and compass her brother’s death.  To this end she became very melancholy and seemed to pine away:  her brother asked what was the matter and she said that she would never recover unless he could fetch her a certain flower which grew in the midst of a certain lake.  Now this lake swarmed with gigantic fish and poisonous snakes.  But the brother, never daunted, went to the lake and began to swim out to the centre where the flower grew.  Before he got half way there one of the gigantic fish swallowed him up.  The Rakshasa however saw this and set to work to drink the lake up:  he soon drank the lake dry and not only caught the big fish but also was able to gather the flower that had grown in the lake.  They then cut open the fish and took the boy unharmed from its belly.  The Rakshasa then vomited up the water he had swallowed and filled up the lake again.  Meanwhile the Raja thinking that the boy had died, carried off his sister.  But the boy setting out with the hare and the dogs and the Rakshasa and the monkey proceeded to attack the Raja’s capital and recover his sister.  The monkey opened his drum and the bees issued forth and attacked the Raja’s army so that it fled.  The Raja had to capitulate and give the boy half his kingdom and his own daughter in marriage, then peace was declared and the animals all disappeared into the jungle and our hero lived happily ever after.

(12)—­The Cruel Sisters-in-Law.

Once upon a time there lived six brothers who had one sister.  The brothers were all married and their wives hated their sister-in-law.  It happened that the brothers all went away to trade in a far country and her sisters-in-law took the opportunity to illtreat the girl.  They said “If you do not obey us and do what we tell you we will kill you.”  The girl said that she would obey their behests to the best of her ability.  They said “Then go to the well and bring this earthen pot back full of water.”  The khalsi had a large hole in the bottom so that as fast as it was filled the water ran out.  The girl took the pot to the well and sitting down began to weep over her fate.  As she wept a large frog rose out of the water and asked her what was the matter.  She said “My last hour has come.  If I cannot fill this pot with water I shall be killed and it has a hole in the bottom.”  The frog said, “Be comforted, I will cure that:  I will sit on the hole and stop it up with my body and you will be able to fill it.”  This it did and the girl took the water back to the house.  The sisters-in-law were very angry but could say nothing so they set her another task.  They told her to go the jungle and bring home a full bundle of sticks:  but she was not to take any rope with which to tie them.  The girl collected a large quantity of sticks and then sat down and cried because she was unable to carry them home:  as she cried a large snake came up and asked what was the matter.  The girl told him, whereupon the snake said that he would curl himself round the sticks and serve as a