I give you to him." "Father," said she, "this one is too fidgety. Please invite somebody superior even to him." So the holy man said: "O wind, is there anyone superior even to you?" "Yes," said the wind. "The mountain is superior to me."
So he summoned the mountain and said to the maiden: "Little girl, I give you to him." "Oh, father," said she. "He is rough all over, and stiff. Please give me to somebody else."
So the holy man asked: "O kingly mountain, is there anyone superior even to you?" "Yes," said the mountain. "Mice are superior to me."
Then the holy man summoned a mouse, and presented him to the girl, saying: "Little girl, do you like this mouse?"
The moment she saw him, she felt: "My own kind, my own kind," and her body thrilled and quivered, and she said: "Father dear, turn me into a mouse, and give me to him. Then I can keep house as my kind of people ought to do."
And her father, through the magic power of his holiness, turned her into a mouse, and gave her to him.
"And that is why I say:
Though mountain, sun, and cloud, and wind, . . . .
and the rest of it."
But they paid no heed to Red-Eye's reasoning, and took the crow to their fortress, to the destruction
