he had seen and begged him to get
hold of the wonderful cow by some means or other. Her husband could
not believe her but agreed to put it to the test, so they both went
to Kara and asked where he was going and offered to give him supper,
and put him up for the night and give grass for his cow. He accepted
this invitation and went with them to their house and they gave him
the guest-room to sleep in and asked what he would have to eat, but he
said that he did not want any supper,--for he intended to get a meal
from the cow after every one was asleep. Then the man and his wife
made a plot and pretended to have a violent quarrel and after abusing
each other for some time the man flung out of the house in a passion
and pretended to run away; but after going a short distance he crept
back quietly to the guest-room. Hanging from the roof was the body of a
cart and he climbed up into that and hid himself, without Kara knowing
anything about it. When Kara thought that every one was asleep, he
asked his cow for some food and having made a good meal went to sleep.

The man watching up above saw everything and found that his wife had
spoken the truth; so in the middle of the night he climbed down and
led away Kara's magic cow and put in its place one of his own cows of
the same colour. Early the next morning Kara got up and unfastened the
cow and began to lead it away, but the cow would not follow him; then
he saw that it had been changed and he called his host and charged him
with the theft. The man denied it and told him to call any villagers
who had seen him bring his cow the day before; now no one had seen
him come but Kara insisted that the cow had been changed and went to
summon the village headman and the villagers to decide the matter:
but the thief managed to give a bribe of one hundred rupees to the
headman and one hundred rupees to the villagers and made them promise
to decide in his favour; so when they met together they told Kara
that he must take the cow which he had found tied up in the morning.

Kara protested and said that he would fetch the person from whom he
had got the cow and take whichever cow he pointed out. Telling them
that they were responsible for his cow while he was away, he hastened
off to the cave where the jackals lived. The jackals somehow knew
that he had been swindled out of the cow, and they met him saying
"Well, man, have you lost your cow?" And he answered that he had
come to fetch them to