they told her to pray her hardest, for her prayer had to travel down
to the depths of Hell. So the Brahman woman prayed her hardest to
the sixty-four Yoginis, and then she prostrated herself before the
serpent-maidens from Patâla, and the wood-nymphs, and their train of
demon Asuras. And then she took the little one-year-old boy on her hip,
and the newly-born baby boy in her arms, and she walked with her other
five sons to the village. When the villagers saw her coming they ran
and said to the Brahman, "Bhatji, Bhatji, your daughter-in-law is
coming back home." And the Brahman became very angry and vowed that
he would drive her away again. So he watched for her coming. But
first of all he saw walking towards his house a little boy of six,
and then a little boy of five, and then a little boy of four, and
then two other little boys of three and two. Last of all he saw his
daughter-in-law with a one-year-old boy on her hip and a newly-born
baby in her arms. He rose and fetched a cauldron of water and two
handfuls of rice from his house. And he waved his hands filled with
rice round the heads of his daughter-in-law and of all her children,
and last of all he washed their feet. In this way he welcomed back to
his house his grandchildren and their mother. And he made her tell
him all her story; and she, and her children, and the Brahman spent
the rest of their lives in great peace and perfect happiness.



CHAPTER XX

The Golden Temple

Once upon a time there was a town called Atpat. In it there reigned a
king who had four daughters-in-law. He loved three of them very dearly,