ceiling." The king let the old woman go,
and had it proclaimed by beat of drum that the townspeople were to
bring to the shrine on the following Monday only the milk remaining
after the children and the calves had been fed. The townspeople were
delighted. The children stopped crying and the calves stopped lowing,
and all the milk left by them was brought to Shiva's shrine. The
king prayed long and earnestly, and when he looked up he saw that
the shrine was full right up to the ceiling. He gave the old woman
a handsome present. And she went back to her home, and she did her
housework, and then she bathed all her little daughters and all her
little daughters-in-law.

CHAPTER III

The Tuesday Story

Once upon a time there was a town called Atpat. [4] In it there lived
a bania who had no son. Every day a religious mendicant used to come
to his house and call out, "Alms! Alms! In the name of God, give me
alms." But when the bania's wife offered him alms he refused them,
because she had no children. She told her husband, who advised her
to play a trick on the mendicant. She hid behind her door, and as he
called out "Alms! alms!" she slipped a gold piece into his wallet. But
the mendicant caught her and became very angry. He cursed her and
told her that she would always remain without any children. She
was terrified and fell at his feet and begged for forgiveness. Then
he pitied her and said, "Tell your husband to put on blue clothes,
mount a blue horse, and ride into the jungle. He should ride on until
he meets a horse. He should then dismount and dig in the ground. He
will in the end come to a temple to Parwati. He must pray to her and
she will bestow a child on him." When her husband came back she told
him what had happened. So he at once put on blue clothes, mounted a
blue horse, and rode into the forest. He met the horse, dismounted,
and began digging. At last he discovered a temple to Parwati, all of
gold, with diamond pillars and a spire made of rubies. Inside was a
statue of the goddess, and to it he prayed, saying, "I have houses and
cottages, cattle and horses, money and goods of all kinds, but I am
very sad because I have no son." The goddess pitied him and asked,
"Which will you have, a son who will be good but will die young,
or a son who will live long but will be born blind?" The poor bania
became greatly perplexed, but at last said, "I choose a son who will be
good but will die young," The goddess said