hiefs of the caste, who
unanimously fined me in two hundred pagodas, as a reparation to my
father-in-law, and issued a proclamation against so great a fool being
ever allowed to take another wife; denouncing the penalty of expulsion
from the caste against any one who should assist me in such an attempt.
I was therefore condemned to remain a widower all my life, and to pay
dear for my folly. Indeed, I should have been excluded for ever from my
caste, but for the high consideration in which the memory of my late
father is still held, he having lived respected by all the world.

Now that you have heard one specimen of the many follies of my life, I
hope you will not consider me as beneath those who have spoken before
me, nor my pretensions altogether undeserving of the salutation of the
soldier.

_Conclusion_.

The heads of the assembly, several of whom were convulsed with laughter
while the Brahmans were telling their stories, decided, after hearing
them all, that each had given such absolute proofs of folly as to be
entitled, in justice, to a superiority in his own way: that each of
them, therefore, should be at liberty to call himself the greatest fool
of all, and to attribute to himself the salutation of the soldier. Each
of them having thus gained his suit, it was recommended to them all to
continue their journey, if it were possible, in amity. The delighted
Brahmans then rushed out of court, each exclaiming that he had gained
his cause.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A Samaradanam is one of the public festivals given by pious people,
and sometimes by those in power, to the Brahmans, who on such occasions
assemble in great numbers from all quarters.

[2] In a Sinhalese story, referred to on ["p. 68" in original. This
approximates to the reference to Chapter III, Footnote 5 in this
e-text], it is, curiously enough, the woman herself "who has her head
shaved, so as not to lose the services of the barber for the day when he
came, and her husband was away from home." The story probably was
introduced into Ceylon by the Tamils; both versions are equally good as
noodle-stories.

CHAPTER VII.

THE THREE GREAT NOODLES.

Few folk-tales are more widely diffused than that of the man who set out
in quest of as great noodles as those of his own household. The details
may be varied more or less, but the fundamental outline is identical,
wherever the story is found; and, whether it be an instance of the
transmission of pop