with a swollen stomach; and when it saw the boy
it said "I am like to die with this pain in my stomach, how can I be
cured?" and the boy proposed that it should take him to the cotton
tree in the midst of the sea and there they might learn a remedy from
the Bohmae birds. The alligator agreed, so the boy got on its back
and was taken across the water. Then the boy sat at the foot of the
cotton tree and sang:--

"Come down, Bohmae birds,
I wish to consult the oracle."

But the birds were frightened and flew to the top of the tree. But as
he went on singing, they became curious and came down and asked what
was the matter, and he said "There are three old woman and one has a
stool stuck to her and one a bundle of grass and one a rice pounder;
how are they to be freed?" And they said "The first old woman never
asked visitors to her house to take a seat; if she does so in future
she will get rid of the stool,"--and as they said this they came
nearer--"and the second old woman, if she saw anyone with straws
sticking in their hair never offered to take them out. If she does
so in future she will be freed," and as they said this they came
nearer still--"and the third old woman would not allow widows and
orphans to use her rice pounder: if she does so she will be freed:"
and as they said this they came quite near, and the boy seized them
and broke their wings, and as he did so the Jogi's arms were broken;
then he snapped off their legs, and as he did so the Jogi's legs were
broken; and the birds screamed and the Jogi howled.

Then the alligator carried the boy back, and by the time it reached
the shore it was cured of its pain. On his way back the boy told the
three old women of what the birds had said; and when he got to the
Jogi's palace he twisted off the heads of the Bohmae birds and then
the Jogi's head fell to the ground.

Then he started homewards with his mother, carrying the birds and
their heads; and the Jogi's head came rolling after them. But he saw
a blacksmith's fire burning by the side of the road and he threw the
birds into the fire and the Jogi's head rolled into the fire and was
burnt, and that was the end of him. When they came to the river where
his father and uncles were turned into stones, he bathed in the river,
and then put a cloth over the stones and they were restored to human
shape; and they rubbed their eyes and said "We must have slept a long
time" and were astonished when they heard