but the minister, named devajnanin, whispered in the king's ear: "how can a man possess such knowledge unattainable by men, without having studied the books of magic; you may be certain that this is a specimen of the way he makes a dishonest livelihood, by having a secret intelligence with thieves. it will be much better to test him by some new artifice." then the king of his own accord brought a covered pitcher into which he had thrown a frog, and said to harisarman, "brahman, if you can guess what there is in this pitcher, i will do you great honour to-day." when the brahman harisarman heard that, he thought that his last hour had come, and he called to mind the pet name of "froggie" which his father had given him in his childhood in sport, and, impelled by luck, he called to himself by his pet name, lamenting his hard fate, and suddenly called out: "this is a fine pitcher for you, froggie; it will soon become the swift destroyer of your helpless self." the people there, when they heard him say that, raised a shout of applause, because his speech chimed in so well with the object presented to him, and murmured, "ah! a great sage, he knows even about the frog!" then the king, thinking that this was all due to knowledge of divination, was highly delighted, and gave harisarman the revenue of more villages, with gold, an umbrella, and state carriages of all kinds. so harisarman prospered in the world.