In a certain country there was a King, it is said. Belonging to that
King there was only a single son-Prince. He handed over this Prince to
a Royal Preceptor for teaching him the arts and sciences. Although
until this Prince became big to a [considerable] degree he was
learning near the Royal Preceptor, he did not properly get to know
even a single letter.
While he was staying thus, a King of another country sent a letter to
his father the King. Thereupon he gave this letter to the Prince to
read. The Prince, bringing the letter near his forehead, looked at it,
rubbing his eye he looked, (after) running round the house he looked;
but he was unable to read it. The royal retinue who saw this laughed.
At that time anger having arisen in the King concerning this, he very
quickly caused the Royal Preceptor to be brought. He spoke to him
angrily. The Royal Preceptor, becoming afraid [said], "Your Majesty,
your son is unable to learn. Let this [other] child who learnt at the
same time with that Prince, and this child who came to learn after
that, read, if you please;" and he presented two children before
him. Thereupon the two children read the letter with ease. After
that, the King being angry with his Prince, settled to kill him on
the following day.
His mother the Queen having arrived at much grief concerning this, on
the following day, at the point of its becoming light, having tied up
a packet of masuran and given it to him, ordered him to set off and go
away from the country. And the Prince, in the manner his mother said,
taking the packet of masuran set off and went away from the country.
While he was thus going he saw a place where an astrologer, assembling
children (lamo) together, is teaching. The Prince having halted at
that place and spoken to the teacher about learning [under him],
remained there. And although, having stayed there much time, he
endeavoured to learn, while he was there also he was unable to learn.
During this time the astrologer-teacher having become afflicted with
disease, dismissed and started off the whole of the scholars. He
told the Prince to go away. At the time when the Prince was going, he
approached to take permission from the teacher. Thereupon the teacher,
having spoken to the Prince, said, "Learning even the advice which I
now give to yourself, take it and establish it in your mind as long
as there is life." The Prince answered, "It is good."
The advice indeed was this:--"Having gone to a place to which you did
not go [before], should they give any seat for sitting down, without
sitting there at once you must draw out and shake the seat, and [then]
sit down. While you are at any place, should they give to eat, not
eating the food at once, [but] taking a very little from the food,
after having given it to an animal and looked at it a little time you
must eat. Having come to an evil place to take sleep, not lying down
at once you must lie down at the time of being sleepy. Not believing
anything that any person has only said, should you hear it with the ear
and see it with the eye [even], not believing it on that account only,
[but] having inquired still further, you must act."
[After] hearing this advice the Prince having set out from there,
went away. At the time when he had gone a considerable distance,
the Prince became hungry; and the Prince having halted at a place,
said to the house man, "Ane! Friend, I am very hungry. I will give
you the expenses; give me to eat for one meal."
Having said [this], the Prince unfastened the packet of masuran that
was in his hand, and from it gave him a single masurama. The man after
having seen these told his wife about the packet of masuran that
the Prince had. [263] The wife also having become desirous to take
the packet of masuran, told her husband the stratagem to kill the
Prince and take them. Talking in this way, they dug a secret (boru)
hole and covered it, and having fixed a seat upon it made him sit
there to eat food.
The Prince having established in his mind the advice which the
astrologer-teacher gave, drew away and shook the seat; at the time
when he endeavoured to look [at the place] all the things that were
there fell into the secret hole. Having seen this and arrived at fear,
the Prince set off from there and began to go away.
Having thus gone a considerable distance, and having halted at a place
because of hunger, the Prince said to a man, "On my giving the expenses
give me to eat for one meal." Thereupon the man said, "It is good."
Then the Prince, having unfastened the packet of masuran, bringing a
masurama gave it to the man. The man having told his wife also about
the matter of the masuran, they arranged a means to kill the Prince
and take the masuran. Having thought of giving poison to the Prince to
kill him while here, they put poison into the food, and having set a
seat and brought a kettle of water for washing himself, gave it to him.
The Prince, after washing his [right] hand and mouth, having gone
and sat down, according to the advice of the astrologer-teacher
taking from all the food a very little gave it to the dog and cat
that were near the Prince, and remained looking [at them] a little
time. While he was [waiting] thus, in a little time the dog and cat
died and fell down. Having seen this and become afraid, the Prince
set off from there and began to go away.
Having gone on and on in this way, near the palace of another King
through hunger-weakness he fell, and struck the ground. The men who
saw this having gone running, said to the King [that] a man like a
royal Prince had fallen down, and was not far from the palace. The
King gave orders, "Very speedily bring him here." Thereupon the men
having lifted him up, took him to the royal house.
While he was there, when he asked him [regarding] the circumstances,
"I am very weak through hunger; [264] for many days I have not obtained
any food," he said.
"At first having made rice gruel, give ye him a little," the King said.
Thereupon the servants having said, "It is good" (Yahapataeyi),
prepared and gave it. After his weakness was removed in this way,
he asked him [about] the circumstances. Commencing at the beginning,
from the time (taen) when he went near the Royal Preceptor, he told
the story before the King (raju).
Then the King spoke, "Wast thou unable to learn letters? Not thus
should a royal Prince understand. Wast thou unable to learn the art
of swords, the art of bows, etc.?" he asked.
Thereupon, when answering he said he knew the whole of those arts;
only letters he did not know.
At that time the King thought thus, "Because of his not knowing
only letters, ordering them to kill him was wrong, the first-born
son. Remain thou near me," he commanded.
Belonging to the King there was a single daughter only. As there were
no sons he regarded this Prince like a son. When not much time had
gone thus, the King thought of giving [a Princess] in marriage to
him. The King having spoken to him, said thus, "Tell me which place
is good for bringing [a Princess from], to marry to thee." Many a
time he told him [this].
And the Prince when replying on all the occasions said, "I am not
willing to leave His Majesty the King and go away."
Thereupon ascertaining that he says thus through willingness that he
should marry the King's daughter to him, he said, "I am not willing
to give my daughter to thee. Shouldst thou say, 'Why is that?' seven
times now, seven Princes married (baendeya) that person. They having
died, on the following day after the Princes married her it befel
that I must bury them. Because death will occur to thee in the very
same way, I am not willing to give my daughter to thee," he said.
Thereupon the Prince said thus, "To a person for whom death is
not ordained death does not come; death having been ordained that
person will die. Because of that, I am wishful to marry (bandinta)
that very Princess," he said. Then the King fulfilled his wish. Thus
they two having married, according to the custom he sent them away
[into a separate dwelling].
While he was with that very Princess, having remembered the warning
given on that day by the astrologer-teacher, being heavy with
sleepiness while eating betel, he woke up many times. At this time
the Princess had gone to sleep.
[At last] he hears a sound in the house. The Prince having heard it
and become afraid, at the time when he was looking about [after]
taking his sword in his hand, he saw a cobra of a size equal to a
Palmira trunk descending from the roof. This cobra, indeed, was a
young man who had tied his affection to this Princess, a person who
having died through his love [for her] was [re-]born a cobra. Through
anger towards all who marry the Princess he killed them.
The royal Prince having gone aside, in a little time it descended
until it was near the ground. [Then] the Prince by one stroke of the
sword cut the cobra into three pieces. Thus the danger which there
had been for much time that day was destroyed.
On the following day, according to custom with fear the servants
arrived in front of the Princess's house. But the Prince having come
out, placed the three pieces of the cobra upon a post. Thereupon
having been amazed, the royal servants very speedily ran off and told
the King (rajuhata) about this. The King, also, having arrived there
was astonished, and commanded them to take the trunk of the cobra to
the cemetery, and burn it.
During these very days, another King having asked the Great King for
assistance for a war, sent letters. And the King sent this Prince
to the war, with the army. When he had thus gone, in a few days the
Princess bore a son.
The war lasted twelve years. After twelve years, having conquered
in the war he was ready to come to his own country. By this time
the Princess's son had become big. But the people of the country,
not knowing whose son [he was], thought him a person who had married
the Princess. And this news had become spread through the country.
The royal Prince having arrived near his own country, the Prince
got to hear the news; but having remembered the warning of the
astrologer-teacher, he thought that to believe it in the future he
must make inquiry.
Coming close to the royal palace by degrees, he addressed the army;
and thereafter, after he had beaten on the notification tom-tom,
"Assemble ye," having allowed them to go, when it became night he
arrived inside the palace by an outer window. Thus he arrived in the
house called after the Princess.
Having come in that way and seen that a youth was living with the
Princess, he became angry, and said, "I will cut down the two persons,"
taking the sword in his hand. [But] having remembered the warning of
the astrologer-teacher, he said, "Without being hasty I will still
test them," and again he put the sword into the sheath.
At the sound, the [young] Prince who was with his mother opened his
eyes, and having seen his father and become afraid, saying, "Mother,
mother," crept under the bed. The mother, too, having opened her
eyes at this time and when she looked having seen her lord, spoke
[to him]. Thereupon he told the Princess the whole circumstances,
and for the Princess there was great sorrow [at the report spread
regarding her].
On the morning of the following day, the Prince having seen the
Great King told him about the war, and the manner in which he got
the victory in it. And the King, being much pleased, appointed great
festivals at the city; and having decorated the Prince with the Crown
and given him the kingship, the King began to perform acts in view
of the other world.
Western Province.
Compare the advice given to the Brahmana in No. 209 in this vol.,
and the variants appended.
In Folk-Tales of Bengal (L. Behari Day), p. 100, a Queen was married
afresh every day to a person selected by the royal elephant, this
new King each morning being found dead in some mysterious manner
in the bed-room. A merchant's son who had been obliged to leave his
home was chosen as King by the elephant, and heard of the nocturnal
danger. While he lay awake armed, he saw a long thread issue from
the Queen's left nostril; it grew thicker until at last it was a
huge snake. He at once cut off its head, and remained there as the
permanent King.
In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. i, p. 137, each time the
daughter of a King was married the bride-groom was found dead in the
chamber on the following morning. When royal bride-grooms could be
obtained no longer, the King ordered that from each house in turn a
person of either the royal or Brahmana caste should be brought and
allowed to remain in the room for one night, on the understanding that
anyone who survived should be married to the Princess. All died, until
at last a brave Brahmana from another country offered to take the place
of the son of the widow with whom he was lodging. He remained awake,
and in the night saw a terrible Rakshasa open the door, and stretch
out his arm. The Brahmana at once stepped forward and cut off the
arm, and the Rakshasa fled. The hero was afterwards married to the
Princess. He met with the Rakshasa in the same way at another city,
and learnt from him that by Siva's orders he was preventing the
Princesses from being married to cowards.
In the same work, vol. ii, p. 449, there is an account of a Brahmana
who placed himself under a teacher at Pataliputra, but was so stupid
that he did not manage to learn a single syllable.
In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 32 ff., there is a
variant; see note after No. 209 in this volume. The closest resemblance
is in the episode in which the Prince takes the place of the Potter's
son who was about to be summoned to be married to the Princess whose
husbands had all died on their wedding night. During the night the
Prince was careful not to sleep; he lay down with his sword in his
hand. In the middle of the night he saw two snakes issue from the
nostrils of the Princess, and come towards him. He struck at them and
killed them. Next morning the King was surprised to find him alive,
and chatting with his daughters. The Prince then told the King who
he was, and he became the heir apparent.
In Sagas from the Far East, p. 291, after a certain King died, the
persons who were elected in turn as his successor died each night
without any apparent cause. Vikramaditya and his companion, a youth
who had been reared by wolves, took the place of a youth who had
been chosen as King, and on inquiry learnt that as secret offerings
that were made by the former King to the devas and spirits had been
discontinued, it must be the offended spirits who killed each new King
every night. When the offerings were made the deities were appeased,
and no more deaths occurred in this way.
In the Arabian Nights (Lady Burton's ed., vol. iii, p. 263), there
is an account of a haunted house in Baghdad; any person who stayed
during the night in it was found dead in the morning. This was the act
of a Jinni (demon) who was guarding a treasure which was to be made
over to a specified person only. He broke the necks of all others,
but when the right man came he gave him the treasure.
There is a variant of the first danger from which the youth escaped,
in a Sierra Leone story given in Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider, and the
Other Beef (Cronise and Ward), p. 251. A King who had been falsely
told that his son was likely to depose him, gave him two tasks which
he accomplished successfully, and afterwards caused a deep hole to be
dug, placed broken bottles in the bottom, spread a mat over it, set
a chair on it, and told the boy to sit on it. The boy replied that he
never sat down without first shaking the place. When he beat the mat
with a heavy stick the chair fell into the hole, and the boy escaped.
For the pit-fall compare No. 159, vol. ii, and the appended notes.