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18 their notice for a moment. He hurriedly ran towards a cow-herd, whom he had seen driving home the cows in his charge, and asked him if he would care to marry. The swain grinned wide at the question, and answered in the affirmative; and our hero quickly took off his own wedding clothes, and exchanged them for those of the cow-herd, telling him to approach the wedding party, imitate his benefactor's voice, and under cover of the darkness of the evening, impersonate him. The deluded creature did as directed. The brothers took him into a boat with the ostensible object of crossing the river, but in reality to drown him. When the boat reached the middle of the river, they callously cast him into it, under the conviction that it was Khoodeh himself.

Khoodeh in the meantime had driven the cows into the yard of his house, and when his brothers returned, they saw him cooking his evening meal. Their surprise on seeing alive and well the man whom they believed they had thrown into the river and drowned, was as great as can be imagined. But great as their surprise was, they did not lose their impudence, and exclaimed, "Alas! brother Khoodeh, the boat received a terrible shock, and you, the gem of our eyes, fell out. We tried much to save you, but our attempts were vain. Broken-hearted we have returned home. Come, let us hold you close to our hearts. By the bye, where have you got the cows from?"

"I thank heaven for sparing me, and thus saving you from the pangs of bereavement," replied Khoodeh. "Just as I was being carried by the waves underneath the surface of the river, I found one of these cows swimming close by, and got on its back. Reaching dry ground, I met a being full of effulgence, who must be a god, beckoning me from a short distance away, and when I drew near he said, 'Say "hai" seven times, and each time a cow will come up from the water and place itself at your disposal.' I obeyed him and thus got the eight cows which you see."

Khoodeh's brothers went away very much dejected at their