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52
BENGAL FAIRY TALES

a Hati Sing in my time, but if you touch one of my mangoes I will soon see that you are a dead man." This was an insult which our hero, to maintain his prestige among the others at the gate, could not pass over, and with a kick he upset the basket of mangoes. But no sooner was this done, than a severe blow from the muscular right arm of the fruit-seller laid him prostrate on the ground. In a few minutes the whole palace, including the king himself, came to the place of occurrence, and what was their wonder to find their champion Hati Sing on the point of death from a single blow given by an ordinary man. Comments were made by every tongue, while Hati Sing, knowing that his end was near, and that there was no need for further deception, faithfully narrated his own history, and then gave up the ghost. It was a sad and shameful death, but deceit seldom fails to meet its own deserts in the end.