his house to die, therefore my good man, make a noose for me to hang myself with." Then the Domba thought, "Let her hang herself, why should I be guilty of her death, especially as she is a woman," and so he fastened a noose for her to the tree. Then Siddhikarí, feigning ignorance, said to the Domba, "How is the noose slipped round the neck? shew me, I entreat you." Then the Domba placed the drum under his feet, and saying, " This is the way we do the trick" he fastened the noose round his own throat; Siddhikarí for her part smashed the drum to atoms with a kick, and that Domba hung till he was dead.*[1] At that moment the merchant arrived in search of her, and beheld from a distance Siddhikarí, who had stolen from him untold treasures, at the foot of the tree. She too saw him coming, and climbed up the tree without being noticed, and remained there on a bough, having her body concealed by the dense foliage. When the merchant came up with his servants, he saw the Domba hanging by his neck, but Siddhikarí was nowhere to be seen. Immediately one of his servants said " I wonder whether she has got up this tree," and proceeded to ascend it himself. Then Siddhikarí said—— " I have always loved you, and now you have climbed up where I am, so all this wealth is at your disposal, hand some man, come and embrace me." So she embraced the merchant's servant, and as she was kissing his mouth, she bit off the fool's tongue. He, overcome with the pain, fell from that tree, spitting blood from his mouth, uttering some indistinct syllables, which sounded like Lalalla. When he saw that, the merchant was terrified, and supposing that his servant had been seized by a demon, he fled from that place, and went to his own house with his attendants. Then Siddhikarí the female ascetic, equally frightened, descended from the top of the tree, and brought home with her all that wealth. Such a person is my pupil, distinguished for her great discernment, and it is in this way, my sons, that I have obtained wealth by her kindness.
When she had said this to the young merchants, the female ascetic shewed to them her pupil who happened to come in at that moment; and said to them, "Now, my sons, tell me the real state of affairs what woman do you desire ? I will quickly procure her for you." When they heard that they said, "procure us an interview with the wife of the merchant Guhasena named Devasmitá." When she heard that, the ascetic undertook to manage that business for them, and she gave those young merchants her own house to reside in. Then she gratified the servants at Guhasena's house with gifts of sweetmeats and other things, and afterwards entered it with her
- ↑ * Compare the way in which the widow's son, the shifty lad, treats Black Rogue in Campbell's Tales of the Western Highlands (Tale XVII d. Orient and Occident. Vol. II, p. 303.)
