_THE RAKSHAS' PALACE._
Once upon a time there lived a Rajah who was left a widower with two
little daughters. Not very long after his first wife died he married
again, and his second wife did not care for her step-children, and was
often unkind to them; and the Rajah, their father, never troubled
himself to look after them, but allowed his wife to treat them as she
liked. This made the poor girls very miserable, and one day one of
them said to the other, "Don't let us remain any longer here; come
away into the jungle, for nobody here cares whether we go or stay." So
they both walked off into the jungle, and lived for many days on the
jungle fruits. At last, after they had wandered on for a long while,
they came to a fine palace which belonged to a Rakshas, but both the
Rakshas and his wife were out when they got there. Then one of the
Princesses said to the other, "This fine palace, in the midst of the
jungle, can belong to no one but a Rakshas, but the owner has
evidently gone out; let us go in and see if we can find anything to
eat." So they went into the Rakshas' house, and finding some rice,
boiled and ate it. Then they swept the room and arranged all the
furniture in the house tidily. But hardly had they finished doing so
when the Rakshas and his wife returned home. Then the two Princesses
were so frightened that they ran up to the top of the house and hid
themselves on the flat roof, from whence they could look down on one
side into the inner courtyard of the house, and from the other could
see the open country. The house-top was a favorite resort of the
Rakshas and his wife. Here they would sit upon the hot summer
evenings; here they winnowed the grain and hung out the clothes to
dry; and the two Princesses found a sufficient shelter behind some
sheaves of corn that were waiting to be threshed. When the Rakshas
came into the house, he looked round and said to his wife, "Somebody
has been arranging the house, everything in it is so clean and tidy.
Wife, did you do this?" "No," she said; "I don't know who can have
done all this." "Some one also has been sweeping the courtyard,"
continued the Rakshas. "Wife, did you sweep the courtyard?" "No," she
answered, "I did not do it. I don't know who did." Then the Rakshas
walked round and round several times with his nose up in the air,
saying, "Some one is here now. I smell flesh and blood! Where can they
be?" "Stuff and nonsense!" cried his wife. "You smell blood indeed!
Why, you have just been killing and eating a hundred thousand people.
I should wonder if you didn't still smell flesh and blood!" They went
on quarreling thus until the Rakshas said, "Well, never mind; I don't
know how it is, but I'm very thirsty; let's come and drink some
water." So both the Rakshas and his wife went to a well which was
close to the house, and began letting down jars into it, and drawing
up the water and drinking it. And the Princesses, who were on the top
of the house, saw them. Now the youngest of the two Princesses was a
very wise girl, and when she saw the Rakshas and his wife by the well,
she said to her sister, "I will do something now that will be good for
us both;" and, running down quickly from the top of the house, she
crept close behind the Rakshas and his wife as they stood on tip-toe
more than half over the side of the well, and, catching hold of one of
the Rakshas' heels and one of his wife's, gave each a little push, and
down they both tumbled into the well and were drowned--the Rakshas and
the Rakshas' wife! The Princess then returned to her sister and said,
"I have killed the Rakshas." "What, both?" cried her sister. "Yes,
both," she said. "Won't they come back?" said her sister. "No, never,"
answered she.
The Rakshas being thus killed, the two Princesses took possession of
the house, and lived there very happily for a long time. In it they
found heaps and heaps of rich clothes and jewels, and gold and silver,
which the Rakshas had taken from people he had murdered; and all round
the house were folds for the flocks and sheds for the herds of cattle
which the Rakshas owned. Every morning the youngest Princess used to
drive out the flocks and herds to pasturage, and return home with them
every night, while the eldest stayed at home, cooked the dinner and
kept the house; and the youngest Princess, who was the cleverest,
would often say to her sister, on going away for the day, "Take care,
if you see any stranger (be it man, woman or child) come by the house,
to hide, if possible, that nobody may know of our living here; and if
any one should call out and ask for a drink of water, or any poor
beggar pray for food, before you give it him be sure you put on
ragged clothes and cover your face with charcoal, and make yourself
look as ugly as possible, lest, seeing how fair you are, he should
steal you away, and we never meet again." "Very well," the other
Princess would answer, "I will do as you advise."
But a long time passed, and no one ever came by that way. At last one
day, after the youngest Princess had gone out, a young Prince, the son
of a neighboring Rajah, who had been hunting with his attendants for
many days in the jungles, came near the place when searching for water
(for he and his people were tired with hunting, and had been seeking
all through the jungle for a stream of water, but could find none).
When the Prince saw the fine palace standing all by itself, he was
very much astonished, and said, "It is a strange thing that any one
should have built such a house as this in the depths of the forest.
Let us go in; the owners will doubtless give us a drink of water."
"No, no, do not go," cried his attendants; "this is most likely the
house of a Rakshas." "We can but see," answered the Prince. "I should
scarcely think anything very terrible lived here, for there is not a
sound stirring nor a living creature to be seen." So he began tapping
at the door, which was bolted, and crying, "Will whoever owns this
house give me and my people some water to drink, for the sake of kind
charity?" But nobody answered, for the Princess, who heard him, was
busy up in her room, blacking her face with charcoal and covering her
rich dress with rags. Then the Prince got impatient and shook the
door, saying, angrily, "Let me in, whoever you are! If you don't, I'll
force the door open." At this the poor little Princess got dreadfully
frightened; and having blacked her face and made herself look as ugly
as possible, she ran down stairs with a pitcher of water, and
unbolting the door, gave the Prince the pitcher to drink from; but she
did not speak, for she was afraid. Now the Prince was a very clever
man, and as he raised the pitcher to his mouth to drink the water, he
thought to himself, "This is a very strange-looking creature who has
brought me this jug of water. She would be pretty, but that her face
seems to want washing, and her dress also is very untidy. What can
that black stuff be on her face and hands? it looks very unnatural."
And so thinking to himself, instead of drinking the water, he threw it
in the Princess' face! The Princess started back with a little cry,
whilst the water, trickling down her face, washed off the charcoal,
and showed her delicate features and beautiful, fair complexion. The
Prince caught hold of her hand, and said, "Now tell me true, who are
you? where do you come from? Who are your father and mother? and why
are you here alone by yourself in the jungle? Answer me, or I'll cut
your head off." And he made as if he would draw his sword. The
Princess was so terrified she could hardly speak, but as best she
could she told how she was the daughter of a Rajah, and had run away
into the jungle because of her cruel step-mother, and, finding the
house, had lived there ever since; and having finished her story, she
began to cry. Then the Prince said to her, "Pretty lady, forgive me
for my roughness; do not fear; I will take you home with me, and you
shall be my wife." But the more he spoke to her the more frightened
she got. So frightened that she did not understand what he said, and
could do nothing but cry. Now she had said nothing to the Prince
about her sister, nor even told him that she had one, for she thought,
"This man says he will kill me; if he hears that I have a sister, he
will kill her too." So the Prince, who was really kind-hearted, and
would never have thought of separating the two little sisters who had
been together so long, knew nothing at all of the matter, and only
seeing she was too much alarmed even to understand gentle words, said
to his servants, "Place this lady in one of the palkees, and let us
set off home." And they did so. When the Princess found herself shut
up in the palkee, and being carried she knew not where, she thought
how terrible it would be for her sister to return home and find her
gone, and determined, if possible, to leave some sign to show her
which way she had been taken. Round her neck were many strings of
pearls. She untied them, and tearing her saree into little bits, tied
one pearl in each piece of the saree, that it might be heavy enough to
fall straight to the ground; and so she went on, dropping one pearl
and then another and another and another, all the way she went along,
until they reached the palace where the Rajah and Ranee, the Prince's
father and mother, lived. She threw the last remaining pearl down just
as she reached the palace gate. The old Rajah and Ranee were delighted
to see the beautiful Princess their son had brought home; and when
they heard her story they said, "Ah, poor thing! what a sad story! but
now she has come to live with us, we will do all we can to make her
happy." And they married her to their son with great pomp and
ceremony, and gave her rich dresses and jewels, and were very kind to
her. But the Princess remained sad and unhappy, for she was always
thinking about her sister, and yet she could not summon courage to
beg the Prince or his father to send and fetch her to the palace.
Meantime the youngest Princess, who had been out with her flocks and
herds when the Prince took her sister away, had returned home. When
she came back she found the door wide open and no one standing there.
She thought it very odd, for her sister always came every night to the
door to meet her on her return. She went up stairs; her sister was not
there; the whole house was empty and deserted. There she must stay all
alone, for the evening had closed in, and it was impossible to go
outside and seek her with any hope of success. So all the night long
she waited, crying, "Some one has been here, and they have stolen her
away; they have stolen my darling away. O sister! sister!" Next
morning, very early, going out to continue the search, she found one
of the pearls belonging to her sister's necklace tied up in a small
piece of saree; a little farther on lay another, and yet another, all
along the road the Prince had gone. Then the Princess understood that
her sister had left this clue to guide her on her way, and she at once
set off to find her again. Very, very far she went--a six months'
journey through the jungle, for she could not travel fast, the many
days' walking tired her so much--and sometimes it took her two or
three days to find the next piece of saree with the pearl. At last she
came near a large town, to which it was evident her sister had been
taken. Now this young Princess was very beautiful indeed--as beautiful
as she was wise--and when she got near the town she thought to
herself, "If people see me, they may steal me away, as they did my
sister, and then I shall never find her again. I will therefore
disguise myself." As she was thus thinking she saw by the side of the
road the corpse of a poor old beggar woman, who had evidently died
from want and poverty. The body was shriveled up, and nothing of it
remained but the skin and bones. The Princess took the skin and washed
it, and drew it on over her own lovely face and neck, as one draws a
glove on one's hand. Then she took a long stick and began hobbling
along, leaning on it, toward the town. The old woman's skin was all
crumpled and withered, and people who passed by only thought, "What an
ugly old woman!" and never dreamed of the false skin and the
beautiful, handsome girl inside. So on she went, picking up the
pearls--one here, one there--until she found the last pearl just in
front of the palace gate. Then she felt certain her sister must be
somewhere near, but where she did not know. She longed to go into the
palace and ask for her, but no guards would have let such a
wretched-looking old woman enter, and she did not dare offer them any
of the pearls she had with her, lest they should think she was a
thief. So she determined merely to remain as close to the palace as
possible, and wait till fortune favored her with the means of learning
something further about her sister. Just opposite the palace was a
small house belonging to a farmer, and the Princess went up to it and
stood by the door. The farmer's wife saw her and said, "Poor old
woman, who are you? what do you want? why are you here? Have you no
friends?" "Alas, no!" answered the Princess. "I am a poor old woman,
and have neither father nor mother, son nor daughter, sister nor
brother, to take care of me; all are gone, and I can only beg my
bread from door to door."
"Do not grieve, good mother," answered the farmer's wife, kindly. "You
may sleep in the shelter of our porch, and I will give you some food."
So the Princess stayed there for that night and for many more; and
every day the good farmer's wife gave her food. But all this time she
could learn nothing of her sister.
Now there was a large tank near the palace, on which grew some fine
lotus plants, covered with rich crimson lotuses--the royal flower--and
of these the Rajah was very fond indeed, and prized them very much. To
this tank (because it was the nearest to the farmer's house) the
Princess used to go every morning, very early, almost before it was
light, at about three o'clock, and take off the old woman's skin and
wash it, and hang it out to dry, and wash her face and hands, and
bathe her feet in the cool water, and comb her beautiful hair. Then
she would gather a lotus flower (such as she had been accustomed to
wear in her hair from a child) and put it on, so as to feel for a few
minutes like herself again! Thus she would amuse herself. Afterward,
as soon as the wind had dried the old woman's skin, she put it on
again, threw away the lotus flower, and hobbled back to the farmer's
door before the sun was up.
After a time the Rajah discovered that some one had plucked some of
his favorite lotus flowers. People were set to watch, and all the wise
men in the kingdom put their heads together to try and discover the
thief, but without avail. At last the excitement about this matter
being very great, the Rajah's second son, a brave and noble young
Prince (brother to him who had found the eldest Princess in the
forest) said, "I will certainly discover this thief." It chanced that
several fine trees grew around the tank. Into one of these the young
Prince climbed one evening (having made a sort of light thatched roof
across two of the boughs, to keep off the heavy dews), and there he
watched all the night through, but with no more success than his
predecessors. There lay the lotus plants, still in the moonlight,
without so much as a thieving wind coming by to break off one of the
flowers. The Prince began to get very sleepy, and thought the
delinquent, whoever he might be, could not intend to return, when, in
the very early morning, before it was light, who should come down to
the tank but an old woman he had often seen near the palace gate.
"Aha!" thought the Prince, "this then is the thief; but what can this
queer old woman want with lotus flowers?" Imagine his astonishment
when the old woman sat down on the steps of the tank and began pulling
the skin off her face and arms, and from underneath the shriveled
yellow skin came the loveliest face he had ever beheld! So fair, so
fresh, so young, so gloriously beautiful, that, appearing thus
suddenly, it dazzled the Prince's eyes like a flash of golden
lightning. "Ah," thought he, "can this be a woman or a spirit? a devil
or an angel in disguise?"
The Princess twisted up her glossy black hair, and, plucking a red
lotus, placed it in it, and dabbled her feet in the water, and amused
herself by putting round her neck a string of pearls that had been her
sister's necklace. Then, as the sun was rising, she threw away the
lotus, and covering her face and arms again with the withered skin,
went hastily away. When the Prince got home, the first thing he said
to his parents was, "Father, mother! I should like to marry that old
woman who stands all day at the farmer's gate, just opposite." "What!"
cried they, "the boy is mad! Marry that skinny old thing! You
cannot--you are a King's son. Are there not enough Queens and
Princesses in the world, that you should wish to marry a wretched old
beggar-woman?" But he answered, "Above all things I should like to
marry that old woman. You know that I have ever been a dutiful and
obedient son. In this matter, I pray you, grant me my desire." Then,
seeing he was really in earnest about the matter, and that nothing
they could say would alter his mind, they listened to his urgent
entreaties--not, however, without much grief and vexation--and sent
out the guards, who fetched the old woman (who was really the Princess
in disguise) to the palace, where she was married to the Prince as
privately and with as little ceremony as possible, for the family were
ashamed of the match.
As soon as the wedding was over, the Prince said to his wife, "Gentle
wife, tell me how much longer you intend to wear that old skin? You
had better take it off; do be so kind." The Princess wondered how he
knew of her disguise, or whether it was only a guess of his; and she
thought, "If I take this ugly skin off, my husband will think me
pretty, and shut me up in the palace and never let me go away, so
that I shall not be able to find my sister again. No, I had better
not take it off." So she answered, "I don't know what you mean. I am
as all these years have made me; nobody can change their skin." Then
the Prince pretended to be very angry, and said, "Take off that
hideous disguise this instant, or I'll kill you." But she only bowed
her head, saying, "Kill me, then, but nobody can change their skin."
And all this she mumbled as if she were a very old woman indeed, and
had lost all her teeth and could not speak plain. At this the Prince
laughed very much to himself, and thought, "I'll wait and see how
long this freak lasts." But the Princess continued to keep on the old
woman's skin; only every morning, at about three o'clock, before it
was light, she would get up and wash it and put it on again. Then,
some time afterward, the Prince, having found this out, got up softly
one morning early, and followed her to the next room, where she had
washed the skin and placed it on the floor to dry, and stealing it,
he ran away with it and threw it on the fire. So the Princess, having
no old woman's skin to put on, was obliged to appear in her own
likeness. As she walked forth, very sad at missing her disguise, her
husband ran to meet her, smiling and saying, "How do you do, my dear?
Where is your skin now? Can't you take it off, dear?" Soon the whole
palace had heard the joyful news of the beautiful young wife that the
Prince had won; and all the people, when they saw her, cried, "Why
she is exactly like the beautiful Princess our young Rajah married,
the jungle lady." The old Rajah and Ranee were prouder than all of
their daughter-in-law, and took her to introduce her to their eldest
son's wife. Then no sooner did the Princess enter her sister-in-law's
room then she saw that in her she had found her lost sister, and they
ran into each other's arms. Great then was the joy of all, but the
happiest of all these happy people were the two Princesses.
[Decoration]