Afterwards, the man having plucked Kaekiri, and filled and tied up the bag, said to the woman, “Shall I take the girl, or shall I take the bag?”
The woman told him to take the bag, leaving the girl there. So the girl was left at the threshing-floor, and the man and woman went home, taking the bag of fruit with them.
While a Black Stork (Mānā) and a female Black Stork (Mānī) were going about seeking food, the female Stork saw that a girl was at the threshing-floor, and having gone near it, cried out, “Aḍē! A thing for me! Aḍē! A thing for me!” When the male Stork heard this he came running to the spot. Having looked at the girl, the two Black Storks took her to their house, and reared her there.
After a time, the girl having become big, the female Black Stork and the male Black Stork said, “Daughter, we must go for golden bracelets and golden anklets for you.”
At that house there were a Parrot, a Dog, and a Cat, which were reared there. The two Storks told the girl, “Daughter, after we have gone, do not reduce the food of either the Parrot, or the Dog, or the Cat. Until we return, be careful not to put out the fire on the hearth, and not to go anywhere whatever.” After saying this, they went to bring the golden bracelets and golden anklets.
That girl having been careful for two or three days in the way the female Stork and male Stork told her, lessened the food of the Cat. That night the Cat extinguished the fire on the hearth.
Next morning, the girl having gone to the hearth to cook, when she looked there was no fire on the hearth. So she said to the Parrot, “Younger brother, last night I reduced the food of the Cat a little. For that, the Cat has extinguished the fire on the hearth, and now there is no fire for cooking. You go and look from which house smoke is rising, and come back.”
Then the Parrot having gone flying, looked and looked. There was not any coming from any other houses; from the house of the Rākshasa, only, there was a smoke. The Parrot having come home, said, “Elder sister, I looked at the whole of the houses. There was not any; only from the house of the Rākshasa the smoke came.” Afterwards the girl, having said, “If so, younger brother, you stop at home until I go and bring fire,” went for the fire.
The Rākshasa was not at home; only the Rākshasa’s wife was there. The girl having gone to that house, said, “Give me a little fire.” Then that woman made the girl boil and dry seven large baskets of paddy (unhusked rice), and pound the paddy in those seven, and bring seven large pots of water, and bring seven bundles of firewood. Then taking a piece of coconut shell with a hole in it, she put ashes at the bottom, and having placed a fire-charcoal on them, gave it to her. While the girl was going home, the ashes fell through the hole all along the path.
Afterwards, when the Rākshasa came home, “What is this, Bolan?” he asked the woman; “there is a smell of a human body, a human body that has been here.”