crying, because they could get no milk. And all the grown-up people
were so worried by the noise that they did not know what to do. Shiva
was displeased at this, so He would not let the shrine fill. This,
therefore, is what you should do. Let the children and the calves
have their milk. Then take whatever is over to the shrine, and it
will at once fill up to the ceiling." The king let the old woman go,
and had it proclaimed by beat of drum that the townspeople were to
bring to the shrine on the following Monday only the milk remaining
after the children and the calves had been fed. The townspeople were
delighted. The children stopped crying and the calves stopped lowing,
and all the milk left by them was brought to Shiva's shrine. The
king prayed long and earnestly, and when he looked up he saw that
the shrine was full right up to the ceiling. He gave the old woman
a handsome present. And she went back to her home, and she did her
housework, and then she bathed all her little daughters and all her
little daughters-in-law.



CHAPTER III

The Tuesday Story

Once upon a time there was a town called Atpat. [4] In it there lived
a bania who had no son. Every day a religious mendicant used to come
to his house and call out, "Alms! Alms! In the name of God, give me
alms." But when the bania's wife offered him alms he refused them,
because she had no children. She told her husband, who advised her
to play a trick on the mendicant. She hid behind her door, and as he
called out "Alms! alms!" she slipped a gold piece into his wallet. But