graciousness, and bade them sit down.

'Have you seen him?' asked the King.

'We have seen him, your Majesty,' answered Damanaka; 'it is quite as
your Majesty expected--the creature has enormous strength, and wishes
to see your Majesty. Will you be seated, Sire, and prepare yourself--it
will never do to appear alarmed at a noise.'

'Oh, if it was only a noise,' began the Rajah.

'Ah, but the cause, Sire! that was what had to be found out; like the
secret of Swing-ear the Spirit.'

'And who might Swing-ear be?' asked the King.

THE STORY OF THE TERRIBLE BELL

"A goblin, your Majesty," responded Damanaka, "it seemed so, at least,
to the good people of Brahmapoora. A thief had stolen a bell from the
city, and was making off with that plunder, and more, into the
Sri-parvata hills, when he was killed by a tiger. The bell lay in the
jungle till some monkeys picked it up, and amused themselves by
constantly ringing it. The townspeople found the bones of the man, and
heard the noise of the bell all about the hills; so they gave out that
there was a terrible devil there, whose ears rang like bells as he swung
them about, and whose delight was to devour men. Every one, accordingly,
was leaving the town, when a peasant woman named Karala, who liked
belief the better for a little proof, came to the Rajah.

'Highness!' she observed, 'for a consideration I could settle this
Swing-ear.'

'You could!' exclaimed the Rajah.

'I think so!' repeated the woman.

'Give her a consideration forthwith,' said the Rajah.

"Karala, who had her own ideas upon the matter, took the present and set
out. Being come to the hills, she made a circle, and did homage to
Gunputtee,[13] without whom nothing prospers. Then, taking some fruit
she had brought, such as monkeys love extremely, she scattered it up and
down in the wood, and withdrew to watch. Very soon the monkeys finding
the fruit, put down the bell, to do justice to it, and the woman picking
it up, bore it back to the town, where she became an object of uncommon
veneration. We, indeed," concluded Damanaka, "bring you a Bull instead
of a bell--your Majesty shall now see him!"

"Thereupon Lusty-life was introduced, and, the interview passing off
well, he remained many days in the forest on excellent terms with the
Lion.

'One day another Lion, named 'Stiff-ears,' the brother of King
Tawny-hide, came to visit him. The King received him with all imaginable
respect, bade him be se