XXIII.

GOOD LUCK TO THE LUCKY ONE; OR,

SHALL I FALL DOWN?

Best Short Haries, I 282

In a certain town there lived a wealthy Brâhmin.He wished to build a house- pretty large andspacious- as became his riches. For that purposehe called in a great number of soothsayers, and fixed,guided by their scientific opinion, a place for buildingthe mansion. A certain portion of every day issupposed to be bad for doing work. This portion issometimes called the Râhu- kâla- the evil time of thedemon ráhu and sometimes tyajya- the time to beavoided. And abandoning carefully all these evilhours the wealthy Brahmin built his mansion in tenyears. The first entrance into a new house to dwellis performed always with a great deal of pomp andceremony, even by the poor according to their means.And our wealthy Brâhmin to please the gods of theother world and the gods of this world- bhûsurasBrahmins spent a great deal of his wealth, and