"Ane! Daughter, there is a male child of mine. The child does not
give me to eat, and does not give me to wear. Having beaten me he
drove me away, to go to any place I like."
Then the Princess said, "I will give you to eat and to wear. There is
not anyone with me." Calling this old woman she went to her palace. The
Prince also having become pleased, amply provided for the old woman.
Very many times calling this old woman, [the Princess] having gone
to the well-mouth, and stayed [there] singing songs, returned.
One day this old woman, taking a piece of stone in her hand,
unknown (himin) to the Princess, asked at the hand of the Princess,
"Ane! Daughter, how does the water dry up in this well? How does
it fill?"
The Princess said, "Mother, there is a stone in my hand. By its power
the water dries up, and fills it."
[Saying], "Ane! Daughter, where is it? Please let me, too, look at it,"
she begged for and got the stone. Having been looking and looking at
it a little time, she dropped that piece of stone which was in her
hand, for the Princess to hear. This gem-treasure the woman hid.
[The Princess] having said, "Appoyi! Mother, you dropped the
stone!" the two persons, striking and striking themselves, began to
cry, saying and saying, "For us, in the midst of this forest, from
whom will there be a protection from everything (saw-saranak)?"
At the time when they were weeping and weeping, having said,
"It is becoming night," the old woman said to the Princess,
"Now then, daughter, for us two to remain thus, a fine place (hari
taenak) is this forest wilderness! There will be elephants, bears,
leopards. Because of that, let us go. There is my house; having gone
[there], early to-morrow morning let us come again here." Having said
[this], deceiving the Princess, they went away.
The old woman with dishonest secrecy having sent word to the King,
the King came, and calling the Princess went [with her] to the palace.
Thereafter, the King published by beat of tom-toms that he has brought
the Princess who stayed on the well mouth. He made public that on
such and such a day he will marry this Princess.
Thereupon the Princess said, "In that manner I cannot contract
marriage. My two parents have told me that the Prince [I am to marry]
and I, both of us, having rowed a Wooden Peacock machine [13] in
the sky, and having come back, after that must contract marriage,
they have ordered." This word the Princess said as the Princess knows
that the first friend of the Prince's, that is, the Carpenter's son,
can construct the Wooden Peacock machine.
Thereafter, the King of this city employed the notification tom-tom,
"Who can construct the Wooden Peacock machine? If there should be a
person who can, speedily come summoning him near the King."
At the time when they were beating the notification tom-tom, that
Carpenter's son, having caused the notification tom-tom to halt, said,
"I can construct the Wooden Peacock machine." Thereupon, summoning
the Carpenter's son, they went to the royal house.
The King ordered that he should receive from the palace many
presents. The King commanded that having quickly constructed the
Wooden Peacock machine, and also prepared a person to row it, he
should bring it.
Thereafter, the Carpenter's son, ascertaining about the Princess who
stayed at the well, quickly having set off, went near the well in the
jungle, and diving into the water, and having gone to the palace, when
he looked, the Prince having become stupefied through want of sleep,
[14] had fallen down unconscious.
Thereupon the Carpenter's son, having spoken to the Prince, said,
"Didn't I tell you, Sir, 'Don't give the ring into the hand of the
Princess,' ascertaining that this danger will happen? But," he said to
the Prince, "don't you at any time become unhappy. [15] I will again
bring the Princess near this palace, and give her to you." Saying,
"Please remain in happiness," the Carpenter's son returned to the city,
and began to construct the Wooden Peacock machine.
While constructing it, he made inquiry how this widow woman was,
[and learnt that] a male child of this widow woman's was lost while
very young (lit., from his small days).
One day, in the night the Carpenter's son, tying up a bundle of clothes
and a packet of cooked rice, went, just as it was becoming night,
[16] to the house at which is the widow woman. Having gone [there]
he spoke: "Mother, mother!"
Thereupon the woman quickly having arisen and come, asked, "Where,
son, where were you for so many days?"
Thereupon the Carpenter's son said, "Ane! Mother, having tramped
through many countries, I have not obtained any means of subsistence. I
obtained a few pieces of cloth and a little rice." Saying "Here,"
he gave them into the hand of that woman.
"What are these for, son? Look; I have received from the King much
goods, and a part of the kingdom," she said to the Carpenter's son.
The old woman thought he was her own son. Having allowed him to
press her eyes while she is lying down, the old woman said, "Son,
I have still got something."
Having said, "Ane! Mother, where is it? Please let me look at it,"
begging for it, when he looked [it was] that gem-treasure.
Thereafter, having given it [back] into the hand of the old woman,
and waited until the time when the woman goes to sleep, stealing that
stone the Carpenter's son came away.
Then, constructing the Wooden Peacock machine, he went near the
King. Having gone, he said, "Except myself no one else can row this."
At that time, the King and the Princess, both of them, having mounted
on the Wooden Peacock machine [after] putting on the royal ornaments,
these three persons rowed [aloft in] the Wooden Peacock machine.
Having rowed very high above the sea, and stopped the Wooden Peacock
machine, the Carpenter's son, taking the sword in his hand, asked the
King whence the King obtained this Princess. Thereupon the King said
that a widow woman of this city brought and gave him the Princess
who stayed at a well in the midst of the forest.
Then the Carpenter's son said, "Why do you desire others' wives? How
much [mental] fire will there be for this Princess's husband! What
His Highness (tuma) did is a great fault."
Having said this, he cut down the King and dropped him into the sea,
and, taking the Princess, rowed near that well in the jungle. Having
gone [down the well] to the palace, and caused that Prince to put
on these royal ornaments, the Prince, and the Princess, and the
Carpenter's son, the whole three persons, having gone on the Wooden
Peacock machine to the city, and said that the King and the Princess
had contracted the marriage, that day with great festivity ate the
[wedding] feast; but any person of the city was unaware of this
abduction [17] [of the King] which he effected.
Thereafter, this Prince and Princess having been saluted [18] by
that widow woman, having tried her judicially they subjected her to
the thirty-two tortures and beheaded her, and hung her at the four
gate-ways, it is said.
The Carpenter's son became the Prince's Prime Minister. The Prince
exercised the sovereignty with the ten [royal] virtues, it is said.
North-western Province.
The ten royal virtues are: Almsgiving, keeping religious precepts,
liberality, uprightness, compassion, addiction to religious
austerities, even temper, tenderness, patience, and peacefulness
(Clough).
Regarding the flying wooden Peacock, see also the next story and
No. 198 in vol. iii. In Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes),
vol. ii, p. 378, there is also an account of a similar flying-machine
called a Peacock, on which a young man, accompanied by the maker,
first went to marry a girl, and afterwards, against the advice of
its maker, flew aloft to show the people his own skill. He did not
know how to make it return, and at last the cords broke, it fell in
the sea, and he was drowned.
In Folklore of the Santal Parganas (collected by Rev. Dr. Bodding),
pp. 378, 380, etc., there are several accounts of houses under the
water; these were the residences of Bongas or deities.
In The Indian Antiquary, vol. i, p. 115, Mr. G. H. Damant gave a
Bengal story in which a King's son descends into a well, and finds
there a Princess in a house, imprisoned by Rakshasas.
In Folk-Tales of Bengal (L. Behari Day), p. 17 ff., a Prince and
a Minister's son who was his bosom friend, while on their travels
obtained a Cobra's jewel, and by means of it saw a palace under the
water of a tank. They dived down to it, found a Princess who had
been imprisoned there by the Cobra, which had died on losing its
magic jewel, and the Prince married her by exchanging garlands of
flowers. After the Minister's son left them in order to prepare for
their return, the Princess, while the Prince was asleep, by means
of the magic jewel ascended to the surface of the water, and sat on
the bathing steps. On the third occasion when she did this, a Raja's
son saw and fell in love with her. As soon as she observed him she
descended to her palace, and the young man went home apparently
mad. The Raja offered his daughter's hand and half his kingdom to
anyone who could cure his son. An old woman who had seen the Princess
offered to do it, and a hut was built for her on the embankment of the
tank. When the Princess came to the bank the woman offered to help her
to bathe, secured the jewel, and the Princess was captured. When the
Minister's son returned on a day previously arranged, he heard that
the Princess was to be married in two days. He personated the widow's
son, who was absent, and was well received by the widow, who handed
him the magic jewel. He saw the Princess, managed to escape with her,
and they joined the Prince.
In The Kathakoça (Tawney), p. 91, a serpent Prince saved a Queen who
had been pushed into a well by her stepmother, and made a palace in
the well, in which she lived until she was able to rejoin her husband.
In Folk-Tales of Hindustan (Shaik Chilli), p. 52, a Princess who had
been carried off and was about to be married to a Raja's son, stated
(by pre-arrangement with her husband's party, who had come to rescue
her) that it was "the custom of her family to float round the city in
a golden aerial car with the bridegroom and match-maker." The Raja
sent men to find a car. Two of her husband's friends, a goldsmith
and a carpenter, now produced such a car. When the Raja, his son,
the Princess, and the witch who had abducted her, began to sail above
the city in it, at the Princess's request the car was stopped at a
pre-arranged place, the Prince and his four friends sprang into it,
took it high in the air, drowned the Raja, his son, and the witch,
and returned with the Princess to their own city.
In the Arabian Nights (Lady Burton's ed., vol. iii, p. 137 ff.) there
is an account of a flying ebony horse, which rose or descended when
suitable pegs were turned. When it was brought to a Persian King,
his son tried it, was carried away like the Prince in the next story,
and at last descended on the roof of a palace, where he saw and fell
in love with the royal Princess, and returning afterwards, carried
her off.
In the Tota Kahani (Small), p. 139, a young man made a flying wooden
horse, by means of which a merchant's daughter, who had been abducted
by a fairy, was recovered.
In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. i, p. 57, a young Brahmana
who plunged into the Ganges to rescue a woman who appeared to be
drowning found a temple of Siva, and a palace in which the girl who
was a Daitya (an Asura) lived.
In the same volume, p. 392, there is an account of a flying chariot,
"with a pneumatic contrivance," made by a carpenter. A man flew two
hundred yojanas (each some eight miles in length) before descending;
he then started it afresh and flew another two hundred. On p. 390
wooden automata made by the same carpenter are mentioned; they "moved
as if they were alive, but were recognised as lifeless by their want
of speech." A similar automaton is mentioned in Cinq Cents Contes
et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. iii, p. 170; it was able to sing and
dance. (This work consists of translations from the Chinese Tripitaka;
all appear to have been translated from Indian originals, usually in
the early centuries after Christ.)
In The Indian Antiquary, vol. x, p. 232 (Tales of the Panjab, p. 42),
in the story of Prince Lionheart, by Mrs. F. A. Steel, his carpenter
friend went in search of a Princess who had been carried off by a
King. He made a flying palankin, and returned in it with her.