In a certain country there was a very important rich family, it is
said. In this family were the two parents and their children, two
sons only.
In the course of time the people of the family arrived at a very poor
condition, it is said. During the time when they are thus, the mother
of these two young children having gone near a shipping town, [311]
winnowed the rice of the ships and continued to get her living. One
day when she was winnowing the rice of a ship, quite unperceived by
her the ship went to sea [with her on board].
During the time when he was thus unaware to which hand this woman
who was the chief support [312] of the family--or the mother--went,
the father one day for some necessary matter having gone together
with the two sons to cross to that other bank of the river, tied
one son to a tree on the bank on this side and placed him [there];
and having gone with the other one to the bank on that side, and tied
the son to a tree there, came to take the other son [across]. While
on the return journey in this way, this old man having been caught
by a current in the river, and been taken by force to a very distant
country, went to a village where they dry salt fish.
An old woman having seen the two children who had been tied on the
two banks by him, unfastened their bonds (baemi); having heard [from
one of them] about their birth and two parents, learning all the
circumstances, she employed some person and caused even the child
who was on the bank on that [other] side to be brought, and reared
both of them.
During the time while the father of the two children was getting
his living, drying salt fish, the King of that country died. Well
then, because there was not a Crown Prince [313] of the King of the
country, according to the mode of the custom of that country having
decorated the King's festival tusk elephant and placed the crown
on its back, they sent it [in search of a new King]. And the tusk
elephant having gone walking, and gone in front of that poor man who
was drying salt fish, when it bent the knee he mounted on the back
of the tusk elephant, and having come to the palace was appointed to
the sovereignty.
After he was thus exercising the sovereignty a little time, it became
necessary for this King to go somewhere to a country, and having
mounted on a ship it began to sail away. The two sons who belonged in
the former time to this King, who were being reared by the old woman,
having become big were stationed for their livelihood as guards on
this very ship. Their mother who was lost during the former time,
earned a living by winnowing rice on this very ship.
Well then, while these very four persons remained unable to get
knowledge of each other, during the night time, when the ship is
sailing, in order to remove the sleepiness of the two brothers who
were on the ship as guards, the younger brother told the elder brother
to relate a story. And when the elder brother said, "I do not know
how to tell stories," because again and again he was forcing him to
relate anything whatever, he said, "I do know indeed how to relate
the manner of [our] ancient eating and drinking."
"It is good. If so, relate even that," the younger brother said.
Thereupon, the elder brother, beginning from the time when their
parents were lost, told the story of the manner in which they formerly
ate and drank, up to the time when they came for the watching on
the ship,--how the two persons, eating and drinking, were getting
their living.
These two persons' mother, and the King who was their father, both
of them, having remained listening to this story from the root to
the top, at the last said, "These are our two sons." Having smelt
(kissed) each other, all four persons obtaining knowledge of each
other after that lived in happiness, enjoying royal greatness.
Western Province.
In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 154, a defeated
King who was driven into exile with his wife and two children,
engaged a passage by a vessel, but it sailed away with the Queen
before the others got on board. She was sold to a merchant whom she
agreed to marry if she did not meet with her husband and children
in two years. The King, while returning for the other child after
crossing a river with one, was carried away by the current, sank,
and was swallowed by a fish, and saved by a potter when it died on
the bank. He became a potter, and was selected as King by the royal
elephant and hawk. A fisherman who had reared the two sons became a
favourite, and the boys were kept near the King. When the merchant who
bought the Queen came to trade, these youths were sent to guard his
goods. At night, on the younger one's asking for a tale his brother
said he would relate one out of their own experience, and told him
their history, which the Queen overheard, thus ascertaining that
they were her sons. By getting the merchant to complain to the King
about their conduct she was able to tell him her story, on which he
discovered that she was his wife, and all were united.
In Folklore of the Santal Parganas (collected by Rev. Dr. Bodding),
p. 183, while a Raja and his wife were travelling in poverty the
Queen was shut up by a rich merchant. At a river the Raja was swept
away while returning for the child left on the bank, and afterwards
selected as King by two state elephants. The children, reared by an
old woman, took service under him, were appointed as guards for the
merchant's wife (the former Queen) when she was brought to a festival,
and were recognised by her. The merchant complained of the guards,
and on hearing their story the King discovered that they were his
sons and the woman was his wife. In a variant the children were left
on one bank of the river, and a fish swallowed their father, the boys
being reared by a cow-herd.
In the Arabian Nights (Lady Burton's ed., vol. iii, p. 366), a ship
in which were an indigent Jew and his wife and two sons, was wrecked,
one boy being picked up by a vessel, and the others cast ashore in
different countries. The father secured buried treasures which a
voice disclosed to him on an island, and became King there; the sons,
hearing of his generosity, came to him and received appointments,
but did not know each other. A merchant who came with their mother
was invited to remain at the palace, the youths being sent to guard
his goods and their mother at night. While conversing they found they
were brothers; their mother, overhearing the story, recognised them,
got the merchant to complain of their improper conduct, and on their
repeating their history the King found they were his sons. The mother
then unveiled herself, and all were united.