THE Soldier who cheated the Devil looked into his pipe ,
it was nearly out. He puffed and puffed and the coal glowed
brighter, and fresh clouds of smoke rolled up ito the air.
Little Brown Betty came and refilled, from a crock of brown
foaming ale, the mug which he had emptied. The Soldier
who had cheated the Devil looked up at her and winked one
eye.

“ Now,” said St. George, “it is the turn of yonder old
man,” and he pointed, as he spoke, with the stem of his pipe
towards old Bidpai, who sat with closed eyes mediating
mside of himself.

The old man opened his eyes, the whites of which were as
yellow as saffron, and wrinkled his face into innumerable
cracks and lines. Then he closed his eyes again; then he
opened them again, then he cleared his throat and began:
‘There was once upon a time a man whom other men
called Aben Hassen the Wise y

“One moment,” said Ah Baba; “will you not tell us
what the story 1s about?”

Old Bidpat looked at him and stroked his long white
beard. “It is,” said he,  about—

 

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