off. But he cannot do it either. Suppose I take the form of a horse, go to the stable, and find out what he looks like and what power he has."
When he had done so, a horse-thief came to the palace at dead of night. He examined all the horses, found the fiend-horse the finest, put a bit in his mouth, and mounted. Meanwhile the fiend was thinking: "I presume this is the fellow named Twilight. He thinks me a vile creature, he is angry, he has come to kill me. What shall I do?"
While he was thinking, the horse-thief struck him with a whip. And he was terrified and started to run. The thief, for his part, after traveling some distance, tried to stop him by tugging at the bit. And he thought: "Now if he were a horse, he would mind the bit. Instead, he goes faster and faster."
When the thief perceived how little he minded the tugging at the bit, he reflected: "Well, well! Horses are not like this. This must be a fiend in equine form. So if I find a spot thick with dust, I will drop. It is my one chance of life."
While the horse-thief was thinking and praying to his favorite god, the fiend-horse passed under a banyan tree. And the thief caught a branch and stuck. So both of them gained the hope of life from their separation, and were filled with extreme delight.
Now in the banyan was a monkey, a friend of the fiend, who said when he saw the fiend making off:
