Infatuation Once upon a time, in northern India, there was aherd of village deer. They were used to being nearvillages; they were born there and grew up there. Theyknew they had to be very careful around people. This wasespecially true at harvest time, when the crops were tall,and thc farmers trapped and killed any deer who camenear. At harvest time, the village deer stayed in the forestall day long. They only came near the village during thedark of the night. One of these was a beautiful young doe.She had soft reddish-brown fur, a fluffy white tail and bigwide bright eyes. During this particular season, there was a youngmountain buck who had strayed into the same low forest.One day, he saw the beautiful young doe, and immediatelybecame infatuated with her. He didnt know anythingabout her. But he imagined himself to be deeply in lovewith her, just because of her reddish-brown fur and herfluffy white tail and her big wide bright eyes. He evendreamed about her, although she did not know he existed! After a few days, the young mountain buck decidedto introduce himself. As he was walking out into theclearing where she was grazing, he was entranced by herappearance and could not take his eyes off her. He beganspeaking: Oh my sweet beauty, as lovely as the stars andas bright as the moon, I confess to you that I amdeeply Just then the young bucks hoof got caught in aroot, he tripped and fell, and his face splashed in a mudpuddle! The pretty village doe was flattered, so shesmiled. But inside, she thought this mountain buck wasreally rather silly! |