Book V (Ill-Considered Action) — The Three-Breasted Princess

In the north country was a city called Honey-Town, where the king was named Honey-Host. And once there was born to him a daughter with three breasts. As soon as he learned of the birth of a three-breasted girl, he summoned the chamberlain and said: “Sir, let this girl be exposed in the forest, so that not a single soul may learn the fact.”

To this the chamberlain replied: “O king of kings, it is a well-known fact that a three-breasted daughter brings misfortune. In spite of this, the Brahmans should be summoned and their opinion asked, in order that no law be offended, whether human or divine. For the proverb says:

A prudent man should always ask What is beyond his ken:

A dreadful fiend the Brahman caught, But let him go again.”

“How was that?” asked the king. And the chamberlain told the story of