ABSTRACT

A very long time ago, it once rained unseasonably seven days long, and an ichneumon took refuge in a mouse-hole. Into the same hole came, after wandering to and fro, a snake, alarmed by the rain. Now the ichneumon was preparing to kill the mouse, but the snake said, “O honoured ones, as we have all suffered from the agony of intolerable woe, therefore we ought to remain here without exposing each other to danger and free from disturbance.” The snake was named Nandasena, the ichneumon Nanda, and the mouse Gaṇgādatta.