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Beastly VIKRAM SETH BEASTLY TALES From Here And There o~<a Beastly Tales from Here and There VIKING Penguin India by the same author MAPPINGS (poems) THE HUMBLE ADMINISTRATOR'S GARDEN (poems) FROM HEAVEN LAKE: TRAVELS THROUGH SINKIANG AND TIBET THE GOLDEN GATE: A NOVEL IN VERSE ALL YOU WHO SLEEP TONIGHT (poems) THREE CHINESE p 6 e t s (translations) VIKRAM SETH Beastly Tales FROM HERE AND THERE Illustrations by Ravi Shankar VIKING VIKING Penguin Books India (P).Ltd., B4/246, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi 110 029, India Penguin Books Ltd., Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England Penguin Books USA Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, N.Y.10014 USA Penguin Books Australia Ltd., Ringwood, Victoria, Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd., 10 Alcorn Avenue, Suite 300, Toronto, Ontario M4V 3B2, Canada Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd., 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand First published in VIKING by Penguin Books India (P) Ltd., 1992 Copyright © Vikram Seth 1991 All rights reserved Typeset in Palatino by dTech, New Delhi Made in India by Ananda Offset Private Ltd., Calcutta This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall hot, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publish­ er's prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser and without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above mentioned publisher of this book. Co n ten ts The Crocodile and the Monkey 1 The Louse and the Mosquito 9 The Mouse and the Snake 15 The Rat and the Ox 19 The Eagle and the Beetle 27 The Hare and the Tortoise 33 The Cat and the Cock 43 The Goat and the Ram 55 The Frog and the Nightingale 63 The Elephant and the Tragopan 69 .
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