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said, "'It was through your pertinacity in insisting upon being allowed to carry the food to your father and uncles that they are now bound and in prison, and yet you will not give up the bad habit." Bitaram said, " No, mother, do ask it for me." As he would not be silenced she begged it for him, and the people kindly gave it.

At the next house they came to, they saw a cat walking about, and Bitaram said, " Oh mother, ask the people to give me the cat." As before, she at first refused, but he continued to press her, and she becoming annoyed scolded him saying "The young gentleman insists on obtaining this and that. It was your partinacity that caused your father and uncles to be dragged to prison in bonds." Bitaram replied, " Not so, mother, do ask them to _ give me the cat." As the only way to silence him she said to the people of the house, " Give my boy your cat, he will hold it in his arms for a few minutes, and then set it down, but he carried it away with him. Bitaram then begged his mother to make him a bag, and fill it with flour, saying, " I am going to obtain the release of my father and uncles." She mockingly replied, " Much you can do." She made him a bag, however, and filling it with flour said, " Be off."

Bitaram then strapped the bag of flour on the cat's back as a saddle, and mounted. Puss, however, refused to go in the direction desired, and it was with great difiiculty that he pre- vailed upon her to take the road. As he rode along he observed a swarm of bees on an ant hill, and dismounting he addressed them as follows, " Come bees, go in, Come bees, go in." The bees swarmed into the tumki, and Bitaram having covered them up with a leaf continued his journey. Before he had gone far he came to a large tank, which belonged to the raja who had im-prisoned his father. A number of women had come to the tank for water, and Bitaram taking his stand upon the enbankment began to shoot arrows at their wate pots. After he had broken