noise, such as a crab makes.  Then the woman began “Dharmal Chandi I have a request which you must promise to grant.”  And when the bonga had promised she proceeded.  “You must have my brother-in-law killed by a tiger the day after to-morrow; he has put me to endless trouble making me go shouting after him all through the jungle; I wanted to go back quickly because I have a lot of work at home; he has wasted my time by not answering; so the day after to-morrow you must have him killed.”  The bonga promised to do what she asked and disappeared into the pool and the woman went home.

While the younger brother was up in the tree his cattle had got into a gundli field and eaten up the crop:  and the owner found it out and got the brothers fined.  So that evening the elder brother asked him where he had been that he had not looked after the cattle properly nor eaten any breakfast.  In answer the younger brother only began to cry; at that his sister-in-law said.  “Let him alone; he is crying for want of a wife; he is going silly because we have not married him;” and so nothing more was said.  But the elder brother was not satisfied and the next day when they went together to work he asked the younger what was the real reason for his crying.

Then the younger answered.  “Brother, I am in great trouble; it makes me cry all day; if you wish ever to look on my face again, you must not work in the fields to-morrow but keep me company while I tend the cattle; if we are separated for a moment a tiger will kill me; it will be quickly over for me but you I know will miss me much and so I am grieving for you; if you have any tenderness for me do not leave me to-morrow but save me from the tiger.”  His brother asked the reason for this foreboding but the younger man said that he would explain nothing and accuse no one until the events of the next day had shown whether he was speaking the truth; if a tiger really came to stalk him then that would be proof that he had had good reason for his apprehension; and he begged his brother not to speak a word about it to anyone and especially not to his wife.

The elder brother promised to keep the matter a secret and cheered his brother up and told him to be of good heart; they would take their bows and axes and he would like to see the tiger that would touch them.  So the next morning the two brothers went off together well armed and tended the cattle in company; nothing happened and at midday they brought the cattle home; when the woman saw them with bows in their hands she asked where they had been.  Her husband told her that he had been to look for a hare which he had seen on the previous day but he had not been able to find it.  Then his brother said that he had seen a hare in its form that very morning but had not had time to shoot it.  So they pretended to arrange to go and hunt this hare and after having eaten their rice they drove out the cattle again.