After a time a terrible storm came on. "Oh, dear!" cried the deaf man, "how dreadful this lightning is! let us find some place of shelter.” "I don't see that the lightning is dreadful at all," said the blind man, "but this thunder is awful; yes, let us get under cover." 4. So they went up to a building that looked like a temple, and went in, and took the donkey and the big kettle and the black ants with them. But it was not a temple, it was the house of a powerful Rakshas; and the Rakshas came home just after they had got inside and had fastened the door. Finding that he couldn't get in, he began to make a great noise, louder than the thunder, and to beat upon the door with his great fists. 5. Now, the deaf man looked through a chink, and saw him, and was very badly frightened, for the Rakshas was dreadful to look at. But the blind man was not so much afraid, for he could not see the Rakshas. So he went to the door, and called out: "Who are you? and what do you mean by coming here and battering at the door in this way, and at this time of night? "I'm a Rakshas," he answered, in a rage; "and this is my house; and if you don't let me in I will kill you." 6. Then the blind man called out in reply, "Oh! you're a Rakshas, are you? Well, if you're Rakshas, I'm Bakshas, and Bakshas is as good as Rakshas." "What nonsense is this? cried the monster; "there is no such creature as Bakshas." "Go away," replied the blind man: "if you make any further disturbance I'll punish you; for know that I am Bakshas, and Bakshas is Rakshas's father." 7. "Goodness gracious!" cried the Rakshas, "I never heard such an extraordinary thing in my life. you are my father, let me see your face," But, if for he began to get puzzled and frightened, as the person inside was so very positive. Now, the blind man and the deaf man didn't quite know what to do; but at last they opened the door just a little, and poked the donkey's nose out. 8. "Bless me," thought the Rakshas, "what a terribly ugly face my father Bakshas has got!" Then he called out again, "O father Bakshas, you have a very big fierce face; but sometimes people have very big heads and very little bodies. Let me see you, body and all, before I go away." Then the blind man and the deaf man rolled the great iron kettle across the floor with a thundering noise; and the Rakshas, who watched the chink of the door very carefully, said to himself, "He has got a great body sure enough, so I had better go away.” 9. But he was still in doubt; so he said, "Before I go away let me hear you scream," for all the tribe of the Rakshas scream dreadfully. Then the blind man and the deaf man took two of the black ants out of the box, and put one into each of the donkey's ears; and the ants bit the donkey, and the donkey began to bray and to bellow so loud that the Rakshas ran away quite frightened. 10. In the morning the blind man and the deaf man found that the floor of the house was covered with heaps of gold, and silver, and precious stones. So they made four great bundles of the treasure, and taking one apiece, put the other two on the donkey, and off they went. But the Rakshas was waiting a little way off to see how his father Bakshas looked by daylight; and when he saw only a deaf man, and a blind man, and a big iron kettle, and a donkey, all loaded with his gold and silver, he was very angry. So he ran off and fetched six of his friends to help him; and each of the six had hair a yard long, and tusks like an elephant. 11. When the blind man and the deaf man saw them coming, they ran and hid the treasure in the bushes; and then they got up into a lofty palm-tree, and waited. The deaf man, who could see, got up first, to be farthest out of harm's way. Now, the seven Rakshas were not able to reach them, and so they said, "Let us get on each other's shoulders, and pull them down." 12. So one Rakshas stooped down, and the second got on his shoulders, and the third on his, and the fourth on his, and the fifth on his, and the sixth on his. Just as the seventh was climbing up, the deaf man got frightened, and caught hold of the blind man's arm and upset him, so that he tumbled down on the neck of the seventh Rakshas. The blind man thought he had fallen into the branches of another tree, and, stretching out his hands for something to take hold of, he seized the two great ears of the seventh Rakshas, and pinched them very hard. 13. This frightened the Rakshas, who lost his balance, and fell down to the ground, upsetting the other six of his friends; the blind man all the while pinching harder and harder, and the deaf man crying out from the top of the tree, "You're all right, brother; hold on tight: I'm coming down to help you"- though he really didn't mean to do any thing of the kind. Well, the noise, and the pinching, and all the confusion, so frightened the six Rakshas that they ran away; and the seventh Rakshas, thinking that because they ran there must be great danger, shook off the blind man, and ran away too. The deaf man then came down from the tree, and embraced the blind man, and said, "I could not have done better myself." 14. Then he divided the treasure, one great heap But for himself, and one little heap for the blind man. the blind man felt of his heap, and then felt of the other; and then gave the deaf man a box on the ear, so tremendous that it made the deaf man hear. Enraged at this, the deaf man gave the other such a blow between the eyes that it made the blind man see. Delighted at this good fortune, they became good friends directly, and divided the treasure into equal shares, and went home laughing at the stupid Rakshas. |