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this crime the Khan's son is sent to fetch the Siddhi-kür, which ho fastens up in a bag, and which behaves in much the same way as the Vetála does in our text.
It is remarkable that there are no questions addressed by the siddhi-kür to his captor. At the end of every story the Khan's son utters an involuntary, often meaningless exclamation, of which the Siddhi-kür takes advantage. (Oesterley's Baitál Pachísí, pp. 174 and 175.)
Oesterley refers to an Arabian form of the 1st story in Scott's Tales, Anecdotes and Letters, 1800, p. 108. A painter falls in love with the picture of a beauty, and finds that the original is in the possession of a certain minister. He penetrates in disguise into the minister's harem, wounds his beloved in the hand and takes away her veil. He then goes in the disguise of a pilgrim to the king, and says that he has seen six witches, and that he has wounded one of them, who left her veil behind her. The veil is recognized, the owner produced, convicted by her veil, and as a witch flung into a chasm. There the painter finds her, rescues her. and carries her off. See also the 1001 Nights Breslau, 1, p. 245 (Oesterley's Baitál Pachísí, pp. 182 and 183).
CHAPTER LXXVI.
(Vetála 2.)
Then king Vikramasena again went to the aśoka-tree to fetch the Vetála. And when he arrived there, and looked about in the darkness by the help of the light of the funeral pyres, he saw the corpse lying on the ground groaning. Then the king took the corpse, with the Vetála in it, on his shoulder, and set out quickly and in silence to carry it to the appointed place. Then the Vetála again said to the king from his shoulder, " King, this trouble, into which you have fallen, is great and unsuitable to you; so I will tell you a tale to amuse you, listen."
Story of the three young Bráhmans who restored a dead lady to life.:— There is, on the banks of the river Yamuná, a district assigned to Bráhmans, named Brahmasthala. In it there lived a Bráhman, named Agnisvámin, who had completely mastered the Vedas. To him there was born a very beautiful daughter named Mandáravatí. Indeed, when Pro- vidence had created this maiden of novel and priceless beauty, he was disgusted with the nymphs of Heaven his own previous handiwork. And when she grew up, there came there from Kanyakubja three young Bráhmans, equally matched in all accomplishments. And each one of these demanded the maiden from her father for himself, and would sooner sacrifice his life than allow her to be given to another. But her father would not give her to any one of them, being afraid that, if he did so, he would cause the death of the others; so the damsel remained unmarried. And
