and opened the door, for he wanted to see what was in it. He went in,
and saw the beautiful girl lying on the bed. "How lovely she is!" he
said; "but she is dead." Then he saw the sticks, and, to amuse
himself, he put the one at her head at her feet, and the one at her
feet at her head, just as the demon did every evening. The girl at
once came to life, and opened her eyes and got up. "Who is this?" she
said to herself, when she saw the king's son. "This is not my father."
She asked him, "Who are you? Why do you come here? If my father sees
you he will eat you." "No, he won't," said the prince, "for I am your
aunt's son, and your father himself brought me to his house. But why
is it that you are dead all day, and alive all night?" The girl had
told him that her father brought her to life every evening, and made
her dead every morning. "Such is my father's pleasure," she answered.
So they talked together all day, and he said to her, "Suppose one day
your father made you dead as usual, and that he was killed before he
had brought you to life, what would you do? You would always be dead
then." "Listen," she said; "no one can kill my father." "Why not?"
said the boy. "Listen," she answered; "on the other side of the sea
there is a great tree, in that tree is a nest, in the nest is a
_mainá_. If any one kills that _mainá_, then only will my father die.
And if, when the _mainá_ is killed, its blood falls to the ground, a
hundred demons would be born from the blood. This is why my father
cannot be killed."
At evening, before the demon came home, the prince made the girl dead.
Then he went softly into another room.
The fakír had said to the boy, when they were in the jungle together,
"If ever you are in trouble, come to me and I will help you. It will
take you now one week to ride to the demon's country; but if ever you
need me, you shall be able to come to me here in this jungle, and to
return to the demon's house in one day." The fakír was such a holy man
that everything he said should happen did happen. So now the prince
determined he would go to the fakír and ask him what he should do to
kill this _mainá_. In the morning, therefore, as soon as the demon had
gone out, he set off for the fakír's jungle, and, thanks to the holy
man's power, he got there very quickly. He told him everything, and
the fakír made a paper boat which he gave him. "This boat will take
you over the sea," he said to the prince. "This paper boat!" said the
boy. "How can a paper boat go over the sea? It will get soaked and
sink." "No, it will not," said the fakír. "Launch it on the sea, and
get into it. The boat will of itself carry you to the tree where the
_mainá's_ nest is."
The prince took the boat, and went back to the demon's house. He got
there before the demon came home, so that he did not know the boy had
been to the fakír. When the demon returned that evening, the king's
son said, "To-morrow I will go home, as my mother is very ill. Will
you give me the rice?" "Good," said the demon, "you shall have it
to-morrow." Next morning he gave the rice, and went off to the jungle.
Then the boy took his paper boat down to the sea, launched it, and got
into it; and of itself the boat went straight over the sea to the
opposite shore. The eaglet flew above his head; but he left his horse
on land. When he got to the other side, he saw the great tree, with
the nest and the _mainá_. He climbed the tree, and took down the nest,
and the demon, who was far away, knew it at once, and said to himself,
"Some one has come to catch and kill me." He set out at once for the
tree. The prince saw him coming, so he wrapped the _mainá_ up in his
handkerchief, that no blood should fall to the ground. Then he broke
off one of its legs, and one of the demon's legs fell off. Still the
demon came on. Then he broke off the other leg, but the demon walked
on his hands. The boy saw him coming nearer and nearer, so he wrung
the bird's head off, and the demon fell dead.
The prince jumped into his paper boat, and of itself the boat went
straight back to the other shore, to the demon's country. Then he went
up to the demon's house, and made his daughter alive.
She was frightened, and said to him, "Oh, take care. If my father
comes back, and finds us together, he will eat us both." "He will not
come back," said the prince. "I have killed him."
Then he dressed her in boy's clothes, that no one might know she was a
girl, and he found a horse, and had it made ready for her. Her father
had collected a quantity of rupees. Some of these the prince gave to
the servants as a present, and said to them, "Stay here and be happy;
do not be afraid, for there is no demon now to come and eat you."
Then he took the rice and mounted his horse, and made the girl mount
also, and went off to the fakír. The paper boat he left, as he did not
want it any more. He and the demon's daughter made the fakír many
salaams, and they stayed with him for a day before they rode to the
prince's country. Here they went to his seven mothers, who were very,
very glad to see them, and thanked God that their son had come back
safe.
He took a little of the rice, and went and sat by the well till the
king's two servants came. Then he gave them the rice for their king,
and the king gave it to the demon. She said nothing while the king was
with her; but when she was alone she cried, for she knew the boy must
have killed her brother, as he had brought her the rice.
She waited a week, and then she began to cry again, and would not eat.
The king was very sorry, and thought, "What can I do to make her well
and happy?" Then he said, "What will cure your eyes?" "See, king," she
answered, "if I could only bathe my eyes with water from the
Glittering Well, they would not pain me any more." This well was in
the fairies' country, and was guarded by the demon's sister, whose
name was Jangkatar. She lived in the well; and when any one came to
draw water from it, she used to drag him down and eat him.
The king called his servants, gave them eight thousand rupees, and
said, "Go and fetch me water from the Glittering Well." The servants
went at once to the dry well in the jungle. There they found the
prince, who asked them what they wanted. "Here are eight thousand
rupees," they said; "and the king has ordered us to bring him water
from the Glittering Well." "Come in three weeks, and I will give it
to you," said the king's son. He took to his mothers the eight
thousand rupees which the servants had given him, and said to them,
"Take care of these rupees, for I am going away for a little while."
Then he got his horse ready and mounted it, and made many salaams to
his mothers. The tiger-cub said to him, "Take me with you this time.
Last time you only took the eagle. Now we will both go with you."
So he rode off; and the eaglet flew above his head and the young tiger
ran by his side. It took him a week to get to the fairies' country,
and then he came to a beautiful smooth plain, in which was a garden,
but no house. In the middle of this garden was the Glittering Well. It
was a deep well, and the water sprang up out of it like a fountain,
and then fell back into the well, and the water shone and sparkled as
if it were gold, and silver, and diamonds. This is why it was called
the Glittering Well.
The prince dipped his jar in the well, and Jangkatar put up her hand
and caught him. She dragged him into the water and swallowed him
whole. Then the young eagle flew down into the well, seized Jangkatar
in his talons, and took her out and threw her on the ground. The
tiger-cub rushed at her instantly, tore her open, and pulled the
king's son out of her. But he was half dead. The cub and the eaglet
lay down on him to warm him, and when they had warmed him, he was
better.
"We have saved you," they said to him. "But for us you would have
died." The young prince thanked them and caressed them. "It is quite
true," he said; "without you I should have died." Then he filled his
jar with water, and mounted his horse and rode home. He made salaams
to his seven mothers, with whom all this time the demon's daughter had
stayed. He bathed his mothers' eyes with the water from the Glittering
Well, and then they saw perfectly once more.
He took a little of the water, and went to wait for the king's
servants by the dry jungle well, and he was very happy thinking that
now his mothers could see. He gave the water to the king's servants,
who took it to the king, and the king gave it to his demon-wife, and
she was very sad and angry, for she knew the boy must have killed her
sister, the guardian of the Glittering Well.
When a whole month had passed, and he had not been sent on any more
errands, the king's son said to himself, "Good; now nothing more is
going to happen to me. I am not to be sent anywhere else." So he
bought a fine horse and grand clothes, and rode to the king's
court-house. He went in, and seated himself at the king's right hand;
but he made no salaam to the king, and spoke to no one. This he did
every day for three days. Everybody was wondering who this boy was,
and why he never made any salaam to the king.
On the fourth day, as he sat at the king's right hand, the king asked
him, "Whose child are you? Where do you come from? Where are you
going?" The young prince answered, "See, king, I am a merchant's son;
my ship has been wrecked, and I want to find service with some one."
"What can you do?" asked the king. "I don't know any trade," said his
son; "but I can tell you a story." "What wages do you want?" said the
king. "One thousand rupees a day," answered the boy. "I shall only
stay a short time in your country." "Good," said the king; "I will
give you one thousand rupees a day, and a servant to wait on you
besides. So come every day to my court-house, and tell me your story."
The prince told the king his own story. He began from where the king
found the beautiful demon-girl crying in the jungle, and ended it
where his demon-wife cried and cried for her sister Jangkatar. It took
him three weeks to tell the story; and when he had finished it, the
king knew that he himself was the king in the story, and that this boy
was his own son. "How can I find my seven queens again?" he said. "If
you will kill this wicked demon-woman they will come back to you,"
said his son. The king was very sad, and thought, "My seven wives and
my boy must have suffered very much." Then he loved his son, and was
very happy that he had found him. He ordered his servants to dig a
deep pit in the jungle, so deep that should his demon-wife take her
demon form when put into it, only her head would be above it. He
thought that if her body were buried in the ground she would not be
able to do them much harm while they were shooting her. Then he, and
his son, and his servants took their guns and bows and arrows, and
took the demon with them to the deep pit. She went quite quietly,
though she knew they were going to kill her. Since Jangkatar's death
she had been very quiet and sad. And now she thought, "That boy will
most certainly kill me as he has killed my sister and brother. He is
stronger than I am. I have no one else to send him to; and if I had,
he could not be killed. What is the use of my trying to save myself?"
So she went along quite quietly, looking like a beautiful girl. She
let them put her into the pit, and shoot her to death with their guns
and bows and arrows. Then they filled the pit up with earth.
The king went to his seven wives, and begged them to forgive him. He
brought them, his son, and the demon's daughter home to his palace.
Later the king married his son to the demon's daughter, and every one
was glad.
But the king grieved that his six other sons were dead.
Told by Múniyá.
[Decoration]
XXV.
THE FAN PRINCE.
In a country there lived a king who had a wife and seven daughters.
One day he called all his daughters to him, and said to them, "My
children, who gives you food? and by whose permission do you eat it?"
Six of them answered, "Father, you give us food; and by your
permission we eat it." But the seventh and youngest said, "Father, God
gives me my food; and by my own permission I eat it." This answer made
her father and mother very angry with their youngest daughter. They
said, "We will not let our youngest child stay with us any longer."
And her father called some servants and said to them, "Get a palanquin
ready, and put my youngest daughter into it; then carry her away to
the jungle, and there leave her."
The servants got the palanquin ready, put the youngest princess into
it, and carried her into the jungle. There they put the palanquin down
and said to her, "We are going to drink some water." "Go home now,"
said the girl, "as my father ordered you to do." They left her,
therefore, in the jungle alone, and went back to the king's palace.
The girl prayed to God and worshipped him; then she went to sleep for
a little while in her palanquin. When she awoke, it was evening, and
she found in her palanquin a jar of water and some food on a plate
which God had sent her while she slept. She knew that God had sent her
this nice dinner, and thanked him and worshipped him. Then she bathed
her face and hands in a little of the water, and ate and drank, and
went to sleep quietly in her palanquin as night had come.
This little princess had always been a very gentle girl, and had
always done what was right, and been very good, so God loved her
dearly. While she slept, therefore, he made a beautiful palace for her
on the jungle-plain where she was lying in her palanquin. God made a
garden and tank for her, too. When the princess woke in the morning,
and got out of her palanquin, she saw the palace standing by its tank
in a beautiful garden. "I never saw that palace before," she said. "It
was not here last night." She went into the garden, and servants met
her and made her salaams. The palace was far finer than her father's;
and when she went into it she found it full of servants. "To whom does
this palace belong?" she asked. "To you," they answered. "God made all
this for you last night, and he sent us to wait on you and be your
servants." (Now, they were all men, not angels, that God had sent to
take care of her.) The princess thanked God, and worshipped him.
A few days later, her father heard that in the jungle to which he had
sent her a beautiful palace and garden and tank had suddenly appeared,
and that in this palace she was living; and he said, "Yes; my daughter
told me the truth: it is God who gives us everything. I know it is he
who gave her this beautiful house." So some time passed, and the
princess lived in her palace in the jungle; but her father did not go
to see her.
One day he said to himself, "To-day I will go and eat the air in
another country, and I will go by water." So he ordered a boat to be
got ready, and he went to his six daughters, and told them he was
going away for a little while. "What would you like me to bring you
from this other country?" he said. "I will bring you anything you
would like to have." Some of them wanted jewels, a necklace, a pair of
earrings, and so on; and some wanted silk stuffs for sárís and other
clothes. Then the king remembered his youngest child, and thought, "I
must send to her, and see what she would like." He called one of his
servants, and told him to go to the jungle to his youngest daughter
and say, "Your father is going to eat the air of another country. He
wishes to know what you would like him to bring back for you."
The servant found the little princess reading her prayer-book. He gave
her the king's message. She said, "Sabr" (that is _wait_), for she
meant him to wait for her answer till she had finished reading her
prayers. The servant, however, did not understand, but went away at
once to the king and told him, "Your daughter wants you to bring her
Sabr." "Sabr?" said the king; "what is Sabr? Never, mind, I will see
if I can find any Sabr; and if I do, I will bring it for her."
The king then went in his boat to another country. There he stayed for
a little while and bought the jewels and silks for his six elder
daughters. When he thought he should like to go home again, he went
down to his boat and got into it. But the boat would not move, because
he had forgotten one thing; the thing his youngest daughter had asked
for.
Suddenly he remembered he had not got any Sabr. So he gave one of his
servants four thousand rupees, and told him to go on shore, and go
through the bazar, and try and find the Sabr, and he was to give the
four thousand rupees for it.
The man went to the bazar and asked every one if they had Sabr to
sell. Then he asked if they could tell him what it was. "No," they
said, "but our king's son is called Sabr; you had better speak to
him."
The servant went to Prince Sabr. "Our king's youngest daughter," he
said, "has asked her father to bring her Sabr, and the king has given
me four thousand rupees to buy it for her; but I cannot get any, and
no one knows what it is." The prince said, "Very good. Give this
little box to your king, and tell him to give it to his youngest
daughter. But it is only the princess who has asked for Sabr who is to
open the box." Then he told the man to keep the four thousand rupees
as a present from him.
The servant went back to the boat to the king and gave him the box,
saying, "In this is the Sabr," and he told him Prince Sabr said no one
but the youngest princess was to open it. And now the boat moved quite
easily, and the king journeyed home safely.
He gave his six eldest daughters the presents he had brought for them,
and sent the little box to his youngest daughter. She said, "My father
has sent me this. I will look at it by and by." Then she put it away
and forgot it. At the end of a month she found the little box, and
thought, "I will see what my father has sent me," and opened the box.
In it was a most lovely little fan. She was very much pleased, and
fanned herself with it, and at once a beautiful prince stood before
her.
The princess was delighted. "Who are you? Where did you come from?"
she said. "My name is Prince Sabr," he answered. "Your father came to
my father's country, and he said you had asked him to bring you Sabr,
so I gave him this little fan for you. I am obliged to come to whoever
uses this little fan with the right side turned outwards. And when you
want me to go away, you must turn the right side of the fan towards
you and then fan yourself with it." The little princess said, "Very
good. And so your name is Prince Sabr?" They talked together for some
time. Then she turned her fan, so that the wrong side was outside,
and fanned herself with it, and the prince disappeared.
This went on for a month. The princess used to fan herself with the
right side turned outwards, and then Prince Sabr came to her. When she
turned her fan wrong side outwards and fanned herself, then he
vanished.
One day the prince said to her, "I should like to marry you. Will you
marry me?" "Yes," she answered. Then she wrote a letter to her father
and mother and six sisters, in which she said, "Come to my wedding. I
am going to marry Prince Sabr." They all came. Her father was very
glad that she married Prince Sabr, and said, "I see it is true that
God loves my youngest daughter."
The day of the wedding her six sisters said to her, "To-day we will
not let the servants make your bed. We will make it ourselves for
you." "I have plenty of servants to make it," she said; "but you can
do so if you like." Her sisters went to make the bed. They took a
glass bottle and ground it into a powder, and they spread the powder
all over the side where Prince Sabr was to lie. This they did because
they were angry at their youngest sister being married, while they,
who were older, were not married, and they thought, being her elders,
they should have married first, especially as they had lived in their
father's palace, and been cared for, while she was cast out in the
jungle.
When the wedding was over, and Prince Sabr and his wife had gone to
bed, the prince became very ill, from the glass powder going into his
flesh. "Turn your fan the wrong way and fan yourself quickly, that I
may go home to my father's country," he said to her, "for I am very
ill, and dare not remain here." So she fanned herself at once with the
fan turned the wrong way. Then he went home to his father, and was
very ill for a long while. The poor princess knew nothing of the glass
powder.
Her father and mother and sisters went home after the wedding, and
left the princess alone in her palace. Every day she turned her fan
the right side outwards and fanned and fanned herself; but Prince Sabr
never came. He was far too ill. One day she cried a great deal, and
was very, very sad. "Why does my prince not come to me?" she said. "I
don't know where he is, or what has become of him." That night she had
a dream, and in her dream she saw Prince Sabr lying very ill on his
bed.
When she got up in the morning she thought she must go and try to find
her prince. So she took off all her beautiful clothes and jewels, and
put on a yogí's dress. Then she mounted a horse and set out in the
jungle. No one knew she was a woman, or that she was a king's
daughter; every one thought she was a man.
She rode on till night, and then she had come to another jungle. Here
she got off her horse, and took it under a tree. She lay down under
the tree and went to sleep. At midnight she was awakened by the
chattering of a parrot and a _mainá_, who came and sat on the tree
knowing she was lying underneath.
The _mainá_ said to the parrot, "Parrot, tell me something." The
parrot said, "Prince Sabr is very, very ill in his own country. The
day he was married, the bride's six sisters took a glass bottle and
ground it to powder. Then they spread the powder all over the prince's
bed, so that when he lay down it got into his flesh. The glass powder
has made him very ill." "What will make him well?" said the _mainá_;
"what will cure him?" "No doctors can cure him," said the parrot; "no
medicine will do him any good: but if any one slept under this tree,
and took some of the earth from under it, and mixed it with cold
water, and rubbed it all over Prince Sabr, he would get well."
All this the princess heard. She got up and longed for morning to
come. When it was day she took some of the earth, mounted her horse,
and rode off. She went on till she came to Prince Sabr's country. Then
she asked to whom the country belonged; she was told it was Prince
Sabr's father's country, "but Prince Sabr is very ill."
"I am a yogí," said the princess, "and I can cure him." This was told
to the king, Prince Sabr's father. "That is very good," he said. "Send
the yogí to me." So the little princess went to the king, who said to
her, "My son is very, very ill; make him well." "Yes," she said, "I
will make him well. Bring me some cold water."
They brought her the cold water, and she mixed it with the earth she
had got from under the tree. This she rubbed all over the prince. For
three days and nights she rubbed him with it. After that he got
better, and in a week he was quite well. He was able to talk, and
could walk about as usual.
Then the yogí said, "Now I will go back to my own country." But the
king said to her, "First you must let me give you a present. You shall
have anything that you like. As many horses, or sepoys, or rupees as
you want you shall have; for you have made my son well." "I want
nothing at all," said the princess, "but Prince Sabr's ring, and the
handkerchief he has with his name worked on it." She had given him
both these things on their wedding day. Prince Sabr's father and
mother went to their son and begged him to give the handkerchief and
ring to the yogí; and he did so quite willingly. "For," he thought,
"were it not for that yogí, I should never see my dear princess
again."
The yogí took the ring and handkerchief and went home. When she got
there, she took off her yogí's dress and put on her own beautiful
clothes. Then she turned her fan right side outwards, and fanned
herself with it, and immediately her Prince Sabr stood by her. "Why
did you not come to me before?" she said. "I have been fanning and
fanning myself." "I was very ill, and could not come," said Prince
Sabr. "At last a yogí came and made me well, and as a reward I gave
him my ring and handkerchief." "It was no yogí," said the princess.
"It was I who came to you and made you well." "You!" said the prince.
"Oh, no; it was a yogí. You were sitting here in your palace while the
yogí came and cured me." "No, indeed," she said; "I was the yogí. See,
is not this your ring? is not this your handkerchief with your name
worked on it?" Then he believed her, and she told him of her dream,
and her journey in the yogí's dress, and the birds' talk, and all that
had happened.
And Prince Sabr was very happy that his wife had done so much for him,
and they lived happily together.
Told by Múniyá.
[Decoration]
[Decoration]
XXVI.
THE BED.
In a country there was a grain merchant's son, whose father and mother
loved him so dearly that they did not let him do anything but play and
amuse himself while they worked for him. They never taught him any
trade, or anything at all; for they never reflected that they might
die, and that then he would have to work for himself. When he was old
enough to be married, they found a wife for him, and married him to
her. Then they all lived happily together for some years till the
father and mother both died.