ildren loved these
tales of the doings of Bahgung, and so my husband made many tales of
Bahgung and his adventures.

"I wanted to warn him that the children could not discriminate between
fact and fiction and might believe these tales, but I was dumb and could
say nothing.

"When my dear husband saw the worry in my eyes he guessed the cause and
said: 'When they get older, I will explain to them that these are only
fairy tales and they will forget them.'

"But he did not explain, and went on making up more and yet more tales
of the might and prowess of the wooden carved Bahgung. If the children
were naughty, he told them that Bahgung would punish them, and when they
were good he told them that Bahgung would award them.

"One day when I came quietly into the cave I saw my little girl kneeling
before Bahgung, and she was talking to him and beseeching him to cause
her brother give back a pretty shell which he had taken from her. I was
worried at all this, but being dumb I could say nothing.

"It was a few days later that my dear husband was eaten by a crocodile
while he was fishing. There being no remains we had a modest private
funeral, none but the family being present; and I took up as best I
could the duties of providing for my children.

"After their father's death the children talked still more to Bahgung
and told him all their troubles. They seemed to love the idol and yet to
fear him, and to believe he was alive though they could see him before
them as only a carved wooden thing.

"So much they worshiped Bahgung that I feared to destroy him, and I
therefore allowed the wooden idol to stand on the mantle over the old
horsehair sofa that we had brought with us from another world.

"I still supposed that when the children grew up they would forget this
miserable idol of carven wood. But alas! they did not. I did not dare
destroy the idol, for the children adored it more than they did me who
had brought them into the world of my own flesh and blood. I wanted also
to explain to them that Bahgung was only a wooden idol and as dead and
worthless as any rotten stick, but being dumb I could say nothing.

"When my children left home, they would come back on pilgrimages, and to
me it seemed that they came back more to worship Bahgung than to see
their old mother. So in my desire to see my children the more I
permitted Bahgung to stand on the mantle above the horsehair sofa in the
cave.

"One day my oldest son and o