Introduction
PV Ramaswami Raju published a collection of Indian Fables in 1887, shortly after he was called to the Bar and while he was teaching Indian languages at Oxford University and later at London. His fables are a creative blend of tradition and imagination: this one tells how one wily old goat saved the whole herd with an audacious bluff.
A LION was eating up one after another the animals of a certain country. One day an old goat said, “We must put a stop to this. I have a plan by which he may be sent away from this part of the country.”
“Pray act up to it at once,” said the other animals.
The old goat laid himself down in a cave on the roadside, with his flowing beard and long curved horns. The lion on his way to the village saw him, and stopped at the mouth of the cave.
“So you have come, after all,” said the goat.
“What do you mean?” said the lion.
“Why, I have long been lying in this cave, I have eaten up one hundred elephants, a hundred tigers, a thousand wolves, and ninety-nine lions. One more lion has been wanting.
Précis
Once there was a lion that preyed on all the animals of that region. A wily goat confronted the lion and pretended that he had been hoping to meet him, as he was accustomed to eat all manner of ferocious beasts and the lion would bring his tally of dead lions to an even hundred. (55 / 60 words)
Once there was a lion that preyed on all the animals of that region. A wily goat confronted the lion and pretended that he had been hoping to meet him, as he was accustomed to eat all manner of ferocious beasts and the lion would bring his tally of dead lions to an even hundred.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, besides, if, may, or, until, whether, who.
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