughts took
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  this form. Suppose I divide another 200
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  with him. Then what's the good of the
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  remainder? A paltry 400, even if I steal
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  it, I think I prefer to steal around 600.
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  After this meditation, he went alone, removed the treasure and
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  leveled the ground. A mere month later, he took the
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  initiative, going to right Mind and saying, My good friend, let
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  us divide the rest of the money equally.
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  So he and right mind visited the spot and began to dig.
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  When the excavation failed to reveal any treasure, that
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  impudent wrong mind, first of all smote his own head with the
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  empty pot and shouted what became of that good lucre?
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  Surely, right mind, you must have stolen it.
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  Give me my half. If you don't, I will bring you
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  to court. Be silent, villain, said the
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  other. My name is right, mind.
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  Such thefts are not in my line. You know the verse.
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  A man right minded sees but trash, mere clouds of earth and
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  others cash, a mother and his neighbor's wife, and all that
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  lives his own dear life. So together they carried their
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  dispute to court and related the theft of the money.
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  And when the magistrate learned the facts, they decreed an
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  ordeal for each but wrong mind said come.
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  This judgement is not proper, for the legal dictum runs best
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  evidence is written word next witnesses who saw and heard then
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  only let ordeals prevail when witnesses completely fail.
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  In the present case I have a witness, the goddess of the
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  wood. She will reveal to you which one
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  of us is guilty and which one is not guilty.
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  And they replied, You are quite right, Sir, for there is a
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  further saying. 2 meanest witnesses.
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  Ordeals should never be preferred, of course, much less
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  if you possess a forest goddess word.
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  Now we also feel a great interest in the case.
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  You 2 must accompany us tomorrow morning to that part of the
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  forest. With this they accepted bail
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  from each and sent them home. Then wrong mine went home and
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  asked his father's help. Father dear, said he, the dinars
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  are in my hand. They only require 1 little word
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  from you. This very night I'm going to
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  hide you out of sight in a hole in the mimosa tree that grows
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  near the spot where I dug the treasure out before in the
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  morning. You must be my witness in the
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  presence of these magistrates. O my son, said the father, We
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  are both lost. This is no kind of scheme.
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  There is wisdom in the old story, the good and bad of given
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  schemes Wyslop must first reveal.
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  The stupid Heron saw his chicks provide a Mongoose meal.
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  How was that asked? Wrongmind and his father told
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  the story of a remedy worse than the disease.
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  Chapter 30. A flock of herons once had their
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  nest in a fig tree in part of the forest, and a hole in the
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  tree lived a black snake, who made the practice of eating the
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  Heron chicks before their wings sprouted.
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  At last one Heron, an utter woe at seeing the young ones eaten
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  by a snake, went to the shore of the pond, shed a flood of tears
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  and stood with a downcast face. A crab who noticed him in this
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  attitude, said Uncle, why are you so tearful today, my good
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  friend, said the Heron, What am I to do?
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  Fate is against me. My babies and the youngsters
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  belong to my relatives, have been eaten by a snake that lives
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  in the hole in the fig tree. Grieved at their grief, I weep.
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  Tell me, is there any possible device for killing him?
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  On hearing this, the crab reflected.
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  After all, he has a natural born enemy of my race.
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  I will give him such advice. A kind of true lie that other
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  herons may also perish. For the proverb says, Let your
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  speech like butter be steal your heart remorselessly stir an
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  enemy to action that destroys him with his faction.
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  And he said aloud, Uncle, conditions being as they are,
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  scatter bits of fish all the way from the Mongoose.
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  Burrow into the snake's hole. The Mongoose will follow that
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  trail and destroy that villainous snake.
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  When this had been done, the Mongoose followed the bits of
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  fish, killed the villainous snake, and also aided his
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  leisure. All the herons who made their
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  home in the tree. And that is why I say the good
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  and the bad of given schemes, and the rest of it, but wrong
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  mind to stain the paternal warning.
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  And during the night he hid his father out of sight in the hole
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  in the tree. When morning came, the scamp
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  took a bath, put on clean garments, and followed Wright
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  Mine and the magistrates to the Mimosa tree, where he cried in
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  piercing tones. Earth, heaven, and death, The
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  feeling mind, sun, moon and water, fire and wine, both
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  twilights, just as day and night, discern man's conduct
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  wrong or right, O blessed goddess of the wood, which of
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  the two of us is a thief? Speak then wrong.
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  Man's father spoke from his hole in the Mimosa.
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  Gentlemen, Right Mind took that money, and when all the King's
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  men heard the statement, their eyes blossomed with
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  astonishment, and they searched their minds to discover the
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  appropriate legal penalty for stealing money in order to visit
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  it on Right Mind. Meanwhile, Right Mind put a lot
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  of kindling in the hole of the mimosa tree and set it on fire.
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  As the mimosa burned, Wrong Mind's father emerged from the
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  hole with pitiful wail, his body scorched and his eyes popping
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  out, and they all asked, Why? Sir, what does this mean?
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  It is all Wrong Mind's doing, he replied, whereupon the King's
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  men hanged Wrong Mind, the branch of the Mimosa, while they
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  commanded Right Mind and caused him satisfaction by conferring
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  upon him the King's favor and other things.
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  And that is why I say Right Mind was one and Wrong Mind 2 and the
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  rest of it. After telling the story, Qi
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  continued, Poor fool, by your over subtle wisdom you have
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  burned your own family. Yes, there is wisdom in the
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  saying. Rivers find their ending in the
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  salty sea. Household peace as soon as women
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  disagree, secrets end that do not.
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  Every traitor is shun. Families are ended in a wicked
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  song. Besides, who can trust a
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  creature, whether human or not? That is 2 tongues in a single
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  mouth. As the proverb says.
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  Mouths of snake and scamp bear a savage stamp.
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  Rough and ruthless. Still only good for I'll.
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  When the tongue is double, you may look for trouble.
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  Consequently, your conduct makes me fearful for my own person,
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  for I would not trust a Rascal his ways.
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  I understand the petted, pampered serpent will bite the
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  feeding hand again. A fire will burn though kindled
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  and fragrant sandalwood. A Rascal is a Rascal, although
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  his birth is good. After all, this is the very
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  nature of rascals, as the proverb says.
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  Each self advising traitor, skillful as columniator fate
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  condemns to ruin all who within his clutches fall O in any
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  tongue in human mouth that lends itself to Slander's can't, yet
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  does not split 100 times, is surely made of adamant O.
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  May no evil ever befall the lion man who loves his kind, who
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  practices a silent vow when others faults are in his mind.
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  AH1 must use great circumspection in making
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  acquaintances, as the proverb says, with the shrewd and
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  upright man. Seek a friendship.
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  Rare exercise with shrewd and false super heedful care.
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  Pity for the upright fool. Find within your heart.
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  If a man be full and false, shun him from the start.
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  Yes, your efforts have tended to the destruction of not only your
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  own family, but toward the last of the master too.
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  Since you reduce your own master to this state, other persons
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  mean no more to you than withered grass.
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  As the saying goes, where mice eat balance beams of iron. 1000
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  pails in weight. A hawk might steal an elephant,
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  a boy is trifling freight. How was that?
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  Asked Victor, and she told the story of the mice that ate iron.
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  To be continued. Thank you and good night.