He went for it, leaving the young Demon Hound at the house, and his adventures and the conversations were a mere repetition of those at the cave of the Demon Hound. One of the young Bears returned to the house with him.
Lastly, he was sent to bring the milk of the Crocodile that was in the Sea, “the reservoir[6] for the sky, and the reservoir for the earth.” He ate his rice on a mound in the sea, after which, as he was descending into the sea, he observed a blue-lotus flower, and found the Crocodile at it. It came to eat him, but he held out his sword in front of him, so it asked him why he had come, and after hearing his explanation, in the very same words as before, gave him a little milk. It warned him, like the other animals, that the sending him for it was only a device to get him killed. He took the milk home, and after drinking it his mother informed him that she was cured. The story is then concluded as follows:—
Having said this, the woman went to the man [whom she wanted to marry], and said, “Now then, there is no means of killing that one. From the places to which he went he has escaped and come back. What, then, shall we do to that one?”
That man said, “Cook to-day after it has become night. I will break something in the lower part of the garden. Then say, ‘Son. There! Did you hear something break in the lower part of the garden? Maybe cattle have come in.’ He will come to see, and when he has come, I will chop him with the bill-hook, and kill him.”
Afterwards, this woman having returned to the house, as she was cooking when it became night, the man came and broke a stick in the lower part of the garden. The woman said, “Andō! Son, maybe cattle have come in. Go quickly [and drive them out].”
Then, as this youth, having gone into the house and taken his sword, was going out, that little one of the Aet-Kanda Lihinī, and the little one of the Demon Hound, and the little one of the Bear went with him. The three of them having gone [in front] to the lower part of the garden, bit the man who waited there, and having killed him returned. When this youth went and looked, the man had been killed. Then the youth came back, and having killed his mother stayed quietly there. So that little one of the Aet-Kanda Lihinī, and the little one of the Demon Hound, and the young Bear, and the youth remained at the house together.
Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.
There are Indian versions of several of the incidents of these stories.
In Old Deccan Days (Frere), p. 15, a Prince killed a cobra that was about to ascend a tree in order to destroy two eaglets. They assisted him afterwards.