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 158 'Bakshas! Bakshas! What nonsense is this? There is no such creature as a Bakshas!'—'Go away,' replied the Blind Man, 'and don't dare to make any further disturbance, lest I punish you with a vengeance; for know that I am Bakshas! and Bakshas is Rakshas' father.'—'My father?' answered the Rakshas. 'Heavens and earth! Bakshas! and my father? I never heard such an extraordinary thing in my life. You my father, and in there? I never knew my father was called Bakshas!'

'Yes,' replied the Blind Man; 'go away instantly, I command you, for I am your father Bakshas.'—'Very well,' answered the Rakshas (for he began to get puzzled and frightened), 'but, if you are my father, let me first see your face.' (For he thought, 'Perhaps they are deceiving me.') The Blind Man and the Deaf Man didn't know what to do! but at last they opened the door—a very tiny chink—and poked the donkey's nose out. When the Rakshas saw it he thought to himself, 'Bless me, what a terribly ugly face my father Bakshas has!' He then called out, 'O father Bakshas, you have a very big fierce face; but people have sometimes very big heads and very little bodies. Pray let me see you, body as well as head, before I go away.' Then the Blind Man and the Deaf Man rolled the great big Dhobee's chattee with a thundering noise past the chink in the door, and the Rakshas, who was watching attentively, was very much surprised when he saw this great black thing rolling along the floor, and he thought, 'In truth, my father Bakshas has a very big body as well as a big head. He's big enough to eat me up altogether I'd better go away.' But still he could not help being a little doubtful, so he cried, 'O Bakshas, father Bakshas! you have indeed got a very big head and a very big body; but do, before I go away, let me hear you scream' (for all Rakshas scream fearfully). Then the cunning Deaf Man (who was getting less frightened) pulled the silver snuff-box out of his pocket, and took the black ants out of it, and put one black ant in the donkey's right ear, and another black ant in the donkey's left ear, and another, and another. The ants pinched the poor donkey's ears dreadfully, and the donkey was so hurt and frightened, he began to bellow as loud as he could, 'Eh augh! eh augh! eh augh! augh! augh;' and at this terrible noise the Rakshas fled away in a great fright, saying, 'Enough, enough, father Bakshas, the sound of your voice would make your most refractory children obedient.' And no sooner had he gone, than the Deaf Man took the ants out of the