and she returned home.  Now in the village lived a poor man and his wife and they were much liked because they were industrious and obedient; shortly afterwards this poor man died and the pious woman saw men come with a palankin and take away the poor man’s soul with great ceremony.  She was pleased at the sight and thought that the souls of all men were taken away like this.  But shortly afterwards her father-in-law died.  He had been a rich man, but harsh, and while the family were mourning the pious woman saw four sipahis armed with iron-shod staves and of fierce countenance come to the house and two entered and took the father-in-law by the neck and thrust him forth; they bound him and beat him, they knocked him down and as he could not walk they dragged him away by his legs.  The woman followed him to the end of the garden and when she saw him being dragged away, she screamed.  When her husband’s relatives saw her screaming and crying they were angry and said that she must have killed her father-in-law by witchcraft, for she did not sit by the corpse and cry but went to the end of the garden.  So after the body had been burnt they held a council and questioned her and told her that they would hold her to be a witch, if she could not explain.  So she told them of the power which the Jugi had conferred on her and of what she had seen, and they believed her and acquitted her of the charge of witchcraft; but from that time she lost her power and saw no more spirits.

VIII.  The Wise Daughter-in-Law.

There was once a rich man who had seven sons, but one day his wife died and after this the family fell into poverty.  All their property was sold and they lived by selling firewood in the bazar.  At last the wife of the eldest son said to her father-in-law.  “I have a proposal to make:  Do you choose one of us to be head of the family whom all shall obey; we cannot all be our own masters as at present.”  The old man said “Well, I choose you,” and he assembled the whole family and made them promise to obey the wife of his eldest son.

Thereupon she told them that they must all go out into the fields and bring her whatever they found.  So the next day they went out in different directions and the old man found some human excrement and he thought “Well, my daughter-in-law told me to bring whatever I found” so he wrapped it up in leaves and took it home; and his daughter-in-law told him that he had done well and bade him hang up the packet at the back of the house.  A few days later he found the slough of a snake and he took that home and his daughter-in-law told to tie a clod of earth to it to prevent its being blown away, and to throw it on to the roof of the house.