Page:Old Deccan Days.djvu/173

 Rh him, and beat him, and beat him, until he was nearly killed. 'Oh dear! oh dear!' screamed the Brahman, 'what an unlucky man I am! Oh dear! oh dear! stop, please stop! good stick, stop! what a very good stick this is!' But the stick would not stop, but beat him so much that he could hardly crawl home again.

Then the Brahman put the rope and stick back again into the chattee, and sent to his rich neighbour and to the Rajah, and said to them, 'I have a new chattee, much better than the old one; do come and see what a fine one it is.' And the rich Brahman and the Rajah thought, 'This is something good; doubtless there is a choice dinner in this chattee also, and we will take it from this foolish man as we did the other.' So they went down to meet the Brahman in the jungle, taking with them all their followers and attendants. Then the Brahman uncovered his chattee, saying, 'Beat, stick, beat—beat them every one!' and the stick jumped out, and the rope jumped out, and the rope caught hold of the Rajah and the rich Brahman and all their attendants, and tied them fast to the trees that grew around; and the stick ran from one to another, beating, beating, beating, beating the Rajah, beating his courtiers, beating the rich Brahman, beating his attendants, and beating all their followers; while the poor Brahman cried with all his might, 'Give me back my chattee—give me back my chattee!'

At this the Rajah and his people were very much frightened, and thought they were going to be killed. And the Rajah said to the Brahman, 'Take away your stick, only take away your stick, and you shall have back your chattee.' So the Brahman put the stick and rope back into the chattee, and the Rajah returned him the dinner-making chattee. And all the people felt very much afraid of the Brahman, and respected him very much.

Then he took the chattee containing the rope and stick to the house of the woman who had bought the melons, and the rope caught her, and the stick beat her; and the Brahman cried, 'Return me those melons, return me those melons!' And the woman said, 'Only make your stick stop beating me, and you shall have back all the melons.' So he ordered the stick back into the chattee, and she returned him them forthwith—a whole roomful of melons full of diamonds, pearls, emeralds, and rubies.

The Brahman took them home to his wife, and going into the town, with the help of his good stick, forced the jeweller who had deprived him of the little emeralds, rubies, diamonds, and pearls he had taken to sell to give them back to him again, and having