XXVII. THE UNGRATEFUL LION.1
Anton Schiefner translation
By good fortune a woodpecker, which was wont to fly from one tree-top to another, came to the place where the king of the beasts was. When it saw the lion so tormented by pain, it said, “Uncle, wherefore are you cast down?” The lion replied, “Nephew, I am tortured by pain.” “What sort of pain?” asked the woodpecker. When the lion had told the whole story, the woodpecker said, “Uncle, I will treat your case. As you are the lion and the king of all four-footed beasts, and can be of service, therefore you must from time to time be of service to me.” The lion replied, “I will act in accordance with your words.”
The woodpecker thought, “I will manage so that the lion shall not perceive what I am doing to it, and shall find it out only after recovering.” Anxious to assist the lion, the woodpecker remained there observing its way of going on. The violence of the pain having abated, the king of the beasts passed into a happier mood, and went to sleep with its jaws apart on a great, broad, flat rock. The woodpecker drew near to the king of the beasts, and thought that, as it found the lion in so convenient a position, this was the proper moment for treating it. After making a careful examination, the woodpecker, by means of a continued fluttering of its wings, extracted the bone which had stuck between the lion’s teeth. And the lion sat up, with eyes opening after surmounted slumber. Then the woodpecker, knowing that the king of the beasts was freed from pain and discomfort, came up to it in high glee, and said, “O uncle, here is the bone which caused the pain.” The king of the beasts was greatly astonished and said, “O nephew, as I wish to recompense you for this service, come to me from time to time in order that I may be of use to you.” The woodpecker replied, “Good, I will do so,” and flew away.
At another time, while the king of the beasts was devouring flesh, the woodpecker, which had been seized by a falcon, and had only just escaped from death, appeared before the king of the beasts in a state of suffering from hunger. Having described its need, it said to the lion, “O uncle, I am tormented with hunger, so give me a piece of flesh.” The lion replied in a verse—
“Having torn to pieces a living creature, I am now savage and a misdoer. Are not you, who passed between my teeth, thankful for remaining alive?”
The woodpecker answered likewise in verse—
“Profitless are forms seen in dreams and accumulations flung into the ocean. Profitless are intercourse with a bad man, and benefits conferred on the ungrateful.”