away a mosquito); and then, without staying to see who or what he was, followed his six companions as fast as he could.
As soon as all the Rakshas were out of sight, the Deaf Man came down from the tree, and picking up the Blind Man, embraced him, saying, 'I could not have done better myself. You have frightened away all our enemies, but you see I came to help you as fast as possible.' He then dragged the donkey and the bundles of treasure out of the bushes, gave the Blind Man one bundle to carry, took the second himself, and put the remaining two on the donkey, as before. This done, the whole party set off to return home. But when they had got nearly out of the jungle the Deaf Man said to the Blind Man, 'We are now close to the village; but if we take all this treasure home with us, we shall run great risk of being robbed. I think our best plan would be to divide it equally, then you shall take care of your half, and I will take care of mine, and each one can hide his share here in the jungle, or wherever pleases him best.'—'Very well,' said the Blind Man, 'do you divide what we have in the bundles into two equal portions, keeping one-half yourself, and giving me the other.' But the cunning Deaf Man had no intention of giving up half of the treasure to the Blind Man, so he first took his own bundle of treasure and hid it in the bushes, and then he took the two bundles off the donkey, and hid them in the bushes; and he took a good deal of treasure out of the Blind Man's bundle, which he also hid. Then, taking the small quantity that remained, he divided it into two equal portions, and placing half before the Blind Man, and half in front of himself, said, 'There, brother, is your share to do what you please with.' The Blind Man put out his hand, but when he felt what a very little heap of treasure it was, he got very angry, and cried, 'This is not fair, you are deceiving me; you have kept almost all the treasure for yourself, and only given me a very little.'—'Oh dear! oh dear! how can you think so?' answered the Deaf Man; 'but if you will not believe me, feel for yourself. See, my heap of treasure is no larger than yours.' The Blind Man put out his hands again to feel how much his friend had kept; but in front of the Deaf Man lay only a very small heap, no larger than what he had himself received. At this he got very cross, and said, 'Come, come, this won't do. You think you can cheat me in this way because I'm blind; but I'm not so stupid as all that. I carried a great bundle of treasure; you carried a great bundle of treasure; and
