346 Miscellanea.
370. The Half-Married Daughter of the Gardener. — Introduces the Master Thief type, and the Ring of Recognition. At the ceremony, they walk round the fire.
371. The Elixir of Youth.— kn old man made young by eating black rice ; but how it came to be black deponent saith not.
372. The Two Liars. — A droll.
373. The Merchanfs Virtuous Daughter. — A bald variant of the persecuted heroine, from Mirzapur.
374. The Foolish Ahir. — How he saved the house from robbers by singing foolish things. The story lacks point.
375. The Raja and the Snake. — Told to avert the ill-omen caused if one sneeze at the beginning of a journey or piece of business. Draws an edifying moral.
376. The Prodigal Soft. — At the end " he stayed at home and never more disobeyed his women folk."
378. Judgmefit of Solomon. — An exact parallel (Mirzapur).
413. The Princess of Karnalpur. — How a very stupid prince wins his wife. The doors are marked as in AH Baba. Women are made to pass through fire to prove their innocence. The princess gets her paramour to jostle her in the crowd, and then swears she never touched any man save that fellow. (The last trick is also found in Jataka, No. 62, and in " Balochi Tales", FoLK-LORE, iv, 291.)
414. The King afid the Evil Spit-it. — A king chases a deer, which changes into a woman's form, and he weds her.
Mixed.
263. Kumaon — Magic Well. Makes the drinker wise, but only if he has never before tasted water. So it is given to new-born babies.
267. Budaiin. — A lad who steals a potter's moulding-rod gets a bride soon.
271. Attempt at human sacrifice tried in court at Calcutta.
298. Palamau. — Two kinds of marriage ; one celebrated in the bride's house, one in the house of the bridegroom's father.
301. Charm against poisonous insects.
303. Crows are fed at Hindu funerals, being believed to receive the soul of the dead.
304. It is lucky to be annoyed and abused by your neighbours at a certain festival. [The people abused each other at the Mysteries of Eleusis ; this was called rjecpvptajnow So at the Dionysia, Ta ef ana^Cbv ; and the Thesmophoria, aiijPin.'] So at the Bengal Nashti Chandra feast, and the Dhela Chauth Mela at Benares, people get bricks, etc., thrown into their house to avert ill luck. [A modern Greek woman objects to your admiring her child, and straightway begins to abuse it.]
