That day his six brothers-in-law could find no game, for the beautiful
young prince had shot it all. Nearly all the day long these six
princes wandered about looking in vain for game; till at last they
grew hungry and thirsty, and could find no water, and they had no food
with them. Meanwhile the beautiful young prince had sat down under a
tree, to dine and rest, and there his six brothers-in-law found him.
By his side was some delicious water, and also some roast meat.
When they saw him the six princes said to each other, "Look at that
handsome prince. He has a moon on his forehead and a star on his chin.
We have never seen such a prince in this jungle before; he must come
from another country." Then they came up to him, and made him many
salaams, and begged him to give them some food and water. "Who are
you?" said the young prince. "We are the husbands of the six elder
daughters of the King of this country," they answered; "and we have
hunted all day, and are very hungry and thirsty." They did not
recognize their brother-in-law in the least.
"Well," said the young prince, "I will give you something to eat and
drink if you will do as I bid you." "We will do all you tell us to
do," they answered, "for if we do not get water to drink, we shall
die." "Very good," said the young prince. "Now you must let me put a
red-hot pice on the back of each of you, and then I will give you food
and water. Do you agree to this?" The six princes consented, for they
thought, "No one will ever see the mark of the pice, as it will be
covered by our clothes; and we shall die if we have no water to
drink." Then the young prince took six pice, and made them red-hot in
the fire; he laid one on the back of each of the six princes, and gave
them good food and water. They ate and drank; and when they had
finished they made him many salaams and went home.
The young prince stayed under the tree till it was evening; then he
mounted his horse and rode off to the King's palace. All the people
looked at him as he came riding along, saying, "What a splendid young
prince that is! He has a moon on his forehead and a star on his chin."
But no one recognized him. When he came near the King's palace, all
the King's servants asked him who he was; and as none of them knew
him, the gate-keepers would not let him pass in. They all wondered who
he could be, and all thought him the most beautiful prince that had
ever been seen.
At last they asked him who he was. "I am the husband of your youngest
princess," he answered. "No, no, indeed you are not," they said; "for
he is a poor, common-looking, and ugly man." "But I am he," answered
the prince; only no one would believe him. "Tell us the truth," said
the servants; "who are you?" "Perhaps you cannot recognize me," said
the young prince, "but call the youngest princess here. I wish to
speak to her." The servants called her, and she came. "That man is not
my husband," she said at once. "My husband is not nearly as handsome
as that man. This must be a prince from another country."
Then she said to him, "Who are you? Why do you say you are my
husband?" "Because I am your husband. I am telling you the truth,"
answered the young prince. "No you are not, you are not telling me the
truth," said the little princess. "My husband is not a handsome man
like you. I married a very poor, common-looking man." "That is true,"
he answered, "but nevertheless I am your husband. I was the grain
merchant's servant; and one hot night I went into your father's garden
and sang, and you heard me, and came and asked me who I was and where
I came from, and I would not answer you. And the same thing happened
the next night, and the next, and on the fourth I told you I was a
very poor man, and had come from my country to seek service in yours,
and that I was the grain merchant's servant. Then you told your father
you wished to marry, but must choose your own husband; and when all
the Kings and Rájás were seated in your father's garden, you sat on an
elephant and went round and looked at them all; and then twice hung
your gold necklace round my neck, and chose me. See, here is your
necklace, and here are the ring and the handkerchief you gave me on
our wedding day."
Then she believed him, and was very glad that her husband was such a
beautiful young prince. "What a strange man you are!" she said to him.
"Till now you have been poor, and ugly, and common-looking. Now you
are beautiful and look like a prince; I never saw such a handsome man
as you are before; and yet I know you must be my husband." Then she
worshipped God and thanked him for letting her have such a husband. "I
have," she said, "a beautiful husband. There is no one like him in
this country. He has a moon on his forehead and a star on his chin."
Then she took him into the palace, and showed him to her father and
mother and to every one. They all said they had never seen any one
like him, and were all very happy. And the young prince lived as
before in the King's palace with his wife, and Katar lived in the
King's stables.
One day, when the King and his seven sons-in-law were in his
court-house, and it was full of people, the young prince said to him,
"There are six thieves here in your court-house." "Six thieves!" said
the King. "Where are they? Show them to me." "There they are," said
the young prince, pointing to his six brothers-in-law. The King and
every one else in the court-house were very much astonished, and would
not believe the young prince. "Take off their coats," he said, "and
then you will see for yourselves that each of them has the mark of a
thief on his back." So their coats were taken off the six princes, and
the King and everybody in the court-house saw the marks of the red-hot
pice. The six princes were very much ashamed, but the young prince was
very glad. He had not forgotten how his brothers-in-law had laughed at
him and mocked him when he seemed a poor, common man.
Now when Katar was still in the jungle, before the prince was married,
he had told the boy the whole story of his birth, and all that had
happened to him and his mother. "When you are married," he said to
him, "I will take you back to your father's country." So two months
after the young prince had revenged himself on his brothers-in-law,
Katar said to him, "It is time for you to return to your father. Get
the King to let you go to your own country, and I will tell you what
to do when we get there."
The prince always did what his horse told him to do; so he went to his
wife and said to her, "I wish very much to go to my own country to see
my father and mother." "Very well," said his wife; "I will tell my
father and mother, and ask them to let us go." Then she went to them,
and told them, and they consented to let her and her husband leave
them. The King gave his daughter and the young prince a great many
horses, and elephants, and all sorts of presents, and also a great
many sepoys to guard them. In this grand state they travelled to the
prince's country, which was not a great many miles off. When they
reached it they pitched their tents on the same plain in which the
prince had been left in his box by the nurse, where Shankar and Surí
had swallowed him so often.
When the King, his father, the gardener's daughter's husband, saw the
prince's camp, he was very much alarmed, and thought a great King had
come to make war on him. He sent one of his servants, therefore, to
ask whose camp it was. The young prince then wrote him a letter, in
which he said, "You are a great King. Do not fear me. I am not come to
make war on you. I am as if I were your son. I am a prince who has
come to see your country and to speak with you. I wish to give you a
grand feast, to which everyone in your country must come--men and
women, old and young, rich and poor, of all castes; all the children,
fakírs, and sepoys. You must bring them all here to me for a week, and
I will feast them all."
The King was delighted with this letter, and ordered all the men,
women, and children of all castes, fakírs and sepoys, in his country
to go to the prince's camp to a grand feast the prince would give
them. So they all came, and the King brought his four wives too. All
came, at least all but the gardener's daughter. No one had told her to
go to the feast, for no one had thought of her.
When all the people were assembled, the prince saw his mother was not
there, and he asked the King, "Has every one in your country come to
my feast?" "Yes, everyone," said the King. "Are you sure of that?"
asked the prince.
"Quite sure," answered the King. "I am sure one woman has not come,"
said the prince. "She is your gardener's daughter, who was once your
wife and is now a servant in your palace." "True," said the King, "I
had forgotten her." Then the prince told his servants to take his
finest palanquin and to fetch the gardener's daughter. They were to
bathe her, dress her in beautiful clothes and handsome jewels, and
then bring her to him in the palanquin.
While the servants were bringing the gardener's daughter, the King
thought how handsome the young prince was; and he noticed
particularly the moon on his forehead and the star on his chin, and he
wondered in what country the young prince was born.
And now the palanquin arrived bringing the gardener's daughter, and
the young prince went himself and took her out of it, and brought her
into the tent. He made her a great many salaams. The four wicked wives
looked on and were very much surprised and very angry. They remembered
that, when they arrived, the prince had made them no salaams, and
since then had not taken the least notice of them; whereas he could
not do enough for the gardener's daughter, and seemed very glad to see
her.
When they were all at dinner, the prince again made the gardener's
daughter a great many salaams, and gave her food from all the nicest
dishes. She wondered at his kindness to her, and thought, "Who is this
handsome prince, with a moon on his forehead and a star on his chin? I
never saw any one so beautiful. What country does he come from?"
Two or three days were thus passed in feasting, and all that time the
King and his people were talking about the prince's beauty, and
wondering who he was.
One day the prince asked the King if he had any children. "None," he
answered. "Do you know who I am?" asked the prince. "No," said the
King. "Tell me who you are." "I am your son," answered the prince,
"and the gardener's daughter is my mother." The King shook his head
sadly. "How can you be my son," he said, "when I have never had any
children?" "But I am your son," answered the prince. "Your four wicked
wives told you the gardener's daughter had given you a stone and not a
son; but it was they who put the stone in my little bed, and then they
tried to kill me." The King did not believe him. "I wish you were my
son," he said; "but as I never had a child, you cannot be my son."
"Do you remember your dog Shankar, and how you had him killed? And do
you remember your cow Surí, and how you had her killed too? Your wives
made you kill them because of me. And," he said, taking the King to
Katar, "do you know whose horse that is?"
The King looked at Katar, and then said, "That is my horse Katar."
"Yes," said the Prince. "Do you not remember how he rushed past you
out of his stable with me on his back?" Then Katar told the King the
prince was really his son, and told him all the story of his birth,
and of his life up to that moment; and when the King found the
beautiful prince was indeed his son, he was so glad, so glad. He put
his arms round him and kissed him and cried for joy.
"Now," said the King, "you must come with me to my palace, and live
with me always." "No," said the prince, "that I cannot do. I cannot go
to your palace. I only came here to fetch my mother; and now that I
have found her, I will take her with me to my father-in-law's palace.
I have married a King's daughter, and we live with her father." "But
now that I have found you, I cannot let you go," said his father. "You
and your wife must come and live with your mother and me in my
palace." "That we will never do," said the prince, "unless you will
kill your four wicked wives with your own hand. If you will do that,
we will come and live with you."
So the King killed his wives, and then he and his wife, the gardener's
daughter, and the prince and his wife, all went to live in the King's
palace, and lived there happily together for ever after; and the King
thanked God for giving him such a beautiful son, and for ridding him
of his four wicked wives.
Katar did not return to the fairies' country, but stayed always with
the young prince, and never left him.
Told by Múniyá.
[Decoration]
XXI.
THE BÉL-PRINCESS.
In a country lived a King who had seven sons. Six of these sons
married, but the seventh and youngest son would not marry; and,
moreover, he disliked his six sisters-in-law, and could not bear to
take food from their hands. One day, they got very angry with him for
disliking them, and they said to him, taunting him, "We think that you
will marry a Bél-Princess."
"A Bél-Princess," said the young prince to himself. "What is a
Bél-Princess? and where is one to be found? I will go and look for
one." But the next day he thought, "How can I find a Bél-Princess? I
don't know where to seek for her."
At last one day he saddled and bridled one of his father's beautiful
horses. Then he put on his grand clothes, took his sword and gun, and
said good-bye to his father and mother, and set out on his search.
They cried very much at parting with him.
He rode from his father's country for a long, long way. At length,
when he had journeyed for six months, he found himself in a great
jungle, through which he went for many nights and days, until he at
last came to where a fakír lay sleeping. The young prince thought, "I
will watch by this fakír till he wakes. Perhaps he can help me." So he
stayed with the fakír for one whole month; and all that time he took
care of him and watched by him, and kept his hut clean.
This fakír used to sleep for six whole months at a time, and then he
would remain awake for six months.
When the prince had watched over him for one month the fakír woke, for
his six months' sleep had come to an end; and when he saw what care
the young prince had taken of him, and how clean his hut was, he was
very much pleased with the King's son, and said to him, "How have you
been able to reach this jungle, to which no man can come? and who are
you? and whence do you come?"
"I am a King's son," answered the prince. "My father's country is a
six months' journey away from this; and I am come to look for a
Bél-Princess. I hear there is a Bél-Princess, and I want to find her.
Can you tell me where she is?"
"It is true that there is one," answered the fakír, "and I know where
she is. She is in the fairies' country, whither no man can go."
This made the young prince very sad. "What shall I do?" he said. "I
have left my father and mother, and have travelled a long, long way to
find the Bél-Princess. And now you tell me I cannot go where she
lives."
"I will help you," said the fakír, "and if you do exactly what I tell
you, you will find her. But, first, stay here with me for a little
while."
So the King's son stayed for another month with the fakír, and took
care of him, and did everything for him, as he did for his own father.
At the end of the month, the fakír gave him his stick, and said to
him, "Now you must go to the fairies' country. It is one week's
journey distant from this jungle. When you get there, you will see a
number of demons and fairies who live in it." Then the fakír took a
little earth from the ground, and put it in the prince's hand. "When
you have come to the fairies' country, in order that they and the
demons may not see you, you must blow all this earth away from the
palm of your hand, and then you will be invisible. You must ride on
till you come to a great plain in the middle of their garden, and on
this plain you will see a large bél-tree and on it one big bél-fruit.
In this fruit is the Bél-Princess. You must throw my stick at it, and
it will fall; but you must take care to catch the fruit in your shawl,
and not let it fall to the ground. Then ride quickly back to me, for
as soon as the fruit falls you will cease to be invisible, and the
fairies and demons who guard the fruit will all come running after
you, and they will all call to you. But take care, take care not to
look behind you when they call you. Ride straight on to me with the
fruit, and do not look behind you. If you do, you will become stone,
and your horse too, and they will take the bél-fruit back to its
tree."
The prince promised to do all the fakír bade him. He rode for a week,
and then he came to the fairies' country. He blew the earth the fakír
had given him away from his palm all along his fingers, just as he had
been told, and then he became invisible. He rode through the great
garden to the plain. There he saw the bél-tree, and the one fruit
hanging all alone. He threw the fakír's stick at it, and caught it in
a corner of his shawl as it fell, but then he was no longer invisible.
All the fairies and demons could see him, and they came running after
him as he rode quickly away, and called to him. He looked behind at
them, and instantly he and his horse became stone; and the bél-fruit
went back to its tree and hung itself up.
For one week the fakír sat in his jungle, waiting for the King's son.
But the moment he was turned into stone, the fakír knew of it, and he
set off at once for the fairies' country. He walked all through it,
but neither the fairies nor demons could touch him. He went straight
to the great plain, and there he saw the King's son sitting on his
horse, and both he and the horse were stone.
This made the fakír very sad; and he said to God, "What will the
father and mother do, now that their son is changed into a stone?" And
he prayed to God and said, "If it be God's pleasure, may this King's
son be alive once more." Then he cut his little finger on the inside
from the tip to the palm, and smeared the prince's forehead with the
blood that came from it. He rubbed some blood on the horse too, all
the time praying to God to give the prince his life again. The King's
son and his horse were alive once more. The fakír took the prince back
to his jungle, and said to him, "Listen. I told you not to look behind
you, and you disobeyed me and so were turned to stone. Had I not come
to save you, you would always have remained stone."
The fakír kept the prince with him in the jungle for one whole week.
Then he gave him his stick and some earth he picked up from the ground
on which they were standing, and said, "Now you must go to the
fairies' country again, and throw my stick at the bél-fruit, and catch
it in a corner of your shawl as you did before. But mind, mind you do
not look behind you this time. If you do you will be turned to stone,
and you will for ever remain stone. Ride straight back to me with the
fruit, and take care never to look behind you once till you get to
me."
So the King's son went again to the fairies' country, and all happened
as before, till he had caught the fruit in his shawl. But then he rode
straight back to the fakír without looking behind him, although the
fairies and demons ran after him and called to him the whole way.
He rode so fast they could not catch him, and when he came to the
fakír, the fakír turned him into a fly and thus hid him. Up came all
the fairies and demons and said to the fakír, "There is a thief in
your hut." "A thief! Where is the thief?" said the fakír. "Look
everywhere for him, and take him away if you can find him." Then they
searched and searched everywhere, but could not find the prince; so at
last they went away.
When they had all gone, the fakír took the little fly and turned it
back into a King's son. A few days afterwards he said to the prince,
"Now you have found what you wanted; you have the Bél-Princess you
came to seek. So go back to your father and mother." "Very well," said
the prince. Then he got his horse all ready for the journey, took the
bél-fruit, and made many salaams to the fakír, who said to him, "Now,
listen. Take care not to open the fruit on the road. Wait till you are
in your father's house with your father and mother, and then open it.
If you do not do exactly as I tell you, evil will happen to you; so
mind you only open the fruit in your father's house. Out of it will
come the Bél-Princess."
The prince set out on his journey, and rode on and on for six months
till he came to his father's country, and then to his father's garden.
There he sat down to rest by a well under a clump of great trees. He
said to himself, "Now that I am in my father's country, and in my
father's garden, I will sit and rest in this cool shade; and when I am
rested I will go up to the palace." He bathed his face and his hands
in the well, and drank some of its water. Then he thought, "Surely,
now that I am in my father's country and in his garden, I need not
wait till I get to his palace to open my bél-fruit. What harm can
happen if I do open it here?"
So he broke it open, in spite of all the fakír had told him, and out
of it came such a beautiful girl. She was more beautiful than any
princess that ever was seen--so beautiful that the King's son fainted
when he saw her. The princess fanned him, and poured water on his
face, and presently he recovered, and said to her, "Princess, I should
like to sleep for a little while, for I have travelled for six months,
and am very tired. After I have slept we will go together to my
father's palace." So he went to sleep, and the princess sat by him.
Presently a woman came to the well for water, and she said to herself,
"See, here is the King's youngest son. What a lovely princess that is
sitting by him! What fine clothes and jewels she has on!" And the
wicked woman determined to kill the princess and to take her place.
Then she came up to the beautiful girl, and sat down beside her, and
talked to her. "Listen to me, princess," she said at last. "Let us
change clothes with each other. Give me yours, and I will give you
mine." The princess, thinking no harm, did as the woman suggested.
"And now," said the woman, "let me put on your beautiful jewels." The
princess gave them to her, and then the wicked, wicked woman, said to
her, "Let us walk about this pretty garden, and look at the flowers,
and amuse ourselves." By and by she said, "Princess, let us go and
look at ourselves in the well, and see what we look like, you in my
clothes, and I in yours." The young girl consented, and they went to
the well. As they bent over the side to look in, the wicked woman gave
the princess a push, and pushed her straight over the edge into the
water.
Then she went and sat down by the sleeping prince, just as the
princess had done. When he awoke and saw this ugly, wicked woman,
instead of his Bél-Princess, he was very much surprised, and said to
himself, "A little while ago I had a beautiful girl by me, and now
there is such an ugly woman. It is true she has on the clothes and
jewels my Bél-Princess wore; but she is so ugly, and there is
something wrong with one of her eyes. What has happened to her?" Then
he said to this wicked woman, whom he took for his Bél-Princess,
"What is the matter with you? Has anything happened to you? Why have
you become so ugly?" She answered, "Till now I have always lived in a
bél-fruit. It is the bad air of your country that has made me ugly,
and hurt one of my eyes."
The prince was ashamed of her, and very, very sorry. "How shall I take
her to my father's palace now?" he thought. "My mother and all my
brothers' wives will see her, and what will they say? However, never
mind; I must take her to my house, and marry her. I cannot think what
can have happened to her." Then he got a palanquin, and took her up to
the palace.
His father and mother were very glad that their youngest son had come
back to them; but when they saw the wicked woman, and heard she was
his Bél-Princess, they, and every one else in the palace, said, "Can
she be a Bél-Princess? She is not at all pretty, and she is not at all
pleasant." "She was lovely when she came out of the fruit," said the
prince. "No one ever saw such a beautiful girl before. I cannot think
what has happened to her. It must be the bad air of this country that
has made her so ugly." Then he told them all about his journey to the
jungle where he had met the fakír, and how, with the fakír's help, he
had found his Bél-Princess, and how he had opened the fruit in his
father's garden, and then fallen asleep.
The King made a great wedding-feast for his son, and he and the wicked
woman were married, and all the time the King's youngest son thought
he was marrying the Bél-Princess.