Mama says that she will buy us images of Parwati if you will go into the bazaar and get food to offer to them." Their father at first searched all over the house but could find no grain. And then he looked in his purse but he could find no money with which to go to the bazaar and buy grain. But although he tried to explain this to his children, they would not listen to him. They screamed at him and shouted, "Papa, Papa, Mummy says that she will buy us images of Parwati if you will get food to offer to them." "Papa, Papa, why should we not have images of Parwati like the other little boys and girls." At last they bothered the poor Brahman so much that he felt worried to death. "I love," he said, "my children as if they were made of gold, but they will not mind what I say. They will not understand that it is nothing but poverty which prevents my buying food and offering it to Parwati. I might go out and beg, but when I do, no one ever gives me anything. Death is better than a life like this." With these words he got up and walked to the edge of the village pond and determined to drown himself. It was dark when he started, and half-
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