Page:Tales of the Punjab.pdf/251

THE BARBER’S CLEVER WIFE 229

tended fairy. ‘Just let me touch your tongue with the tip of mine, and then I shall be able to taste if there are fibs about !’

So the robber captain put out his tongue, and, snip |—the barber’s wife bit the tip off clean!

What with the fright and the pain, he tumbled off the branch, and fell bump on the ground, where he sat with his legs very wide apart, looking as if he had come from the skies.

‘What is the matter?’ cried his comrades, awakened by the noise of his fall.

' Bul-ul-a-bul-ul-ul!' answered he, pointing up into the tree; for of course he could not speak plainly without the tip of his tongue.

'What—is—the—matter?’ they bawled in his ear, as if that would do any good.

‘ But-ul-a-bul-ul-ul !’ said he, still pointing upwards,

“The man is bewitched!’ cried one ; ‘there must be a ghost in the tree!’

Just then the barber’s wife began flapping her veil and howling ; whereupon, without waiting to look, the thieves in a terrible fright set off at a run, dragling their leader with them; and the barber’s wife, coming down from the tree, put her bed on her head, and walked quietly home.

After this, the thieves came to the conclusion that it was no use trying to gain their point by force, so they went to law to claim their share. But the barber's wife pleaded her own cause so well, bringing out the nose and tongue tips as witnesses, that the King made the barber his Wazir, saying, ‘He will never do a foolish thing as long as his wife is alive !’