Then the stranger told her to join the severed head to the body and cover it with the wet gamcha; and then, after waiting a little, to beat the body with the meral twig.  So saying he disappeared.  The girl carefully complied with these instructions and to her joy saw the merchant’s son sit up and rub his eyes, remarking that he must have been asleep for a long time.  Great was his astonishment when he heard how Damagurguria had killed him and how he had been restored to life by the help of the stranger in white.  This was the end of the lovers’ troubles and they lived happily ever after.

XXVII.  The Flycatcher’s Egg.

One day a herd boy found a flycatcher’s egg and he brought it home and asked his mother to cook it for him, but she put it on a shelf and forgot about it.  His mother was a poor woman and had to go out all day to work; so before she started she used always to cook her son’s dinner and leave it covered up all ready for him.  No sooner had she gone to work than a bonga girl used to come out of the flycatcher’s egg and first eat up the rice that had been left for the herd boy and then quickly put water on to boil and cook some rice with pulse; and, having eaten part of it, cover up the rest, ready for the herd boy on his return.  Then she used to comb and dress her hair and go back into the egg.  This happened every day and at last the boy asked his mother why she gave him rice cooked with pulse every day, as he was tired of it.  His mother was much astonished and said that some one must have been changing his food, because she always cooked his rice with vegetables.  At this the boy resolved to watch and see who was touching his food; so one day he climbed up on to the rafters and lay in wait.  Presently out of the egg came the bonga girl and cooked the food and combed her hair as usual.  Just as she was going back into the egg, the herd boy sprang down and caught her.  “Fi, Fi,” cried she “is it a Dome or a Hadi who is clasping me?” “No Dome or Hadi,” said he:  “we are husband and wife:”  so he took her to wife and they lived happily together.

He strictly forbade her ever to go outside the house and he said incantations over some mustard seed and gave it to her, and told her that, if any beggars came, she was to give them alms through the window and, if they refused to take them in that way, then she was to throw the mustard seed at them; but on no account to go outside the house.  One day when her husband was away a jugi came begging; the bonga girl offered him alms through the window but the jugi flatly refused to take them; he insisted on her coming out of the house and giving them.  Then she threw the mustard seed at him and he turned into ashes.  By superior magic however he at once recovered his own form and again insisted on her coming outside to give him alms, so she went out to him and he saw how beautiful she was.