In a certain country a Prince went to ask about a marriage, it is
said. As he was going, while on the road he met with a Princess. Having
met with her, the two persons spoke angrily. Having spoken thus, the
Prince said to the Princess, "Some day or other, having called Her
[in marriage], I will punish Her much." [59]
Then the Princess said, "Having borne a Prince to you, Sir, and having
employed the Prince [for it], I will tie you to your horse's leg,
and cause [them] to strike you fifty blows."
Afterwards, the Prince, having come back, built brick walls like a
prison, and placed a drain in it, and caused a house to be prepared
for putting the Princess into when he brought her.
Having prepared it, and having come calling the Princess [in marriage],
he put her in the house; and he puts cooked rice for the Princess
at the corner of the drain. The Princess having eaten it, is [there]
without even going outside.
There were two field rats (waeli miyo) which the Princess had reared
before. The two came to the place where this Princess is. Having come,
they dug a tunnel below the brick wall; having dug it, the Queen got
out by the corner of the tunnel, and came away.
Having come thus, she was in a party of dancing women. While there,
the Princess said to the dancing women, "Take me, and go and dance
at such and such a city." She said this regarding the city to which
the Princess came in diga [marriage]. "While dancing there I shall
faint. Then while I am there [in that state] you come away, having
said, 'We shall come again to call our child.'" She taught the
women thus.
The Princess having taught them it, these women danced near the King,
the father of the Prince who had placed her as though in prison when
she came in diga [marriage]. The Prince also is there.
While dancing thus, the Princess fainted. Afterwards, these women
having said, "Let her stay until the time when we come back to call
our child to go. We cannot now, while she is unconscious," the women
went away. The Princess remained there. That she was that Prince's
Princess he does not know. Having said that the Princess will still
be in that very [prison] house, he places cooked rice [there for her]
by means of the drain.
The women after three or four months came to call this Princess to
go. Then that Prince having married her, she was with child. The women,
notwithstanding that, called her and went away [with her].
Afterwards, when she was there a little time [with them] the Princess
bore a Prince.
The Prince became considerably big. Afterwards he asked at the hand
of the Princess, "Mother, where is my father?"
Then the Princess said, "Son, your father is such and such a King of
such and such a city. The King having wagered that he will take me in
marriage, said that he will inflict on me unimposed punishments. I
said, 'Having borne a Prince to you, I will employ the Prince and
[get him to] tie you to your horse's leg, and cause you to be struck
fifty blows.'"
"In the way the King said, calling me [in marriage], when I came he
punished me like the punishment of the prison. Having come from there
by the help of two rats which I reared before, I was in the dancing
women's party. Being in it, and having gone to that city to dance
with these women, the women came away while I was there. Afterwards
they went back to come with me.
"During the time when I was there, the King marrying me, you were
born when these women were going about. While I was there they came
and called me. It is that King himself who is your father."
After that, the Prince said, "Mother, if so, seek a few things for
food for me, and give me them, for me to go to seek a livelihood
for myself."
Afterwards the Princess found the things, and after she gave them,
the Prince, taking them, went to the house of a widow woman who worked
for hire, and said, "Mother, I, also, came to stay with you."
Then the widow woman said, "It is good; stay. I am alone." Afterwards
the Prince stayed there.
Staying there, this Prince began to steal the things of the city. Then
the King made it public that they are to catch the thief. Afterwards
they try to seize him; no one is able to seize him. That widow woman
also does not know [that he is the thief].
The woman having come [home], tells at the hand of the Prince all
the talk uttered at the royal palace: "A thief of this country is
committing this robbery; they cannot catch the thief." All these
words she said to the Prince.
Afterwards the Prince said, "Mother, cook a few cakes and give me
them." So the woman cooked cakes and gave them.
Thereupon the Prince, taking the cakes, went to the chena jungle,
and strung the cakes on the trees near a pool at the road (mankada)
where a washerman is washing clothes. Having strung them, keeping
still two or three cakes in his hand, and continuing to eat them,
he came to the place where that washerman is washing clothes.
Then the washerman asked at the hand of the Prince, "Whence come you
eating and eating certain cakes?"
The Prince said, "Ando! The cake stems on these trees having fruited,
there are as many as you want (onae haetiye). Go there to look."
Afterwards, the washerman having said, "If so, Chief (nilame), be
good enough to remain near these few clothes," the washerman went to
pluck the cakes.
Then the Prince, taking those few clothes, came to the house of the
widow woman. That washerman [after] plucking the cakes having come
back, when he looked both the Prince was not there and the clothes
were not there. Afterwards the washerman went home empty-handed. [60]
That Prince asked at the hand of the widow woman, "Mother, to-day,
in the direction of that city--isn't it so?--there is a report about
the thief?"
Then the widow woman said, "Ando! Why not, son? To-morrow the King
is going, they say, to catch the thief."
On the following day, taking also a bundle of clothes, he went to a
pool at the road, and having tied a cord to an earthen cooking-pot,
and sent the earthen pot into the water, continuing to tread on
the cord with his foot, [so as to keep the pot below the surface],
he washes the clothes.
Then the King came on horseback, together with the Ministers. This
Prince who is washing clothes asked at the hand of those Ministers,
"Where are you going?"