at had been done, and said that some other method of destroying him
must be followed.

He was then condemned to death by being boiled in oil; and while the
caldron was being heated, he begged and obtained leave to go and tell
his mother of his late survival, and, of the manner in which he was
soon to be taken off. His brothers having heard the latest judgment,
the fourth one went to bear the penalty of the law, and was lowered
into the kettle of boiling oil, where he disported himself as if in a
tepid bath, and even asked the executioners to stir up the fire a
little to increase the warmth. Finding that he could not be fried, he
was remanded to prison.

Then the populace, the bereaved parents, and the magistrate joined in
effort to invent a sure method of putting him to death. Water, fire
and sword all having failed, they finally fixed upon smothering him in
a vast cream-cake. The whole country round made contributions of flour
for the tough pastry, sugar for the viscid filling, and bricks for a
huge oven; and it was made and baked on a plain outside the city
walls. Meanwhile the prisoner was allowed to go and bid his mother
farewell, and the fifth brother secretly became his substitute. When
the cake was done, a multitude of people, with oxen, horses, and
ropes, dragged it to the execution ground, and within it the culprit
was interred. As he was able to exist without air, he rested
peacefully till the next midnight. Then he safely crawled forth, and
returned to his home, where he dwelt happily for many years with his
remarkable brothers.

_The Lac of Rupees_

A poor blind Brahman and his wife were dependent on their son for
their subsistence. Every day the young fellow used to go out and get
what he could by begging. This continued for some time, till at last
he became quite tired of such a wretched life, and determined to go
and try his luck in another country. He informed his wife of his
intention, and ordered her to manage somehow or other for the old
people during the few months that he would be absent. He begged her to
be industrious, lest his parents should be angry and curse him.

One morning he started with some food in a bundle, and walked on day
after day, till he reached the chief city of the neighbouring country.
Here he went and sat down by a merchant's shop and asked alms. The
merchant inquired whence he had come, why he had come, and what was
his caste; to which he replied that he was a Br