Then the King, taking a cane, began to beat the Queen. Thereupon the
Queen, having said, "Ane! O Lord, Your Majesty, I will never again
say anything, or even ask anything," began to cry aloud.
The King got to know that the Jackal was a wise animal.
Western Province.
Compare vol. ii., Nos. 167 and 168.
In Santal Folk-Tales (Campbell), p. 22, after a King had received
from the Snake King the power of understanding the speech of animals,
he laughed on hearing a dispute between a fly and an ant over some
grains of rice. As the Queen insisted on being told the reason,
to disclose which he had been warned would be fatal to him, he was
about to tell her and then get her to push him into the Ganges, when
he overheard the talk of some goats. A he-goat replied to a she-goat's
request that he would bring her some grass from an island in the river,
that he would not be made like this foolish King who vainly tried to
please a woman and was about to die because of it. The King saw his
foolishness, made the Queen kneel to pay obeisance to him in order
to be told the secret, and then beheaded her.