Story, story! Let it go, let it come!
This is a tale about some young men who were friends.
In the days of old, two boys made a covenant of friendship. They lived together and were inseparable, like two hands washing one another. They loved maidens who lived in an outlying village, and always they used to go together to bring them home.
On one occasion, one of the friends did not go, so only one went to bring the maidens. When he went, he brought back the girls safely.
As they were going along the path, they met a lion. The beast sprang from the bush, knocked down one of the girls, and lay upon her. But the young man drew his sword and struck at the lion's head. The lion died, and he found the maiden was not dead.
Then he devised a test. He told the maiden to lie down beneath the lion's body along with him, and he said one of them was to go and tell his friend what had happened.
So the maiden consented. She ran off until she found the other friend, who had begun to sleep. She roused him in alarm.
He said, "Where are So-and-so and So-and-so?"
She said, "They are out there. A lion has killed them."
He rose up immediately. He did not take anything with him no sword, no spear. He went along and came to where the lion was. It was lying above them.
He did not hesitate. He sprang and climbed on top of the lion, ready to fight it to save his friends. He thought it was alive. Truly, it was dead.
Then the first friend rose up from beneath the beast and said, "Rise, So-and-so, you have proved yourself a free-born man!"
So they lifted up the maiden and went home together.
Now, among them, who was better than another? Was it the one who killed the beast, or the one who rushed to die for his friend?
If you do not know, there it is.
Off with the rat's head.