Page:The Enchanted Parrot.djvu/77

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THE ENCHANTED PARROT
73


Her husband replied, " Well, you climb up and see if it is so." Which she did, and cried out: " You good-for-nothing wretch ! you have been running after other women for days and days." As this was perfectly true the fool had nothing to say, and so he made it up with his wife and they went home together.

Story XXIX

IN a village called Sîkulî, there was a very rich merchant. He had a wife whose name was Sundarî, and she was always carrying on flirtations with a certain Mohana. One day she was entertaining her lover in the house when she saw her husband approaching. This was a pretty fix, so getting together all her ingenuity she made her lover — who had not a rag on, get into a hammock, and rushed out herself to meet her husband. Standing at a distance she cried out: "Be quick ! go and call the sorcerers to come here ! there is a naked ghost in the house and it has got into the hammock." So her husband, who was a great blockhead, started off at full speed to fetch the magicians to lay the ghost, and she ran back into the house and turned