GOOD

AFTERNOON
 "COUNT NOT
YOUR CHICKENS
BEFORE THEY BE
HATCHED"
COUNT NOT YOUR
CHICKENS
BEFORE THEY BE
HATCHED

DISCUSSANT: ALYZZA PATRICE

REPIZO
 CONTEXT CLUES
BRAHMAN refers to a member of the highest Hindu caste, traditionally
regarded as the priestly or scholarly class.

BARLEY GRITS made by milling barley grain into small pieces.

a short cylindrical piece of wood, metal, or plastic,

PEG typically tapered at one end, that is used for holding things
together, hanging things on, or marking a position.

a camp bed, particularly a portable, collapsible one; a plain

COT narrow bed.
 CONTEXT CLUES
UNAVERTED not averted or turned away.

the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings to her

DOWRY husband or his family in marriage.

TROT run at a moderate pace, typically with short steps.

the hard part on the bottom of the feet of animals such as

HOOFS horses, sheep, and deer
 COUNT NOT YOUR CHICKENS
BEFORE THEY BE HATCHED

By: Vishnu Sharma (Pilpay) (c. 1000 B.C.)

• From the ‘Panchatantra,’ Book v., Fable 9:

Translation of Charles Rockwell Lanman
• [This is the well-known tale of the ‘Milkmaid who
poised a full pail on her head,’ La Fontaine’s
‘Perrette’ (vii. 10). It recurs in the ‘Arabian
Nights’ (Night 716), and often elsewhere.]
 INTRODUCTION
Once upon a time there lived in a certain
town a Brahman named Duckless. He
begged a lot of barley grits; and with
what he had left over from his dinner, he
filled a jar.
 CONT.

This he hung on a low peg in the wall,

put his cot beneath it, and looking at it
with unaverted gaze, he bethought him:
"This pot is full of barley grits and, if
there comes a famine, will fetch me a
hundred pieces of silver.
 CONT.
With them I shall buy me a couple of she-goats;
and as they will drop kids every six months, I
shall soon have a herd from them. For the goats
I shall get many cows; for the cows buffalo-
cows; and for them, mares; and when they have
foaled, I shall have many horses; and from the
sale of them, much gold.
 CONT.
With the gold I'll get a house with four
rooms, about a court. And then some
brahman will come to my house, and
give me his lovely daughter, with a rich
dowry in marriage. "She will bear me a
son, and I'll name him Sona-carman.
 CONT.
When he's old enough for me to trot him
on my knee, I'll take a book, and sitting
out behind the stable, I'll study it. Then
Sona-carman, seeing me, and eager to be
trotted on my knees, will leave his
mother's lap and in coming to me will get
right near the horses' hoofs.
 CONT.

And I, full of anger shall say to my wife.

"Take the child, quick." She is busy with
housework, won't hear me, and I shall get
up and give her a kick.
 CONT.
Deep sunk in thought he gave such a kick
that he broke the jar, and the grits ran
down over him till he was well whitened.
 MORAL LESSON
"DO NOT DEPEND ON
SOMETHING UNTIL IT
HAPPENS; DO NOT BASED
PLANS BASED ON EVENTS
THAT HAVE NOT
HAPPENED YET."
 TIME FOR
QUESTIONS
THANK YOU
FOR
LENDING ME
YOUR EARS!