Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/105

 Collectanea. 79

The man replies, — " I am going to Tenthousandfold. I have given one ; I am going to receive a thousand."

The gardener says, — " When you go, ask Tenthousandfold why it is that when I wall in my garden all the fruit and vegetables dry up ; but when I take down the wall they flourish."

" Upon my countenance," says the man, and goes on his way.

He goes along till he sees a priest whose body has been built into a wall, and he is gasping for breath.

The priest asks, — " Son, where are you going ? "

The man replies, — "I am going to Tenthousandfold. I have given one; I am going to receive a thousand."

The priest says to him, — "Go ask Tenthousandfold when I shall escape from this wall."

" Very well," says the man, and goes on his way.

He goes on till he sees a large man seated upon a golden throne, who asks him, — " Where are you going ? "

The man says, — " Are you Tenthousandfold ? "

The man says, — " Yes, I am. What do you wish ? "

He replies, — " Our priest sent me to you. I have given you one ; you are to give me a thousand."

Tenthousandfold says to the man, — " Go home. In your courtyard there is a mulberry tree ; you will dig under it, and you will find a jar full of gold. You will receive in place of one a thousand thousands."

Then the man asks Tenthousandfold all he was requested to ask, and, receiving the answer for each, he sets out on his return.

He comes to the priest built in the wall, and says, — " When you shall say "I have sinned," you shall be delivered from that place."

The priest says, — " Why should I say " I have sinned ? " "

The words were no sooner spoken than wall and all were swallowed up in the earth.

The man goes on till he comes to the gardener, and he says to him, — " Take down the walls of your garden so that the passers-by may eat ; then your garden will flourish."

He had not finished speaking when the gardener began to tear down the walls, and the garden flourished.