e old Rakshas says to Ramchundra, "You must
not touch my hair;" "the least fragment of my hair thrown in the
direction of the jungle would instantly set it in a blaze." Ramchundra
steals two or three of the hairs, and when escaping from the Rakshas,
flings them to the winds and fires the jungle. Chandra (p. 266 of the
same book) avenges the death of her husband by tearing her hair, which
burns and instantly sets fire to the land; all the people in it but
herself and a few who had been kind to her and are therefore saved,
were burnt in this great fire.

In these tales a single hair from the head of the Princess Labam (the
lunar ray can pierce the cloud as well as a solar ray) cuts a thick
tree-trunk in two, p. 163.

Hair has another property; it can tell things to its owners. See the
three hairs the Queen gives Coachman Toms, saying, "They will always
tell you the truth when you question them." (Stier's _Ungarische
Volksmaerchen_, p. 176), and which, later in the story (p. 186)
adjudge the king worthy of death. (See Grimm's story _Kinder und
Hausmaerchen_, vol. II. p. 174, "The clear sun brings day.") Also "Das
wunderbare Haar" (Karadschitsch _Volksmaerchen der Serben_, p. 180),
which is blood-red, and in which when split open were found written a
multitude of noteworthy events from the beginning of the world. (The
sun's rays have existed since the early ages of the world.) The girl
from whose head the hair is taken threads a needle with the sun's rays
and embroiders a net made of the hair of heroes.

See, too, the Eskimo account of the removal of Disco Island in Rink's
_Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo_, p. 464, where one old man vainly
tries to keep back the island by means of a seal-skin thong which
snaps, while two other old men haul it away triumphantly by the hair
from the head of a little child, chanting their spells all the time.
Their success was, perhaps, due to the spells, not to the hair. In the
notes to Der Capitaen Dreizehn in Schmidt's _Griechische Maerchen,
Sagen und Volkslieder_, there are some instances of the strength given
by hair to those on whom it grows.

2. The lichi is Nephelium Litchi.

3. King Burtal's eldest son's name _Sazada_ is perhaps the boy's title
Shahzada (born of a king), prince. Dunkni says it is his name.

XVI.--SOME OF THE DOINGS OF SHEKH FARID.

1. Khelapari means "playful fairy:" Gulabsa, "like a rose."

2. In another version told to me this year by Dunkni, when Gurs