“The peepul’s leaves go flicker, flicker: 
    The banyan’s leaves are thick and fleshy: 
    Of the fan palm’s leaf, brother, make a cup. 
    And we will drink the juice of the date palm.”

So her brother made a drinking vessel of a palm leaf and they drank the date juice and went on their way.  At nightfall they rested at the foot of a Bael tree and fell into a drunken sleep from the date juice they had drunk.

As the woman lay senseless her child was born to her and no sooner was the child born than a bael fruit fell on to its head and split it into four pieces which flew apart and became four hills.  From falling on the new-born child the bael fruit has ever since had a sticky juice and the tree is covered with thorns which are the hair of the child.  In the morning the man and woman went on and came to a forest of Tarop trees and the woman wiped her bloody hands on the Tarop trees and so the Tarop tree ever since exudes a red juice like blood.

Next morning they went on and came to a spring and drank of its water and afterwards the woman bathed in it and the blood stained water flowed over all the country and so we see stagnant water covered with a red scum.  Going on from there they reached a low lying flat and halted; almost at once they saw a thunder storm coming up from the South and West; and the woman sang—­

    “A storm as black as the so fruit, brother,
    Is coming, full of danger for us: 
    Come let us flee to the homestead of the liquor seller.”

But the brother answered—­

    “The liquor seller’s house is an evil house: 
    You only wish to go there for mischief.”

So they stayed where they were and the lightning came and slew them both.

CLXIX.  Pregnant Women.

Pregnant women are not allowed to go about alone outside the village; for there are bongas everywhere and some of them dislike the sight of pregnant women and kill them or cause the child to be born wry-necked.

A pregnant woman may not make a mud fireplace for if she does her child will be born with a hare-lip; nor may she chop vegetables during an eclipse or the same result will follow.  She may not ride in a cart, for if she does the child will be always crying and will snore in its sleep; if she eats the flesh of field rats the child’s body will be covered with hair and if she eats duck or goose flesh the child will be born with its fingers and toes webbed.  Nor may a pregnant woman look on a funeral, for if she does her child will always sleep with its eyes half open.

CLXX.  The Influence of the Moon.