ank and call together labourers from every quarter. And
every day he used to go to the tank and search among the labourers to
see if his wife was there. One day he recognised his wife and called
her to him. Then they told each other how Budh and Brahaspati had
appeared to each of them in a dream. And the king was so delighted at
finding his wife that he at once proclaimed her queen of the country.

So the little daughter-in-law was crowned queen, but she did not let
the other daughters-in-law who were also working at the tank know of
her good fortune. As queen, she gave a great feast to all the workers
on the tank. But in her own palace she took some wheat flour, and
she kneaded it into shapes resembling human feet and human fists. And
when the other daughters-in-law were with the crowd of workers eating
at the feast, she went up to them, and to each daughter-in-law who
had kicked her she gave a flour foot, and to each daughter-in-law
who had struck her with her hands she gave a flour fist. Then the
daughters-in-law recognised who the little queen was, and they fell at
her feet and begged for her forgiveness. So the little queen forgave
them and took them back with her into her husband's palace. And they
all lived together happily ever afterwards.

CHAPTER V

The Friday Story

Once upon a time there was a town called Atpat. In it there lived a
miserably poor Brahman. He had a wife who was as poor as he was. One
day she felt her poverty so much that she went to a gossip of hers
who lived close by and told her all about her troubles. The neighbour
could suggest nothing better than that the poor woman should worship
the goddess Shukra or Venus. So she told the Brahman woman to fast
every Friday through the month of Shravan. Every Friday evening she
should invite a married lady friend to her house. She should bathe her
friend's feet. She should give her sweetened milk to drink and fill
her lap with wheat cakes and bits of cocoa-nut. She should continue
to worship Shukra in this way every Friday for a whole year, and in
the end the goddess would certainly do something for her. The Brahman
woman thought the advice good, and every Friday she worshipped Shukra
and had a married friend to dine with her just as her neighbour had
advised her.

Now the Brahman woman had a rich brother living in the same town,
who one day invited one thousand Brahmans to dine. At the same
time he invited all the townspeople with the single