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82 very angry, and said to his wife: " Our shop will get a nice reputation if you are going on in this sort of way: hand over the ring at once." Which she did, and so the com merchant departed, no worse off than he had come, for he not only got back his ring, but a hundred measures of seed for nothing.

ONCE upon a time there was a farmer called Sûrapâla, whose wife Nâyinî was always worrying him to give her a silk dress. " My dear," he invariably replied, " we are farmers; who ever heard of one of our family wearing a silk dress? cotton is the proper stuff for us." So one day Nâyinî met one of the village officials, and gave him an invitation to dinner. Her husband heard of this, and when he came home he said, " This invitation to one of the officials of the village is most improper : besides, the man is not a friend of mine." " Why, then," she replied, " do you not grant me the favour I ask of you ? Give me the silk dress." The farmer said: " Well ! I will give you the silk dress, if you will cancel this invitation." " Give me the dress," she answered, " and I will do as you wish."