s and
benefactors of the deceased bhuta... You..."

Our Babu sank on the ground holding his narrow, panting breast with both
his hands, and laughed, laughed till we all burst into laughter too,
before learning any-thing at all.

"Think of it," began the Babu, and stopped short, prevented from going
on by his exuberant hilarity. "Just think of it! The whole transaction
is to cost me only ten rupees.... I offered five at first... but he
would not.... He said this was a sacred matter..... But ten he could not
resist! Ho, ho, ho...."

At last we learned the story. All the metempsychoses depend on the
imagination of the family Gurus, who receive for their kind offices
from one hundred to one hundred and fifty rupees a year. Every rite is
accompanied by a more or less considerable addition to the purse of the
insatiable family Brahman, but the happy events pay better than the
sad ones. Knowing all this, the Babu asked the Brahman point-blank to
perform a false samadhi, that is to say, to feign an inspiration and
to announce to the sorrowing mother that her late son's will had acted
consciously in all the circumstances; that he brought about his end
in the body of the flying fox, that he was tired of that grade of
transmigration, that he longed for death in order to attain a higher
position in the animal kingdom, that he is happy, and that he is deeply
indebted to the sahib who broke his neck and so freed him from his
abject embodiment.

Besides, the observant eye of our all-knowing Babu had not failed to
remark that a she-buffalo of the Guru's was expecting a calf, and that
the Guru was yearning to sell it to Sham Rao. This circumstance was
a trump card in the Babu's hand. Let the Guru announce, under the
influence of samadhi, that the freed spirit intends to inhabit the body
of the future baby-buffalo and the old lady will buy the new incarnation
of her first-born as sure as the sun is bright. This announcement will
be followed by rejoicings and by new rites. And who will profit by all
this if not the family priest?

At first the Guru had some misgivings, and swore by everything sacred
that the vampire bat was veritably inhabited by the brother of Sham
Rao. But the Babu knew better than to give in. The Guru ended by
understanding that his skillful opponent saw through his tricks, and
that he was well aware that the Shastras exclude the possibility of such
a transmigration. Growing alarmed, the Guru also grew meek, and