for they thought it was a Dano, an evil spirit that, taking possession of a corpse, speaks and acts like the man whose dead body it has entered. Hastily throwing the body down, they ran away as fast as they could, and did not look behind until they reached the inhabited quarters of the city.
In the meantime, Padma disengaged himself from his bonds, and in spite of his bruised body managed to climb up a peepul tree near by, in order to secure himself from jackals, and other dangerous wild beasts. He imagined that he really was a Dano, but still he could not but obey his human instincts. After some time sleep was about to seal his eye-lids and he had begun to doze when, as chance would have it, there came to the foot of the tree a band of house-breakers, abroad on a plundering excursion. One of Padma's legs was hanging down, and it touched the head of one of the thieves, who instantly gave it so strong a pull that it brought him down to the ground. The house-breakers, superstitious like other illiterate men, thought it must be some superhuman being who had waylaid them, and in great dread they asked him who he was. It was necessary to give them some answer, and Padma thought it best to give it in a nasal tone, for he knew that no evil spirit can talk except through his nose. In a nasal tone, therefore, he told them his whole history, particularly, of course, of his having died, and of the Dano's advent into his body. The men to whom he talked were not such block-heads as to believe him, and they realized that he was a fellow stupid enough to be made their cat's-paw in any daring enterprise. So they invited him to follow them, telling him at the same time, who and what they were. He gladly accepted the invitation and accompanied them.
The field was soon crossed, and a town showing all the signs of opulence was reached. On the side of a river near it, there was a professional drummer's cottage, through the walls of which the house-breakers made a hole big enough for a man to pass. It is according to the code in force among
