28o CRADLE TALES OF HINDUISM
precious in that hot, dry country, and no one is allowed to tease or frighten them. Instead of that, the little girls come at daybreak and pet them, giving them food and hanging necklaces of flowers about their necks, saying poetry to them, and even strewing flowers before their feet 1 And the cows, for their part, seem to feel as if they belonged to the family, just as our cats and dogs do.
If they live in the country, they delight in being taken out to feed on the grass in the daytime ; but of course some one must go with them, to frighten off wild beasts, and to see that they do not stray too far. They wear little tinkling bells, that ring as they move their heads, saying, " Here I here 1 " And when it is time to go home to the village for the night, what a pretty sight they make 1
One cowherd stands and calls at the edge of the pasture and another goes around behind the cattle, to drive them towards him, and so they come quietly forward from here and there, some- times breaking down the brushwood in their path. And when the herdsmen are sure that all are safe, they turn homewards^ — one leading in front, one bringing up the rear, and the cows making a long procession between them. As they go they kick up the dust along the sun-baked path, till at last they seem to be moving through a cloud, with the last rays of the sunset touching it. And so the
