The jugi went away and one day he went to beg at the Raja’s palace and, talking to the Raja, he told him how he had seen a girl of more than human beauty.  The Raja resolved to possess her, and one day he took the form of a fly and flew to the house and saw the beautiful bonga; a second day he came back in the same form and suddenly caught her up and flew off with her on his back to his palace, and in spite of her weeping shut her up in a beautifully furnished room on the roof of his palace.  There she had to stay and her food was brought to her there.  When the herd boy came home and found that his beautiful wife was missing he filled the air with lamentations and leaving his home he put on the garb of a jugi and went about begging.  One day he came to the palace of the Raja who had carried off his wife; as he begged he heard his wife’s voice, so he sang:—­

    “Give me, oh give me, my flycatcher wife,
    Give me my many-coloured wife.”

Then they offered him a jar full of money to pacify him, but he threw the rupees away one by one and continued his lament.  Then the Raja called for his two dogs Rauta and Paika and set them on the man and they tore him to death.  At this his wife wept grievously and begged them to let her out since there was no one to carry her away, now that her husband was dead.

They prepared to take away the corpse to burn it and the bonga girl asked to be allowed to go with them as she had never seen the funeral rites of a jugi:  so they let her go.

Before starting she tied a little salt in the corner of her cloth.  When she reached the burning place, she sang to the two dogs:—­

    “Build the pyre, Rauta and Paika! 
    Alas!  The dogs have bitten the jugi,
    Alas!  They have chased and killed the jugi.”

So the two dogs built the pyre and lay the body on it.  Then she ordered them to split more wood, singing:—­

    “Cut the wood, Rauta and Paika! 
    Alas!  The dogs have bitten the Jugi,
    Alas!  They have chased and killed the jugi.”

So they split more wood and then she told them to apply the fire, singing:—­

    “Light the fire, Rauta and Paika! 
    Alas!  The dogs have bitten the Jugi,
    Alas! they have chased and killed the jugi.”

When the pyre was in full blaze she suddenly said to the dogs “Look up, Rauta and Paika, see the stars are shining in the day time.”  When the two dogs looked up, she threw the salt into their eyes, and, while they were blinded, she sprang into the flames and died as a sati on the body of her husband.

XXVIII.  The Wife Who Would Not Be Beaten.