_MUCHIE LAL._
Once upon a time there was a Rajah and Ranee who had no children. Long
had they wished and prayed that the gods would send them a son, but it
was all in vain--their prayers were not granted. One day a number of
fish were brought into the royal kitchen to be cooked for the Rajah's
dinner, and amongst them was one little fish that was not dead, but
all the rest were dead. One of the palace maid-servants seeing this,
took the little fish and put him in a basin of water. Shortly
afterward the Ranee saw him, and thinking him very pretty, kept him as
a pet; and because she had no children she lavished all her affection
on the fish and loved him as a son; and the people called him Muchie
Rajah (the Fish Prince). In a little while Muchie Rajah had grown too
long to live in the small basin, so they put him in a larger one, and
then (when he grew too long for that) into a big tub. In time,
however, Muchie Rajah became too large for even the big tub to hold
him; so the Ranee had a tank made for him in which he lived very
happily, and twice a day she fed him with boiled rice. Now, though the
people fancied Muchie Rajah was only a fish, this was not the case. He
was, in truth, a young Rajah who had angered the gods, and been by
them turned into a fish and thrown into the river as a punishment.
One morning, when the Ranee brought him his daily meal of boiled rice,
Muchie Rajah called out to her and said, "Queen Mother, Queen Mother,
I am so lonely here all by myself! Cannot you get me a wife?" The
Ranee promised to try, and sent messengers to all the people she knew,
to ask if they would allow one of their children to marry her son, the
Fish Prince. But they all answered, "We cannot give one of our dear
little daughters to be devoured by a great fish, even though he is the
Muchie Rajah and so high in your Majesty's favor."
At news of this the Ranee did not know what to do. She was so
foolishly fond of Muchie Rajah, however, that she resolved to get him
a wife at any cost. Again she sent out messengers, but this time she
gave them a great bag containing a lac of gold mohurs,[83] and said to
them, "Go into every land until you find a wife for my Muchie Rajah,
and to whoever will give you a child to be the Muchie Ranee[84] you
shall give this bag of gold mohurs." The messengers started on their
search, but for some time they were unsuccessful: not even the beggars
were to be tempted to sell their children, fearing the great fish
would devour them. At last one day the messengers came to a village
where there lived a Fakeer, who had lost his first wife and married
again. His first wife had had one little daughter, and his second wife
also had a daughter. As it happened, the Fakeer's second wife hated
her little step-daughter, always gave her the hardest work to do and
the least food to eat, and tried by every means in her power to get
her out of the way, in order that the child might not rival her own
daughter. When she heard of the errand on which the messengers had
come, she sent for them when the Fakeer was out, and said to them,
"Give me the bag of gold mohurs, and you shall take my little daughter
to marry the Muchie Rajah." ("For," she thought to herself, "the great
fish will certainly eat the girl, and she will thus trouble us no
more.") Then, turning to her step-daughter, she said, "Go down to the
river and wash your saree, that you may be fit to go with these
people, who will take you to the Ranee's court." At these words the
poor girl went down to the river very sorrowful, for she saw no hope
of escape, as her father was from home. As she knelt by the
river-side, washing her saree and crying bitterly, some of her tears
fell into the hole of an old Seven-headed Cobra, who lived on the
river-bank. This Cobra was a very wise animal, and seeing the maiden,
he put his head out of his hole, and said to her, "Little girl, why do
you cry?" "Oh, sir," she answered, "I am very unhappy, for my father
is from home, and my step-mother has sold me to the Ranee's people to
be the wife of the Muchie Rajah, that great fish, and I know he will
eat me up." "Do not be afraid, my daughter," said the Cobra; "but take
with you these three stones and tie them up in the corner of your
saree;" and so saying, he gave her three little round pebbles. "The
Muchie Rajah, whose wife you are to be, is not really a fish, but a
Rajah who has been enchanted. Your home will be a little room which
the Ranee has had built in the tank wall. When you are taken there,
wait and be sure you don't go to sleep, or the Muchie Rajah will
certainly come and eat you up. But as you hear him coming rushing
through the water, be prepared, and as soon as you see him throw this
first stone at him; he will then sink to the bottom of the tank. The
second time he comes, throw the second stone, when the same thing will
happen. The third time he comes, throw this third stone, and he will
immediately resume his human shape." So saying, the old Cobra dived
down again into his hole. The Fakeer's daughter took the stones and
determined to do as the Cobra had told her, though she hardly believed
it would have the desired effect.
[83] A lac of gold mohurs is equal to about $750,000.
[84] Fish Queen.
When she reached the palace the Ranee spoke kindly to her, and said to
the messengers, "You have done your errand well; this is a dear little
girl." Then she ordered that she should be let down the side of the
tank in a basket to a little room which had been prepared for her.
When the Fakeer's daughter got there, she thought she had never seen
such a pretty place in her life (for the Ranee had caused the little
room to be very nicely decorated for the wife of her favorite); and
she would have felt very happy away from her cruel step-mother and all
the hard work she had been made to do, had it not been for the dark
water that lay black and unfathomable below the door, and the fear of
the terrible Muchie Rajah.
After waiting some time she heard a rushing sound, and little waves
came dashing against the threshold; faster they came and faster, and
the noise got louder and louder, until she saw a great fish's head
above the water--Muchie Rajah was coming toward her open-mouthed. The
Fakeer's daughter seized one of the stones that the Cobra had given
her and threw it at him, and down he sank to the bottom of the tank;
a second time he rose and came toward her, and she threw the second
stone at him, and he again sank down; a third time he came more
fiercely than before, when, seizing a third stone, she threw it with
all her force. No sooner did it touch him than the spell was broken,
and there, instead of a fish, stood a handsome young Prince. The poor
little Fakeer's daughter was so startled that she began to cry. But
the Prince said to her, "Pretty maiden, do not be frightened. You have
rescued me from a horrible thraldom, and I can never thank you enough;
but if you will be the Muchie Ranee, we will be married to morrow."
Then he sat down on the door-step, thinking over his strange fate and
watching for the dawn.
Next morning early several inquisitive people came to see if the
Muchie Rajah had eaten up his poor little wife, as they feared he
would; what was their astonishment, on looking over the tank wall, to
see, not the Muchie Rajah, but a magnificent Prince! The news soon
spread to the palace. Down came the Rajah, down came the Ranee, down
came all their attendants and dragged Muchie Rajah and the Fakeer's
daughter up the side of the tank in a basket; and when they heard
their story there were great and unparalleled rejoicings. The Ranee
said, "So I have indeed found a son at last!" And the people were so
delighted, so happy and so proud of the new Prince and Princess that
they covered all their path with damask from the tank to the palace,
and cried to their fellows, "Come and see our new Prince and Princess.
Were ever any so divinely beautiful? Come see a right royal couple--a
pair of mortals like the gods!" And when they reached the palace the
Prince was married to the Fakeer's daughter.
There they lived very happily for some time. The Muchie Ranee's
step-mother, hearing what had happened, came often to see her
step-daughter, and pretended to be delighted at her good fortune; and
the Ranee was so good that she quite forgave all her step-mother's
former cruelty, and always received her very kindly. At last, one day,
the Muchie Ranee said to her husband, "It is a weary while since I saw
my father. If you will give me leave, I should much like to visit my
native village and see him again." "Very well," he replied, "you may
go. But do not stay away long; for there can be no happiness for me
till you return." So she went, and her father was delighted to see
her; but her step-mother, though she pretended to be very kind, was,
in reality, only glad to think she had got the Ranee into her power,
and determined, if possible, never to allow her to return to the
palace again. One day, therefore, she said to her own daughter, "It is
hard that your step-sister should have become Ranee of all the land
instead of being eaten up by the great fish, while we gained no more
than a lac of gold mohurs. Do now as I bid you, that you may become
Ranee in her stead." She then went on to instruct her how that she
must invite the Ranee down to the river-bank, and there beg her to let
her try on her jewels, and whilst putting them on give her a push and
drown her in the river.
The girl consented, and standing by the river-bank, said to her
step-sister, "Sister, may I try on your jewels?--how pretty they are!"
"Yes," said the Ranee, "and we shall be able to see in the river how
they look." So, undoing her necklaces, she clasped them round the
other's neck. But whilst she was doing so her step-sister gave her a
push, and she fell backward into the water. The girl watched to see
that the body did not rise, and then, running back, said to her
mother, "Mother, here are all the jewels, and she will trouble us no
more." But it happened that just when her step-sister pushed the Ranee
into the river her old friend the Seven-headed Cobra chanced to be
swimming across it, and seeing the little Ranee like to be drowned, he
carried her on his back until he reached his hole, into which he took
her safely. Now this hole, in which the Cobra and his wife and all his
little ones lived, had two entrances--the one under the water and
leading to the river, and the other above water, leading out into the
open fields. To this upper end of his hole the Cobra took the Muchie
Ranee, where he and his wife took care of her; and there she lived
with them for some time. Meanwhile, the wicked Fakeer's wife, having
dressed up her own daughter in all the Ranee's jewels, took her to the
palace, and said to the Muchie Rajah, "See, I have brought your wife,
my dear daughter, back safe and well." The Rajah looked at her, and
thought, "This does not look like my wife." However, the room was dark
and the girl was cleverly disguised, and he thought he might be
mistaken. Next day he said again, "My wife must be sadly changed or
this cannot be she, for she was always bright and cheerful. She had
pretty loving ways and merry words, while this woman never opens her
lips." Still, he did not like to seem to mistrust his wife, and
comforted himself by saying, "Perhaps she is tired with the long
journey." On the third day, however, he could bear the uncertainty no
longer, and tearing off her jewels, saw, not the face of his own
little wife, but another woman. Then he was very angry and turned her
out of doors, saying, "Begone; since you are but the wretched tool of
others, I spare your life." But of the Fakeer's wife he said to his
guards, "Fetch that woman here instantly; for unless she can tell me
where my wife is, I will have her hanged." It chanced, however, that
the Fakeer's wife had heard of the Muchie Rajah having turned her
daughter out of doors; so, fearing his anger, she hid herself, and was
not to be found.
Meantime, the Muchie Ranee, not knowing how to get home, continued to
live in the great Seven-headed Cobra's hole, and he and his wife and
all his family were very kind to her, and loved her as if she had been
one of them; and there her little son was born, and she called him
Muchie Lal,[85] after the Muchie Rajah, his father. Muchie Lal was a
lovely child, merry and brave, and his playmates all day long were the
young Cobras.[86] When he was about three years old a bangle-seller
came by that way, and the Muchie Ranee bought some bangles from him
and put them on her boy's wrists and ankles; but by next day, in
playing, he had broken them all. Then, seeing the bangle-seller, the
Ranee called him again and bought some more, and so on every day until
the bangle-seller got quite rich from selling so many bangles for the
Muchie Lal, for the Cobra's hole was full of treasure, and he gave the
Muchie Ranee as much money to spend every day as she liked. There was
nothing she wished for he did not give her, only he would not let her
try to get home to her husband, which she wished more than all. When
she asked him he would say, "No, I will not let you go. If your
husband comes here and fetches you, it is well; but I will not allow
you to wander in search of him through the land alone."
[85] Little Ruby Fish.
[86] See Notes at the end.
And so she was obliged to stay where she was.
All this time the poor Muchie Rajah was hunting in every part of the
country for his wife, but he could learn no tidings of her. For grief
and sorrow at losing her he had gone well-nigh distracted, and did
nothing but wander from place to place, crying, "She is gone! she is
gone!" Then, when he had long inquired without avail of all the people
in her native village about her, he one day met a bangle-seller and
said to him, "Whence do you come?" The bangle-seller answered, "I have
just been selling bangles to some people who live in a Cobra's hole in
the river-bank." "People! What people?" asked the Rajah. "Why,"
answered the bangle-seller, "a woman and a child: the child is the
most beautiful I ever saw. He is about three years old, and of course,
running about, is always breaking his bangles, and his mother buys him
new ones every day." "Do you know what the child's name is?" said the
Rajah. "Yes," answered the bangle-seller, carelessly, "for the lady
always calls him her Muchie Lal." "Ah," thought the Muchie Rajah,
"this must be my wife." Then he said to him again, "Good
bangle-seller, I would see these strange people of whom you speak;
cannot you take me there?" "Not to-night," replied the bangle-seller;
"daylight has gone, and we should only frighten them; but I shall be
going there again to-morrow, and then you may come too. Meanwhile,
come and rest at my house for the night, for you look faint and
weary." The Rajah consented. Next morning, however, very early, he
woke the bangle-seller, saying, "Pray let us go now and see the
people you spoke about yesterday." "Stay," said the bangle-seller; "it
is much too early. I never go till after breakfast." So the Rajah had
to wait till the bangle-seller was ready to go. At last they started
off, and when they reached the Cobra's hole the first thing the Rajah
saw was a fine little boy playing with the young Cobras.
As the bangle-seller came along, jingling his bangles, a gentle voice
from inside the hole called out, "Come here, my Muchie Lal, and try on
your bangles." Then the Muchie Rajah, kneeling down at the mouth of
the hole, said, "Oh, lady, show your beautiful face to me." At the
sound of his voice the Ranee ran out, crying, "Husband, husband! have
you found me again." And she told him how her sister had tried to
drown her, and how the good Cobra had saved her life and taken care of
her and her child. Then he said, "And will you now come home with me?"
And she told him how the Cobra would never let her go, and said, "I
will first tell him of your coming; for he has been as a father to
me." So she called out, "Father Cobra, father Cobra, my husband has
come to fetch me; will you let me go?" "Yes," he said, "if your
husband has come to fetch you, you may go." And his wife said,
"Farewell, dear lady, we are loth to lose you, for we have loved you
as a daughter." And all the little Cobras were very sorrowful to think
that they must lose their playfellow, the young Prince. Then the Cobra
gave the Muchie Rajah and the Muchie Ranee and Muchie Lal all the most
costly gifts he could find in his treasure-house; and so they went
home, where they lived very happy ever after.
[Decoration]