rth eat your fill of these mulberries and grapes. You and your
companions the crows may eat together of the mulberries and of all
fruits at the top of the trees, which the crows cause to drop down. This
will be much more profitable for you than to assume human shape." Thus
spoke the mole.

Owing to this, the foxes left off assuming human shape, and, from that
time forward, ate as they pleased of the mulberries and the grapes. When
the crows let any drop, they went underneath the trees and ate them.
They became very friendly together.--(Translated literally. Told by
Ishanashte, 11th November, 1886.)

xii.--_The Stolen Charm._

A very rich man kept a puppy and a fox-cub. Besides these he possessed a
tiny silver model of a ship,--a charm given to him by some god, what god
I know not. One day this charm was stolen, and could nowhere be found.
The rich man was so violently grieved at this, that he lay down and
refused all food, and was like to die. Meanwhile the puppy and the
fox-cub played about in his room. But when they saw, after some time,
that the man was really going to die, the fox-cub said to the puppy: "If
our master dies, we shall die of hunger too; so we had better search for
the charm." So they consulted as to the best way to search for it; and
at last the fox-cub was struck by the idea that the ogre who lived at
the top of the large mountain that stands at the end of the world might
have stolen the charm and put it into his box. The fox-cub seemed to see
that this had really happened. So the two little animals determined to
go and rescue the charm from the ogre. But they knew that they could not
accomplish this alone, and resolved to add the rat[-god] to their
number. So they invited the rat, and the three went off, dancing
merrily.

Now the ogre was always looking steadily in the direction of the sick
rich man, hoping that he would die. So he did not notice the approach of
the fox-cub, the dog, and the rat. So when they reached the ogre's
house, the rat, with the help of the fox-cub, scooped out a passage
under and into the house, by which all three made their way in. They
then decided that it must be left to the rat to get hold of the charm by
nibbling a hole in the box in which it was kept. Meanwhile the fox-cub
assumed the shape of a little boy, and the puppy that of a little
girl,--two beautiful little creatures who danced and went through all
sorts of antics, much to the amusement of the ogre. The o