Page:Folk Tales from Tibet (1906).djvu/63

Rh and why he had been behaving so strangely during the banquet.

He was at first too shy to tell her what had happened, but after much coaxing she elicited from him the fact that his right hand was confined in the neck of the copper vessel.

"Never mind," said she; "there is a large white stone lying at the foot of the staircase. You had better slip down stairs in the dark, and by beating the vessel against the stone you will soon succeed in freeing yourself."

The young fellow thought this was a good idea, and he went off quietly down the staircase, until he detected what he thought was a white stone lying near the foot of the steps. So, creeping up to it, he raised his arm and brought down the copper vessel with great force upon the white object, shattering the vessel and leaving his hand free. But to his horror the stone, instead of being hard, gave way, and a muffled groan issued from it; and on examining the spot, he found that instead of striking a stone, he had delivered a violent blow upon the grey head of his Bride's father, who, overcome by his potations during the wedding feast, had fallen asleep at the foot of the stairs.

The young Man was terrified at what he had done, and feeling sure that he must have killed the old man, he decided to flee from the house; so he opened the door and ran off into the night. After running for some distance he reached a neighbouring farm, where, as it happened, a large honeycomb had been left lying in the corner of the courtyard. The Boy, not knowing