looked at him compassionately, and examined the signet with
curiosity. Then he commanded, and they brought out dusty records and
archives of the kingdom, and old coins of previous reigns, and compared
them faithfully. At last the king turned to the old man, and said: 'Old
man, such a king as this whose signet thou hast, reigned seven hundred
years ago; but he is said to have disappeared, none know whither; where
got you the ring?'

Then the old man smote his breast, and cried out with a loud
lamentation; for he understood that he, who was not content to wait
patiently to see the Paradise of the faithful, had been judged already.
And he turned and left the hall without a wor, and went into the jungle,
where he lived for twenty-five years a life of prayer and and
meditation, until at last the Angel of Death came to him, and mercifully
released him, purged and purified through his punishment.

How Isuro the Rabbit Tricked Gudu

[A Pathan story told to Major Campbell.]

Far away in a hot country, where the forests are very thick and dark,
and the rivers very swift and strong, there once lived a strange pair of
friends. Now one of the friends was a big white rabbit named Isuro, and
the other was a tall baboon called Gudu, and so fond were they of each
other that they were seldom seen apart.

One day, when the sun was hotter even than usual, the rabbit awoke from
his midday sleep, and saw Gudu the baboon standing beside him.

'Get up,' said Gudu; 'I am going courting, and you must come with me. So
put some food in a bag, and sling it round your neck, for we may not be
able to find anything to eat for a long while.'

Then the rabbit rubbed his eyes, and gathered a store of fresh green
things from under the bushes, and told Gudu that he was ready for the
journey.

They went on quite happily for some distance, and at last they came to a
river with rocks scattered here and there across the stream.

'We can never jump those wide spaces if we are burdened with food,'
said Gudu, 'we must throw it into the river, unless we wish to fall in
ourselves.' And stooping down, unseen by Isuro, who was in front of
him, Gudu picked up a big stone, and threw it into the water with a loud
splash.

'It is your turn now,' he cried to Isuro. And with a heavy sigh, the
rabbit unfastened his bag of food, which fell into the river.

The road on the other side led down an avenue of trees, and before they
had gone very far Gudu open