n men said to each other, "If this goat belonged
to any one, it would not be left all alone in the jungle. Let us take
it with us." They did so, and no one they met asked them any questions
about the goat.

In the evening they arrived at a village where they stayed for the
night. They cooked and ate their dinners, and gave the goat grass and
grain. At midnight, when they were all asleep, the goat became a great
she-demon, with a great mouth, and swallowed one of the seven men.
Then she became a goat again, and went back to the place where she had
been stabled.

The men got up in the morning, and were very much surprised to find
they were only six, not seven. "Where is the seventh gone?" they
said. "Well, when he returns we will all go on together." They sat
waiting and waiting for him, till, as it was getting late and he had
not come, they all thought they had better start without him. So they
continued their journey, taking the goat with them. Before they went
they said to the villagers, "If our seventh man comes back to you,
send him after us."

At evening they came to another village, where they stayed for the
night. They cooked and ate their dinners, and gave grain and grass to
the goat. At midnight, when they were fast asleep, the goat became a
demon and swallowed another man, and then took her goat's shape again.

In this way she ate five men. The two that were left were very sad at
finding themselves alone. "We were seven men," they said, "now we are
but two." The grain merchant's son was one of the two, and he was very
quick and sharp. He determined he would not say anything to his
companion, but that he would watch by him that night, and find out, if
he could, what had happened to his other friends. To keep himself
awake he cut a piece out of his finger, and rubbed a little salt into
the wound, so that when his companion went to sleep, he should not be
able to sleep because of the pain. At midnight the goat came and
turned into a huge demon. She went quickly up to the sleeping man to
swallow him; but the merchant's son rushed at her, beat her, and
snatched his companion from her mouth. The demon turned instantly into
a goat, and went back to the place where it had been stabled.

The two men next morning set out from the village where they had
passed the night. They would have killed the goat had they been able.
As they could not do so, they took it with them till they came to a
plain in the jungle, where