the herd went off in search, resolving to present the soothsayer with the calf if he found it with the cow.  To his joy, and by mere chance, of course, he found them both, and, returning with them to the deaf man (still sitting by the wayside), he pointed to the calf and asked him to accept of it.  Now, it so happened that the calf’s tail was broken and crooked, and the deaf man supposed that the herdsman was blaming him for having broken it, and by a wave of his hand he denied the charge.  This the poor deaf neatherd mistook for a refusal of the calf and a demand for the cow, so he said:  “How very greedy you are, to be sure!  I promised you the calf, and not the cow.”  “Never!” exclaimed the deaf man in a rage.  “I know nothing of you or your cow and calf.  I never broke the calf’s tail.”  While they were thus quarrelling, without understanding each other, a third man happened to pass, and seeing his opportunity to profit by their deafness, he said to the neatherd in a loud voice, yet so as not to be heard by the other deaf man:  “Friend, you had better go away with your cow.  Those soothsayers are always greedy.  Leave the calf with me, and I shall make him accept it.”  The poor neatherd, highly pleased to have secured his cow, went off, leaving the calf with the traveller.  Then said the traveller to the deaf man:  “It is, indeed, very unlawful, friend, for that neatherd to charge you with an offence which you did not commit; but never mind, since you have a friend in me.  I shall contrive to make clear to him your innocence; leave this matter to me.”  So saying, he walked away with the calf, and the deaf man went home, well pleased that he had escaped from such a serious accusation.

   [29] Messrs. W. H. Allen & Co., London, have in the press a
        new edition of this work, to be entitled “Tales of the
        Sun; or, Popular Tales of Southern India.”  I am
        confident that the collection will be highly appreciated
        by many English readers, while its value to
        story-comparers can hardly be over-rated.

The other story is of a deaf Persian who was taking home a quantity of wheat, and, coming to a river which he must cross, he saw a horseman approach; so he said to himself:  “When that horseman comes up, he will first salute me, ‘Peace be with thee’; next he will ask, ’What is the depth of this river?’ and after that he will ask, how many mans of wheat I have with me.” (A man is a Persian weight, which seems to vary in different places.) But the deaf man’s surmises were all in vain; for when the horseman came up to him, he cried:  “Ho! my man, what is the depth of this river?” The deaf one replied:  “Peace be with thee, and the mercy of Allah and his blessing.”  At this the horseman laughed, and said:  “May they cut off thy beard!” The deaf one rejoined:  “To my neck and bosom.”  The horseman said:  “Dust be on thy mouth!” The deaf man answered:  “Eighty mans of it.”