her that he is standing by the village tank, that his coat is tattered and that his garments are torn, and ask her to let him come into her house through the back door.”  The slave-girls took him in through the back door.  His aunt had him bathed, and gave him clothes to wear, and food to eat, and drink, and a pumpkin hollowed out and filled with gold coins.  As he left, she called to him, “Do not drop it, do not forget it, but take it carefully home.”  But as the boy went home, the sun-god came disguised as a gardener and stole the pumpkin filled with gold.  When the boy reached his mother’s house she asked, “Well, my son, what did your aunt give you?” He said, “Fortune gave, but Karma [3] took away; I lost everything my aunt bestowed on me.”  Next Sunday the second son went and stood by the village tank and called out, “O slave-girls and maid-servants, who is your master?” They said, “Our master is the minister.”  “Then tell the minister’s wife that her nephew is here.”  He was taken in by the back door.  He was bathed and clothed and given food and drink.  As he was going, his aunt gave him a hollow stick full of gold coins and said, “Do not drop it, do not forget it, mind it carefully and take it home.”  On the way the sun-god came in the guise of a cowherd and stole the stick.  When the boy got home his mother asked him what he had brought.  He said, “Fortune gave, but Karma took away.”  On the third Sunday a third son went and stood by the village tank.  His aunt received him like the others and had him bathed, clothed, and fed.  As he was going away, she gave him a hollow cocoa-nut stuffed with gold coins and said, “Do not drop it, do not forget it, but mind it carefully and take it home.”  On the way back he put down the cocoa-nut on the edge of a well, and it toppled over and fell into the water with a great splash.  When he reached his mother’s house she asked him what his aunt’s present was.  He said, “I have lost everything which fortune brought me.”  On the fourth Sunday the fourth son went.  His aunt welcomed him like the others, and had him bathed and fed.  When he left she gave him an earthen pot full of gold coins.  But the sun-god came in the guise of a kite and snatched the pot away.  When the boy reached home his mother asked him whether his aunt had given him anything.  He said, “I have lost everything which my aunt gave me.”  On the fifth Sunday the mother herself got up and went to her sister’s village and stood by the tank.  The minister’s wife took her in through her back door and had her clothed and fed.  Then the minister’s wife told her that all her trouble had come through not listening to her father’s story, and the minister’s wife repeated it to her.  The king’s wife listened to it, and stayed with her sister until the following month of Shravan, or August, when she did fitting worship to the sun.