Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/235

Rh out for the king. Ordered all parrots to be killed. The Raja, in parrot form, is caught; but bids his captor take him to King V.'s father-in-law, and he will get a large reward. The old man, finding this to be a most pious parrot, buys him and keeps him in a cage. Meanwhile a woman came to King V.'s father-in-law for him to decide a question: there were two men, both exactly alike, and she could not tell which was her husband (one was an evil spirit). The old man decided wrongly, but the parrot said, "Whichever can get into that pot with a spout shall be deemed the husband." The real husband could not, the demon did; whereon the parrot called them to cover him with a yellow cloth and tie it with a string of raw cotton and bury him. The Rani heard, and came, to whom the parrot said he was King V. Taking him home, she sent for the false Raja and asked him what he had been learning from the Pundit? "Bring me a dead lamb and I will show you," said he. She did so. He entered the body; the cage was opened, Vikramaditya came out, dropt his parrot form, and "entered his own body"; then cut the lamb in pieces. [Even nowadays it is firmly believed that demons can be enclosed with a yellow cloth and a piece of raw cotton string.—Ed.]

36. A tale illustrating which is best, the householder's life or the ascetic's. Obviously made up for a moral purpose, but contains talking birds, and woman who will marry any one who will go through a certain ordeal.

37. The Taming of the Shrew, with an apologue. Good Tale.

69. The Magic Boat.—Given to a woman. It gives all you ask; but when it gives you one rupee, it gives your neighbours two. The husband, on returning with his little pile, found all his neighbours rich. Indignant, he begged the boat to dig a well in his garden (he did so, and two in each of his neighbours') and to put out one of his eyes; whereat his neighbours all became blind, and fell into their wells. First making them promise him a half of all they got, he restored his sight and so theirs also. (Mirzapur.)

70. A boy changes into a lamb for his master to sell, but he is not to give the halter' to purchaser. When sold, by-and-by he resumes his shape and comes back. Second time he becomes a horse, and the master forgets. The purchaser is careful to keep the halter on, "else the horse would die." This happens when by chance the halter is taken off; the horse dies, and the boy