Page:The jade story book; stories from the Orient (IA jadestorybooksto00cous).pdf/294

278 while Rasalu sat in the graveyard and talked to the headless corpse. Now when morning broke and Rasalu said he must continue his journey, the headless corpse asked him whither he was going, and when he said, "To play chaupur with King Sarkap," the corpse begged him to give up the idea, saying: "I am King Sarkap's brother, and I know his ways. Every day before breakfast he cuts off the heads of two or three men just to amuse himself. One day no one else was at hand, so he cut off mine, and he will surely cut off yours on one pretense or another. However, if you are determined to go and play chaupur with him, take some of the bones from this graveyard, and make your dice out of them, and then the enchanted dice with which my brother plays will lose their virtue. Otherwise he will always win."

So Rasalu took some of the bones lying about, and fashioned them into dice, and these he put into his pocket. Then, bidding adieu to the headless corpse, he went on his way to play chaupur with the king.

Now, as Rajah Rasalu, tender-hearted and