no giants to molest them. They had one sister, the most beautiful
young maiden that the Amadan had ever beheld. They gave her to the
Amadan in marriage, and gave her half of all they owned for fortune.
The marriage lasted nine days and nine nights. There were nine hundred
fiddlers, nine hundred fluters, and nine hundred pipers, and the last
day and night of the wedding were better than the first.
_The Rakshas's 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 stepchildren, 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's 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 favourite 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." "Someone 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, "Someone 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 quarrelling 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's 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's 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 anyone should call out and ask for a drink of water, or
any poor beggar pray for food, before you give it to 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 neighbouring Rajah, who had been hunting with his attendants for
many days in the jungles, came near the place, 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 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 angrily,
saying, "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 downstairs 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's
face! The Princess started back with a little cry, while the water,
trickling down, 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 stepmother, 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 tale 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 younger 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 upstairs; 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, "Someone has been here, and they have stolen her
away; they have stolen my darling away! Oh, 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 shrivelled 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
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
favoured 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 someone had plucked some of his
favourite lotus flowers. People were set to watch, and all the wise
men in the kingdom put their heads together to try to 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 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
shrivelled 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!"
they cried, "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, to fetch the old woman (who was really the Princess in
disguise) to the palace, where she was to be married to the Prince as
privately and with as little ceremony as possible, for the family was
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 his 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 his 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.
_Billy Beg and the Bull_