e that he owned
so much property: then Birluri said that if she would not go with
him he would call the cattle to come to him: so he called them all by
name and the great herd came running to the Raja's palace and filled
the whole barn yard and as there was no room for them to stay there,
they went away into the jungle and became wild cattle.

XCV. The Killing of the Rakhas.

Once upon a time a certain country was ravaged by a Rakhas to such
an extent that there were only the Raja and a few ryots left. When
things came to this pass, the Raja saw that something must be done:
for he could not be left alone in the land. Ryots need a Raja and a
Raja needs ryots: if he had no ryots where was he to get money for
his support: and he repeated the verse of the poet Kalidas:

"When the jungle is destroyed, the deer are in trouble without jungle:
When the Raja is destroyed, the ryots are in trouble without their Raja:
When the good wife of the house is destroyed, good fortune flees away."

So thinking the Raja made a proclamation throughout all the land that
if any one could kill the Rakhas he would reward him with the hand of
one of his daughters and half his kingdom. This proclamation was read
out by the headman of a certain village to the assembled villagers
and among the crowd was a mischievous youth, named Jhalka, who when
he heard the proclamation called out that he could kill the Rakhas in
ten minutes. The villagers turned on him "Why don't you go and do so:
then you would marry the Raja's daughter and we should all bow down
to you." At the thought of this Jhalka began to skip about crying "I
will finish him off in no time." The headman heard him and took him
at his word and wrote to the Raja that in his village there was a man
who undertook to kill the Rakhas. When Jhalka heard this he hurried
to the headman and explained that he had only been joking. "I cannot
treat such things as a joke" answered the headman: "Don't you know
that this is a Raja's matter: to deal with Rajas is the same as to
deal with _bongas_: you may make a promise to the _bongas_ in jest,
but they will not let you off it on that plea. You are much too fond
of playing the fool."

Ten or twelve days later sipahis came from the Raja to fetch Jhalka:
he told them that he had only spoken in jest and did not want to go
to the Raja, but they took him away all the same.

Before he started he picked out a well-tempered battle axe and begge