them by a certain house in which
dwelt her son's wife; and they took the boy to Chando. Presently they
brought him back to the house in which his wife dwelt and near which
his mother was waiting and she overheard the following conversation
between the boy and his wife. The wife said "Have you come for good
this time, or must you again go back to the world?"

"I have to go back once more."

"And how will you manage to return again here?"

"I shall ask for the dust of April and May and if it is not given
to me I shall cry myself to death; and if that fails, I shall cry
for a toy winnowing fan; and if they give me that, then I will cry
for an elephant and if that fails then on my wedding day there will
be two thorns in the rice they give me to eat and they will stick
in my throat and kill me. And if that does not come to pass, then,
when I return home after the wedding, a leopard will kill a cow and
I shall run out to chase the leopard and I shall run after it, till
I run hither to you."

"When you come back," said his wife, "bring me some of the vermilion
they use in the world" and the boy promised.

The messengers then took the Brahman's wife home, and shortly
afterwards the boy was born again. His mother had carefully guarded
the memory of all that she had heard in the other world; and when
the child asked for the dust and the winnowing fan and the elephant,
she at once gratified his desires. So the boy grew up, and his wedding
day arrived. His mother insisted on accompanying him to the bride's
house, and when the rice was brought for the bride and bridegroom
to eat together, she asked to be allowed to look at it first, and on
examining it pulled out the the two thorns; and then her son ate it
unharmed. But when the wedding party returned home and the ceremony
of introducing the bride to the house was being performed, word
was brought that a leopard had killed one of the cows; at once the
bridegroom ran out in pursuit; but his mother followed him and called
out, "My son, your wife told you to take her some of the vermilion of
this world; here is some that I have brought, take it with you." At
this her son stopped and asked her to explain what she meant; then
she told him all and he went no more in pursuit of the leopard:
so he stayed and grew up and lived to a good old age.

CVI. The Speaking Crab.

There was once a farmer who kept a labourer and a field woman to do
the work of the farm; and they were bo