ghostly friends to break off a number of the fruit, tie half a dozen of them to the long hair of each thief, and then give chase to them. His friends did as directed, and the thieves on being awakened ran out of the house as fast as they could, hearing shouts of "mar-salader"[1] uttered by the ghosts, and receiving blows from the Cháltá fruit that kept hitting them on their backs as they ran. These they took to be stones and brick-bats thrown at them and they made good their escape half dead with fright.
Never again did they think of molesting the Brahmin, whom they now knew to be too full of resource for them to get him into their power. They disappeared from the quarter in which he lived, and the resourceful Brahmin's very name became a terror to evil-doers.
- ↑ "Thrash the salas."
