SOME CURRENT PUSHTU FOLK STORIES. 
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foot -print pointed backward. Common sense then told me that the woman was a 
runaway. ’ ’ 
So the king said, “ Oh you the woman’s husband! These men are clever, and 
what they have learnt, they have learnt by their own intelligence. Depart, then, 
and seek your wife.” 
And the woman’s husband went forth. 
The king next said, “ Now tell me of the camel. By what means did you 
identify it ? ” 
The first of them replied, “ Upon the road were the tracks of a camel, so I said 
to myself ‘Here is a camel’ — and on one hand the grass had been cropped by the 
roadside, and on the other hand had been left standing. Thus I learnt that the 
camel was blind in one eye.” 
“ And I,” said the second brother, “observed that among the grass where the 
camel had grazed, here and there a blade had been left (standing). So I knew from 
this the animal had a tooth missing.’ ’ 
“ On one side (of the road),” concluded the third brother, “ were flies, and upon 
the other side were dung-beetles — •Consequently I inferred that, where the flies were, 
upon that side (of the animal) was the ghee; and that, where the dung-beetles were, 
upon that side (of the animal) was dung.” 
The king said, “O Sarwan! It is by their intelligence that these men have 
gained their information.” 
So the camel-owner, too, went off about his business. 
The king then addressed the brothers again (saying), “You are astute indeed — 
what is it you now wish ? ’ ’ 
The brothers replied, “(We wish) for a settlement in the affair of the ruby. 
Whoever is the thief, pick him out (from among us).” 
The king said, “I have three daughters ; to them I will refer the matter. I 
myself cannot decide.” 
So the king said to his daughters, “ O my daughters, three men have come for a 
decision according to theSheri‘at; but they are very cunning. What, then, shall 
I do ? ” 
One of his daughters replied, “ I will undertake the affair. But first I wish to 
test their cleverness. 
The king said, “ It is well. You may try their mettle a hundred times.’ ’ 
“ I will write a letter to the eldest,” said the princess, and to him she wrote, 
“ O young man, you are my guest. — What food do you fancy ? ” 
He sent a reply, “ I should like a pillau.” 
The princess procured a fine goat and the pillau was prepared. 
When the man had eaten of it, the princess asked, “ Well, O youth, was the 
food appetising ? ” 
The man replied (dubiously), “ It was good, certainly” .... 
“ What was there amiss with it ?” questioned the princess. 
“ It was rather like eating human flesh,” said the man. 
