d be in
coming back. He told them the facts, yet they would not excuse him,
and they dragged him before the magistrate to account for the loss of
their children. He defended himself by saying that he had not invited
the boys to go with him, and had consented to their going only when
the parents had repeatedly urged him; that, after the boys were on the
ocean-bed, he had done his utmost to induce them to come ashore; that
he had held the water as long as he could, and had then thrown it in
the sea-basin solely because nothing else would contain it.
Notwithstanding this defence, the judge decided that, since he took
the boys away and did not bring them back, he was guilty of murder,
and sentenced him to decapitation. He entreated leave to pay one visit
to his aged mother before his execution, and this was granted. He went
alone and told his brothers of his doom, and the second brother
returned in his stead to the judge, thanked him for having given him
permission to perform a duty required by filial piety, and said he was
then ready to die. He knelt with bowed head, and the headsman brought
the knife down across the back of his neck, but the knife was nicked
and the neck was left unscathed. A second knife, and a third of finer
steel, were brought and tried by headsmen who were accustomed to sever
heads clean off at one stroke. Having spoiled their best blades
without marring his neck, they took him back to prison and informed
the judge that the sentence could not be executed.

The judge then decreed that he should be dropped into the sea which
covered his victims. When he heard this decision, he said that he had
taken leave of his mother supposing that his head was to be cut off,
and that, if he was to be drowned, he must go to her and make known
his fate, and get her blessing anew. Permission being given, he went
and told his brothers what had happened, and the third brother took
the place of the second, and presented himself before the judge as the
criminal that was to be sunk in the sea. He was carried far from shore
and thrown overboard, but he stretched his legs till his feet touched
bottom and he stood with his head in the air. They hauled him aboard
and took him farther from land, but still his extensible legs
supported him above the waters. Then they sailed to mid-ocean, and
cast him into its greatest depths, but his legs still lengthened so
that he was not drowned. They brought him back to the judge, reported
wh