ls remained; as long as the tree stood
new branches would grow; but if the tree fell there was no more hope;
so in the end the children were left where they were.

No sooner had the mother gone than a pair of king vultures swooped down
to make a meal of the children but they cried so pitifully that the
vultures had hot the heart to kill them but instead carried them up
to their nest and brought them food: and nurtured them. And when the
children began to walk they carried them down to the ground and when
they were big enough to take care of themselves they told them to go
into the neighbouring villages and beg; but they forbade them to go
towards the village in which their real parents lived. So every day
the two boys went out begging, and as they went from house to house,
they sang:--

"Our mother took away the _karla_ fruit
She covered us up with Asan leaves.
The pair of King vultures
Reared us.--Give us alms."

And people had pity on them and gave them enough to live on. One day
the two boys thought that they would go and see what the country was
like in the direction which had been forbidden to them; so they set
out singing their usual song, and when they came to the house where
their mother lived she heard them sing and knew that they must be her
children; so she called them and bathed them and oiled their bodies
and told them that she was their mother and they were very glad to
stay with her.

But when the children did not return, the vultures flew in search
of them and circled round and round in the air looking for them. The
mother saw them and knew what they wanted, so she took the children
into the house and hid them under a large basket. But the vultures flew
down to the house and tore a hole in the thatch and entered through it
and overturned the basket and seized the children. Then the father and
mother also caught hold of them and the vultures pulled and the parents
pulled until the children were torn in two and the vultures flew away
with the portions they had secured. The father and mother sorrowfully
burnt on a pyre the remains of the children that were left to them.

The vultures when they reached their nest were unwilling to eat the
flesh of the children they had reared, so they set fire to their nest;
but as the flames rose high, some juice spirted out from the burning
flesh on to the vultures and they tasted it and found it so good
that they pulled the rest of the flesh out