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LEGENDS AND ANECDOTES
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find the twelve there. He thereupon remounted, and set off again, wondering as he rode along how it was that he had missed one donkey. Suddenly the suspicion flashed upon him that possibly the second count had been faulty, so he counted again, to find once more that only eleven were racing along in front of him. Terribly disconcerted, he again got down off the creature he was riding, and, stopping the others, once more counted them. He was puzzled to find there were again twelve. So absorbed was he by this mystery, that he went on counting and recounting the donkeys, till his master, sur- prised at his long absence, came and solved his difficulty by obliging him to follow his asses on foot. On his father’s death, Johha inherited the family property, asmall house. Being in need of money, he managed to raise it by selling the building all but one kirat,! which he refused to part with; and, in order to mark that portion of the property which he was resolved to retain, he drove a tent-peg into the wall, having stipulated with the purchasers that that part of the edifice was to be set apart for bis own un- questioned use. The new owners of the house were for a time allowed to live there undisturbed. One day, however, Johha appeared bearing a sack of lentils, which he hung upon the peg, no one making any objection. Some days later he removed this, and hung up a basket containing something else equally unobjectionable. He continued this pro- cedure for some time without meeting with any 1 The twenty-fourth part of anything.