Twenty-Two Goblins

Twenty-Two Goblins

by Arthur W. Ryder


One night the famous King Triple-victory, mighty as the king of the gods, found a monk called Patience standing under a fig tree and making a magic circle. "O King, if you wish to do me a favor, go south from here some distance all alone, and you will see a sissoo tree and a dead body hanging from it. Be so kind as to bring that here." As the king was beholden to the monk, he did as he was asked. He found the body was the body of a goblin, and that is the beginning of this tale.