Page:Folk-lore of the Telugus.djvu/18

10 but not finding her there, thought she must have gone somewhere on some errand, fetched fire from some other quarter and performed each his respective duty. In the meantime the old woman fasted in the wood until dusk, when a villager passed by to some other place on a particular errand. She called to him and said:—"I was not in the village this morning, has it dawned there? Have the people procured fire? Have they all eaten?"

He laughed and said:—"Do you think that the whole world depends entirely on your cock and your dish ? Why do you sit fasting here? Get up and go home."

She heard him and was abashed, and renouncing the foolish vanity which had made her think that all the world existed through her, she lived happily.