as you offer it to me I will take it.”  Bajun had not bargained to get any answer, so he was astounded and went to ask the villagers whether their spirits made answer when sacrificed to:  and the villagers told him that they had never heard of such a thing.  While Bajun was away on this errand, Jhore took up the unguarded basket of rice and ran away with it; after going some way he sat down by the road and ate as much as he wanted, then he sat and called out “Is there anyone on the road or in the jungle who wants a feast?” A gang of thieves who were on a thieving expedition heard him and went to see what he meant; he offered to let them eat the rice if they would admit him to their company; they agreed and he went on with them to steal; they broke into a rich man’s house and the thieves began to collect the pots and pans but Jhore felt about in the dark and got hold of a drum and began to beat on it.  This woke up the people of the house and they drove away the thieves.  Then the thieves abused Jhore and said that they could not let him stay with them:  “Very well”, said he, “then give me back the rice you ate.”  Of course they could not do this.  So they had to let him stay with them.  Then they went to the house of a rich Hindu who had a stable full of horses and they planned to steal the horses and ride away with them; so each thief picked out a horse, but Jhore got hold of a tiger which had come to the back of the stable to kill one of the horses; and when the thieves mounted their horses, Jhore mounted on the tiger, and the tiger ran off with him towards the jungle.  Jhore kept on calling out “Keep to the road, you Hindu horse, keep to the road, you Hindu horse.”  But it dragged him through the briars and bushes till he was dead and that was the end of Jhore.

II.  Anuwa and His Mother.

Once there was a young fellow named Anuwa who lived with his old mother, and when he was out ploughing his mother used to take him his breakfast.  One day a jackal met her on her way to the field with her son’s breakfast and told her to put down the food which she was carrying or he would knock her down and bite her; so she put it down in a fright and the jackal ate most of it and then went away and the old woman took what was left to her son and told him nothing about what had happened.  This happened several days in succession; at last one day Anuwa asked her why she brought so little rice and that so untidily arranged; so she told him how she was attacked every day by the jackal.  Then they made a plan that the next day the mother should take the plough afield, while Anuwa should dress up as an old woman and carry the breakfast.  This they did and the jackal met Anuwa as usual and made him put down the breakfast basket, but while the jackal was eating, Anuwa knocked him head over heels with his stick; and the jackal got up and fled, threatening and cursing Anuwa.  Among other things the jackal as he ran away, had threatened to eat Anuwa’s malhan plants, so Anuwa put a fence of thorns round them and when the jackal came at night and tried to eat the pods he only got his nose pricked.