Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/473

Rh mentioned any girl, you talked about a gyal." "Of course, we thought you knew about the girl," they would say; "the gyal was her mother's price," and then the whole thing would have to be begun again.

The Story of the Father who abandoned his Children.—"A certain man had two sons. Then his wife died, so he married another. Then their stepmother hated the children. While the father was away in his cultivation, she threw herself down on the firewood, and raised weals. "Hei! Your children cannot bear me, they have beaten me with the firewood, I shall not be able to stay. Do you prefer your wife? If you prefer your children, let me go," she said. Then the father, —"Of course I prefer my wife," said he. He took his two children with him into the jungle, and, when they had gone a very long way, their father said to them,—"Do you know this neighbourhood?" and they replied,—"We know it, it is the jungle we drive our bison in," said they. So they went on again. "Do you know this?" he said. "It is the jungle where we gather fruits," they said. So they went on again. "Do you know this?" he asked. "It is where we gather koi seeds," said they. So they went on again. "What place is this?", he said again. "We don't know," they said. So then he piled up bamboo grass and put them to sleep on it; they went fast asleep; he plastered up their eyes with beeswax; he abandoned them. Then his sons woke up from their sleep, and lo! their father was not there. . .. Then they were perplexed, and went off, "Let us take a look around," they said. So the elder one climbed up a tree, and there he found some hornbill's eggs. "Younger brother, I've found horn-bill's eggs," he said. Then his younger brother said,—"Throw them down," so he threw one down, and it broke. Then,—"Elder brother! it has broken. Bring one down in your mouth," he said. He put one in his mouth, he swallowed it, and was changed into a hornbill. Then