The nature of the problem may now be illustrated by a few examples. In the story of the _Pantschatantra_, the granter of the wish (there is but one wish) is a tree-dwelling spirit. A very stupid weaver one day broke part of his loom. He went out to cut down a tree near the shore, meaning to fashion it for his purpose, when a spirit, who dwelt in the timber, cried, 'Spare this tree.' The weaver said he must starve if he did not get the wood, when the spirit replied, 'Ask anything else you please.' The barber, being consulted, advised the weaver to wish to be king. The weaver's wife cried, 'No, stay as you are, but ask for two heads, and four hands, to do double work.' He got his wish, but was killed by the villagers, who very naturally supposed him to be a Rakshasa, or ogre. The moral is enunciated by the barber, 'Let no man take woman's counsel.' The poor woman's lack of immoderate ambition might seem laudable to some moralists. Here the peculiarities are: A tree-ghost grants the wish. There is only one wish. It is made on a woman's advice. It causes the death of the wisher[37]. The story is next found in the various forms of the _Book of Sindibad_, Greek, Hebrew, Persian, Arabic, and old Spanish, a book mentioned by all Arabic authors of the tenth century, and of Indian and Buddhistic origin[38]. As told in the various forms of _Sindibad_, the tale of _The Three Wishes_ takes this shape. A man has a friendly spirit (a she-devil in the Spanish _Libro de los Engannos_), who is obliged to desert his company, but leaves him certain formulae, by dint of repeating which he will have Three Wishes granted to him. The tree-spirit has disappeared, the one wish has become three. The man consults with his wife, who suggests that he should desire, not two heads and four hands, but an obscene and disgusting bodily transformation of another sort. He wishes the wish, is horrified by the result, and, on the woman's hint, asks to have all that embarrasses him removed. The granting of the wish leaves him with 'a frightful _minus_ quantity,' and he expends the third wish in getting restored to his pristine and natural condition. The woman explains that she had not counselled him to desire wealth, lest he should weary of her and desert her. This, at least, is the conclusion in the Hebrew version, in the _Parables of Sandabas_ (Deulin, _Contes de Ma Mere L'Oye_, p. 71). How are we to account for this metamorphosis of the story in the _Pantschatantra_? Is the alteration a piece of Arabian humour? Was there another Indian version corresponding to the shape of the tale in the _Book of Sindibad_? The questions cannot be answered with our present knowledge. Another change, and a very remarkable one, occurs in the _Fables_ of Marie de France. Of Marie not much is known. In the _Conclusion_ of her Fables, she says-- 'Au finement de cest escrit K'en Romanz ai turne et dit, Me numerai par remembraunce Marie ai num, si sui de Fraunce.