h to get an
opportunity and kill him. This is my story which thou hast heard; now,
tell me, who art thou and what is thy story?" The thief replied:

"I am a man whose trade is roguery, and I am occupied night and day
with thinking how to steal some one's goods and impose the scar of
affliction on his heart. I am now going, as the recluse has got a fat
buffalo, to steal it and use it for my own wants." The demon said;

"Praise be to God that the bond of kinship is strong between us, and
this alone is sufficient to ally us, since the object of both is to
assail him."

They then proceeded on their way, and at night reached the cell of the
recluse. The latter had finished the performance of his daily worship,
and had gone to sleep, just as he was, on his prayer-carpet. The thief
bethought himself, that if the demon attempted to kill him he would
probably awake and make an outcry; and the other people who were his
neighbours, would be alarmed, and in that case it would be impossible
to steal the buffalo. The demon, too, reflected that if the thief
carried off the buffalo from the house, he must of course open the
door. Then the noise of the door would very likely awaken the recluse,
and he should have to postpone killing him. He then said to the thief:
"Do thou wait and give me time to kill the hermit, and then do thou
steal the buffalo." The thief rejoined: "Stop thou till I steal the
buffalo, and then kill the hermit."

This difference was prolonged between them, and at last the words of
both came to wrangling. The thief was so annoyed that he called out to
the recluse: "There is a demon here who wants to kill thee." The
demon, too, shouted: "Here is a thief, who wants to steal thy buffalo."

The hermit was roused by the uproar, and raised a cry, whereupon the
neighbours came, and both the thief and the demon ran way; and the life
and property of the Holy Man remained safe and secure through the
quarrel of his enemies.

When the two hostile armies fall to strife,
Then from its sheath what need to draw the knife?

The King and the Hawk

It is related that in ancient times there was a King fond of hunting.
He was ever giving reins to the courser of his desire in the pursuit of
game, and was always casting the lasso of gladness over the neck of
sport. Now this King had a Hawk, who at a single flight could bring
down a pebble from the peak of the Caucasus, and in terror of whose
claws the constel