When she thought that he was asleep, he saw her rise and go out of the house.  He followed her to a shrine of Mahadeb; there she smeared the ground with cowdung and worshipped the god and said “O Siva!  I have worshipped you for many days; now my husband has come to take me to his house, and you must find another worshipper.”  The Mahadeb answered “You have served me for many days; call hither your husband; as you have worshipped me for so long, I will confer a boon on you.”  So she went and called her husband and as he knew what had happened, he had no hesitation in going with her to the shrine.  There the Siv bade him ask a boon, and he prayed that the Raja’s son might be restored to life, The Siv bade them bring the body and cover it with a wet cloth; and when they had done so, the body began to breathe and presently the Prince rose up alive and well.  The Dewan’s son told him all that had happened and the next day they went home, taking with them the wife of the Dewan’s son, through whose virtue and piety the Prince had been restored to life.

LXII.  Spanling and His Uncles.

There was once a little man named Spanling (Bita) because he was only a span (Bita) high; and he had a beard one span and four finger-breadths long.  His father was dead, and he lived alone with his mother and he was as cunning as anyone in the world.  He had one cow-buffalo and this he always grazed at night, for fear that the sun might melt it.  Once it happened that as he was following his buffalo, he got buried in its droppings and he was so small that he could not get out.

However, next morning, some girls, who were gathering cowdung for fuel, found him and set him free.  Spanling decided to get rid of the buffalo after this; so he killed it and flayed it and when the skin was dry, took it away to sell.  Before he found a purchaser night came on, so he climbed a tree with his hide to be out of danger.  During the night a gang of thieves came to the tree, and began to divide their booty.  While there were busy over this, Spanling let the hide fall with a clatter into their midst, and they all ran away in a fright, leaving all their stolen goods behind.

When day dawned, Spanling climbed down and found piles of gold waiting for him.  He took it home and sent his mother to borrow a wooden measure from his uncles to measure it with.  When he returned the measure, one of the gold pieces was left sticking in a crack.  His uncles at once hastened to enquire how he came to be measuring gold.  Spanling told them that he had sold his buffalo skin at a town which he named, for an enormous price and no doubt they could find the same market, if they chose to kill their buffaloes.  The uncles hurried home and killed all their buffaloes and took the hides to the city, which Spanling had named, but they were only laughed at when they asked more than the price which was paid every day for hides.  The uncles came home very