her identity when she produced his stick and cloth. The
real Rani refused to go to his palace until the she bear had been put
to death. Thereupon the Raja gave instructions to his followers and
sent word to the palace that he was dead. The officers and servants
at the palace then prepared a big pit and lit a large fire in it:
they then sent for the she bear and told her that she must perform
the funeral ceremonies of her husband. They made her take off her
fine clothes and told her to kneel down by the burning pit and make
salaam to it. As she was doing so they pushed her into the pit and
she was burned to death. Then the Raja brought home his real bride in
triumph. But from that time bears attack men when they get the chance.

(14)--The Jackal and the Kite.

Once upon a time a jackal and a kite agreed to join forces and get
their food together. In pursuance of their plan they sent word to a
prosperous village that a Raja with his army was marching that way and
intended the next day to loot the village. The next morning the jackal
took an empty _kalsi_ and marched towards the village drumming on the
_kalsi_ with all his might, and the kite flew along overhead screaming
as loud as he could. The villagers thought that the Raja's army was
approaching and fled into the jungle. The jackal and the kite began to
feast on all the good things that had been left in the houses. There
was however one old woman who was too infirm to run away with the
other inhabitants: and had hid herself inside her house. When she saw
that no army came but only a jackal and a kite she crawled away into
the jungle and told her friends. They came back, and surrounding the
village, caught the jackal: they began to beat the jackal with sticks
to kill it: the jackal uttered no sound and pretended that it did not
mind being beaten: after a time it began to jeer at its captors and
told them that they could never kill it by beating. The asked how it
could be killed and it said by burning. So they tied a bunch of old
cloths on to its tail and poured oil over them and set them on fire:
the jackal ran off with the burning bundle at the end of its tail
and jumping on to the nearest house set fire to the thatch: the fire
spread and the whole village was burnt down. The jackal then ran to
a tank and jumping into the water extinguished its blazing tail. But
if you look you will see that all jackals have a burnt tip to their
tail to this day.

(15)-