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18S3.] C. Swynnerton— Folktales from the Upper Panjab. 
much ghee,” said he ; “ and why do you risk the waste of so much more, 
seeing that your bread might slip from your fingers and become totally 
immersed P Think better of it, and imitate me. I take my vessel of ghee, 
and hang it just out of reach to a nail in the wall. Then I point at the 
ghee my scraps of bread, one by one, as I eat, and I assure you I not only 
enjoy my ghee just as well, but I make no waste.”* 
XXXI. The False Witness. 
A caravan of merchants came and pitched for the night at a certain 
spot on the way down to Hindustan. In the morning it was found that 
the back of one of the camels was so sore, that it was considered expedient 
not to load him again, but to turn him loose into the wilderness. So they left 
him behind. The camel, after grazing about the whole day, became exceed¬ 
ingly thirsty, and meeting a jackal, he said to him, “ Uncle, uncle, I am 
very thirsty/ Can you show me some water ?” “ I can show you water” 
said the jackal, “but if I do, you must agree to give me a good feed of meat 
from your sore back.” “ I do agree,” said the camel, “ but first show me the 
water.” So he followed his small friend, until they came to a running 
stream, where he drank such quantities of water that the jackal thought 
he would never stop. He then with some politeness invited the jackal to 
his repast. “ Come, uncle, you can now have your supper off my back.” 
“ Nay,” said the jackal, “ our agreement was that I should feed not off your 
back, but off your tongue,f dear nephew. This you distinctly promised, 
if I would take you to water.” “ Very well,” replied the camel, “ produce a 
witness to prove your words, and you can have it so.” “ A witness I have 
and will bring him presently,” replied the jackal. So he went to the Wolf, 
and stating the case, persuaded him to witness falsely. “ You see, wolf, 
if I eat the tongue, the camel will certainly die, and then we shall both 
have a grand feed to which we can invite all our friends.” The two 
returned to the camel and the jackal appealing to the wolf asked, 
“ Did not I engragre to show the camel to water on condition that 
he would give me his tongue ?” “ Of course you did,” said the 
* This anecdote is an instance of the truth of the saying of Solomon—“ There 
is no new thing under the sun.” Many readers will he reminded of the Irish dish 
“ Potatoes and point,” consisting of a large supply of potatoes and of a very limited 
supply of meat, bacon, or even fish. The potatoes are eaten, but the more solid fare 
is merely pointed at. The following passage from Carlyle’s “ Count Cagliostro” 
refers to this singular custom—“ And so the catastrophe ends by bathing our poor 
half-dead Recipiendary first in blood, then, after some genuflexions, in water; and 
‘ serving him a repast composed of roots,’—we grieve to say, mere potatoes — and — 
point /” 
t “ Sore back” in Panjabi being chigh, and “ tongue” jib , there was sufficient 
similarity of sound to suggest prevarication. 
