Page:Indian Fables and Folk-lore - Shobhanasundari Mukhopadhyay.pdf/13



["Death looking forth" probably refers to the old Indo-Aryan notion of the soul, which is said to be no bigger than the thumb.]

you ever seen the Man in the Eye? I dare say you have.

The Man in the Moon may be a fiction for aught we know; but of the Man in the Eye there cannot be the least doubt. Look in the mirror, and you will see in the pupil of your eye a tiny little man, smaller than the most diminutive fairy you have ever read of. I know you will say, "Oh, it is only my own reflection." Yet there are simple folks who imagine it to be Death looking forth. His feet, they say, are entangled in the life-string of the heart, and as he tugs them free, lo! the string snaps, and the man dies!