Chapter XI: Part 11

So the great man having made it ready just like that, sent a letter to this King for all who are at the royal palace to come. Thereupon the King, having looked at the letter, prepared to go there.

This Prince perceived that it was a device which was adopted by the King for the purpose of killing the Princess. Having perceived it and told those parties to go before, at the time when they were going this Prince and his younger sister, both of them, mounted on a cart (carriage), and went along another path to the midst of a forest. As they were going on, leaving the forest wilderness behind, there was a city which a [wild] tusk elephant, having come, is making desolate. They went to the city. While they were going to the city it did not become light.

As this Prince and Princess were going, not knowing that there is a tusk elephant laying waste the city, the tusk elephant walked through the whole city, and having broken down the houses, while it was coming to go back to the midst of the forest this Prince and Princess met it in front.

Having met it, it chased the Prince and Princess along the road. As it was going chasing them this Prince drew his sword and struck it. Then the sword went and pierced the stomach of the elephant, and it died. After it died they stayed that day night at the city.

The King of the city having gone with the city tusk elephant to stay at night at certain other rock houses (caves), comes to this city only for hearing law-suits in the daytime. Having come and repaired the houses which that [wild] tusk elephant had broken, and heard law-suits, as it becomes night he goes to the rock house.

The King [had] notified by beat of tom-toms [245]: "To the person who [shall have] killed this tusk elephant I will give a portion from my kingdom and marry my Princess, and I will send him to stay at this city." Every one was unable.

On the morning on which this Prince killed the tusk elephant, men came in order to build [the damaged houses in] the city. When they looked about that day, they said that the tusk elephant is still staying there, sleeping; and the men having become afraid, ran away.

After that, a man came, and having slowly come near the tusk elephant, when he was looking at it perceived that was dead. Thereupon the man having come near, when he looked [saw that] some one had stabbed the tusk elephant.

There was a house near by. Having gone near it, when he looked he saw that a Prince and a Princess were sleeping. Having seen them, he spoke to the Prince and awoke him, and asked, "How did you kill this tusk elephant?"

Then the Prince said, "I stabbed it with my sword and killed it."

The man said, "Ane! By favour to me you must stay there a little," and having gone he said to the King, "Last night a Prince and Princess came to our city; and having stabbed the tusk elephant with the sword and killed it, they are still staying [there], sleeping."

Thereupon the King having come, when he looked they were there. The King having heard from the Prince about the matter, and having gone calling them to the palace, and given them food and drink, asked to marry his Princess to the Prince.

At that time the Prince said, "Until the time when I marry and give my younger sister I will not marry"; and they went away to yet a city.

When he was going, [persons] are robbing the city of this [other] King. Because of it, [the King] gave notice by beat of tom-toms, "Can any one seize them?" Thereupon all said they could not.

This Prince having said, "I will endeavour [to do] this," went away. While going, he met with a young Leopard, a young Parrot, and a Kitten. Taking the three and placing them in a cart, while going on he saw in the midst of the forest a very large house like a prison.

Thereupon the Prince, not going to look at it during the daytime, waited until it became night; and having gone at daybreak, when he was looking about, the robbers having come [after] committing robbery he ascertained that they were making ready to sleep.

Having waited a little time after the men had gone to sleep, when he looked for an opening, because there was not one, being on the back of his horse he sprang on the wall. Having sprung on it, when he looked [he saw that after] putting down their armour on going to sleep, they were sleeping well. Thereupon the Prince cut them all down, beginning from one end. One of them having been wounded and got hid in the room, remained; all the other men died. The blood that came from them flowed to the depth of the Prince's knee.

After that, having waited until it became light he cut a hole, and having put the dead bodies into the hole he thoroughly washed the houses and cleaned them. Because there were many silver and golden things there he stayed a little time.

While he was staying, one day, having told the Princess to remain [there], the Prince, taking a gun, went to hunt. At that time the Parrot, the Leopard, and the Cat went with the Prince.

The three and the Prince, or a person who would send him away, not being near, that robber who had been wounded that day, and having got hid remained after the Prince went away, came out into the light; and asking for cooked rice from the Princess and having eaten it, became associated with the Princess, and stayed a few days without the Prince's knowing it, healing those wounds and the like.

Then that robber spoke to the Princess, "Having killed your elder brother and we two having married, let us remain [here]."

Thereupon the Princess also being willing regarding it, asked the robber, "How shall we kill elder brother?"

Then the robber said, "At the time when your elder brother comes, say that you have got fever, and remain lying down. Then he having come will be grieved. Then say, 'Elder brother, the deity who protects us--who he is I do not know--said there is a pool in the midst of this forest. In the pool there is a lotus flower. Unless, plucking the lotus flower, you come and boil it, and I should drink the gravy, my fever will not be cured otherwise.'"

The Princess asked the robber, "When he has gone to the pool what will happen?"

The robber said, "There is a Crocodile in the pool. No one can descend into the pool. Because the Celestial Nymphs (Apsarases) bathe [there], should another person go the Crocodile will swallow him."

Then the Princess having become pleased, at the time when the Prince, having gone for hunting-sport, came back, she remained lying down groaning and groaning.

The Prince having come asked, "What is it, younger sister?"

The Princess said, "Ane! Elder brother, I have got fever."

Thereupon the Prince through grief that the Princess had got fever does not eat the cooked rice. Then the Princess said all the words which the robber told her. So having said, "I will bring the lotus flower," the Prince went.

Having gone and found the pool, when he looked there was a large lotus flower in the manner she said. The Prince, putting on the bathing cloth, [246] and fastening his sword in his waist string, prepared to descend into the pool.

Thereupon, the three animals that went with the Prince said, "Don't descend," and began to say it again and again. Out of them the Parrot said, "Elder brother, having gone flying, I will bring each pollen grain of the flower. Don't you descend."

The Prince said, "While thou art going and bringing each grain of pollen it will become night. On that account I will go, and cutting the flower from the outside will come back"; and he descended into the pool. As he descended, the Crocodile having come swallowed him. When it was swallowing him the sword fixed at the Prince's waist pierced the Crocodile's stomach, and the Crocodile and the Prince died.

Thereupon the three animals which remained on the bank, rolling over and over on the ground, breaking and breaking up the soil of the earth, began to cry out.

At that time the Celestial Nymphs came to the pool to bathe. Having come, and seen the lamentation of these animals, they told the Devatawa of the pool to come, and splitting open the stomach of the Crocodile he caused the Prince to be [re]-born. Having come to life, the Prince, plucking the lotus flower, came to the bank.

Then the four, taking the lotus flower and having come back, and boiled and given it to that Princess, the false fever of the Princess was cured. Well then, by that they were unable to kill him.

So the robber asked the Princess, "Now then, how to kill your elder brother?"

Then the Princess said, "Elder brother having come [after] walking, goes from this side near the screen to wash his face. You stay on the other side [of the screen] and cut him with your sword." So he remained that day in that way.

That day the Prince having come [after] walking did not go to the side to which he goes before; he went to the other side. At that time the man having been [there] tried to spring away. Then having cut down the man with the sword that was in the Prince's hand, he asked the Princess, "Whence this man?" The Princess remained silent.

Thereupon the Prince said, "I shall not do anything to you; say the fact." The Princess told him the fact.

Then the Prince having said, "Thou faithless one! Go thou also," cut her down with the sword; and taking those things, went with the three animals to the city where he killed that tusk elephant.

Having gone there, and told the King the manner in which he killed the robbers, and all the dangers that had befallen him, the King, having been pleased, married the King's Princess [to him]; and having given the kingdom also to that very Prince, he remained there.

The Prince having gone to his [father's] city, said to the King, "Father, having destroyed the word which you, Sir, said, by the acts that I performed, I was made to ascertain [the wisdom of] it."

Having made obeisance to his father the King, and told him all the circumstances that had occurred, thereafter he came back with contentment to that city. Having come, he remained ruling over that city.

Western Province.

In the Kolhan tales (Bompas) appended to Folklore of the Santal Parganas, p. 468, a girl and her brother, fearing their father wished to kill them, ran away and lived in the jungle. While the brother was hunting, a Raja met with the sister and wanted to marry her; thinking the youth would object the Raja persuaded the girl to try to get him killed. She pretended to be ill, and told him she could not recover unless he brought a flower which grew in a lake. When the boy was swimming to the flower a gigantic fish swallowed him; but a Rakshasa friend drank the pool dry, caught the fish, and took out the boy alive. The Raja carried off the girl, but was defeated by the youth and Rakshasa and some animal friends, gave the youth half his kingdom, and married him to his own daughter.

In the actions of the animals, expressive of their grief at the death of the Prince, there is a striking resemblance to those ascribed to the Werewolf in William of Palerne (E.E.T.S., ed. Skeat), on discovering that the child he was rearing was missing:

For reuliche (ruefully) gan he rore · and rente al his hide,
And fret (gnawed) oft of the erthe · and fel doun on swowe,
And made the most dool (sorrow) · that man mizt diuise.

The English translation of this twelfth-century Romance is said to date from about A.D. 1350.

In vol. i, p. 130, a dog shows its grief by rolling about and howling, and in vol. iii, p. 446, a man rolls on the ground in feigned sorrow.

NO. 244

THE PRINCE WHO RECEIVED THE TURTLE SHELL

In a certain country there was a son of a King. After this son had become big to a certain extent, for the purpose of teaching him he sent him near a teacher; but as time was going on, the teacher, ascertaining that he could not teach this one, gave notice to His Majesty the King. Thereupon the King having summoned the Prince near him, sent him to stay unoccupied (nikan) in the royal house.

During the time while he was thus, the other Princes, having finished learning the sciences and having again arrived near the King, began to show him, one by one, their dexterity. Some of them began to make jests about this ignorant Prince. Thereupon this Prince being much ashamed, and his father the King also not concealing it, his Prince, putting on his ornaments and decorating himself with his sword, bow, etc., having entered a forest wilderness went away.

When he had gone in this manner for a considerable distance through the midst of the forest wilderness, he saw a house of a cow-herd. The Prince went to this cow-herd's house, and having told him of his hunger, asked for a little food.

The cow-herd's wife, having thought that she must take the Prince's costly ornaments, gave the Prince to eat, drink, and sit, and [permitted him] to stay; and having told him to unfasten his clothes and go to sleep, handed over to him a bed also.

Thereupon having thought, "This woman is a most kind person," the Prince having taken off his ornaments, gave them together with his weapons to the cow-herd's wife. The Prince having been sleeping, after his eyes were opened, when he asked for the ornaments from the cow-herd's wife, without giving them she told the Prince to dwell there.

Well then, a certain goddess who saw that this young Prince in this manner was causing the cattle to graze, having shown great compassion towards him, one day approached near him and said thus, "I will give thee a turtle shell and a spell. By the power of the spell thou canst do the thing thou thinkest. Having got inside the turtle shell thou canst stay there. If not in that way, thou canst become a Prince decorated with beautiful ornaments. But without saying the spell just now, thou art to say it when thou hast become twenty-five years of age," she said.

But this Prince, for the purpose of seeing whether the spell is true or false, having said it, became a Turtle; and again having said it became a handsome Prince. After that, until the twenty-fifth year arrives he put away and hid the turtle shell.

After this time, the Prince having stayed [there] causing the cattle to graze, when the twenty-fifth year arrived, taking also the turtle shell he set off in the very disguise of a poor man, and went away to another country. This Prince having arrived at the house of a flower-mother who gives flowers to the King of that country, dwelt [with her] like a son. During the time when he was staying thus, he got to know the affairs of the royal house.

Out of the King's seven daughters six having contracted marriages, only the youngest Princess was left. When the husbands of those six Princesses went hunting, the Prince who stayed near the flower-mother having gone into the midst of the forest became an extremely handsome Prince; and having decorated himself with the sword, bow, etc., and mounted upon a horse, and waited to be visible to the other Princes who were in the midst of the forest, when they were coming to look [at him] immediately having become a Turtle he hides in a bush.

When he acted in this manner on very many days, the husbands of the six Princesses related this circumstance while at the royal house. [Their account of] this matter the youngest Princess who was unmarried heard.

Thereafter, one day the six Princesses and their husbands also, went to the festival pool to bathe. The youngest Princess went with these. The Prince who had become the son of the flower-mother, creating a most handsome Prince's body, and having gone after the whole of them, waited [there] to show a pleasure to these Princesses who came to bathe; and immediately having become a Turtle, got hid at the side of the pool.

Only the youngest Princess saw this circumstance. Having thus seen it, catching the Turtle and wrapping it in her silk robe she took it to the palace. After she took it to the Princess's chamber, the Turtle, having become the Prince, talking with the Princess told her all his story, and when he told her that he was a royal Prince the two persons agreed to marry each other.

Beginning from that time (taen), this Prince whom men were thinking was the son of the flower-mother, by the favour of the Princess began to go to the floor of the upper story where the Princess resides. During the progress of time, the King perceived that the Princess was pregnant, and having menaced the Princess and asked who was the offender regarding it, ascertaining that he was the flower-mother's son, he gave the Princess to the flower-mother's son, and turned them out of the palace.

After this, one day because of a great feast at the royal house, the King ordered these six Princes to go for hunting, and return. Because the flower-mother's son was in an extremely poor condition, except that the other Princes made jests at him they did not notice him. The other six Princesses ask the Princess of the flower-mother's son, "Is your husband going for the hunting-sport to-day?"

Then having exhibited a most sorrowful state, the Princess says, "That I do not know. I must ask my husband, and ascertain."

When the other Princes had ornamented [themselves] for the hunting-sport, the flower-mother's son, seeking a rust-eaten sword and rotten bow, went to the midst of the forest, and taking a Prince's appearance, mounted upon a horse. Having gone [hunting], cutting off the tongues of the whole of the animals that he hunted [and killed], and taking only a rat-snake [besides], he returned to the palace before everybody [in his ordinary form].

The King required to look at the animals which these Princes had hunted [and killed]. Thereupon, to be visible above the meat procured by the hunting of the whole of them, [the Prince] placed [on the top of them] the dead body of his rat-snake. Then the whole of them abused this one, it is said.

Thereupon this one says to the King, "It was not these Princes; I killed these animals." Having said, "If these killed them, where are the tongues of these animals?" he opened [their] mouths and showed them. Having shown the King the tongues of the animals which he had, and caused them to see [him in] the likeness of the Prince decorated with all the ornaments, like the full moon, this flower-mother's son stood before the King. Thereupon, the King and the other Princes also, retreated in extreme astonishment.

Thereupon, when he gave the King information of all the account of this Prince from the commencement, [the King] having handed over the sovereignty to him he put on the crowns. [247]

Western Province.

NO. 245

CONCERNING A PRINCE AND A KINNARA WOMAN

In a certain country there was a King, it is said. There was a single daughter of the King's. From many places they spoke of marriage to that royal Princess, but her father the King did not agree to it.

At last, when a certain royal Prince asked to marry this Princess, her father the King, having made inquiry, because of his not happening to be a son of the Chief Queen was not satisfied with it.

But on account of the Prince's possessing a mind extremely attached to the said Princess, having considered several means of success for bringing away this Princess, he made a very large brass lamp. The chamber of the lamp had a size [sufficient] for the Prince to be concealed [in it].

Having caused the lamp to be constructed in this manner, after the Prince entered there, having employed four persons they took this very lamp to sell. In order to go in this way, the Prince said thus to his servants, "There is necessity for me to enter such and such a royal house. While [you are] taking this lamp, when anyone [elsewhere] asks for it, mention a price which it is not worth; but having gone to the royal house give it at whatever they ask it for," he said.

Thereafter the servants, keeping this word in mind, and the Prince being concealed [in it], took the lamp to the royal house, it is said. The King, having seen the lamp and having thought, "This is an extremely fine lamp. This is suitable for placing in my daughter's chamber," asked the price of it, it is said. Thereupon the servants who took the lamp fixed the price at four hundred masuran. And when the King said, "This is not worth so much; I will give seventy-five [248] masuran," the servants because of the Prince's word gave the lamp at that price, it is said.

Thereafter, for the purpose of beautifying the royal Princess's chamber he placed there this lamp. The Prince, also, having entered the lamp was [in it].

Although for the care of the Princess many servants were staying there, the Prince obtained opportunity in order to bring about conversation with the Princess, it is said. By this method obtaining about a [half] share of the Princess's food, the Prince remained hidden for a time.

They give the Princess only one quantity of food. It was the custom once in seven days to weigh this Princess; [249] but as the Prince was eating a share of the Princess's food, the Princess having become thin became less in weight.

Having seen that the Princess's weight by degrees was growing less, the servant women, becoming afraid, informed the King that the Princess perhaps had some illness. The King also having thought that the Princess perhaps had some sickness (abadayak), made inquiry, and having ascertained that she had not a sickness in that way, ordered them to give additional food on account of it. After this time, having seen that the Princess is increasing in weight by the method, at the time when he inquired about it, he ascertained, it is said, that the Princess had been pregnant for eight months.

After this, although the King investigated by several methods regarding the manner in which this disgrace occurred to the Princess, he was unable to learn it. Everyone in the country got to know about this.

In this way, after the King was coming to great grief, he caused notification to be made by beat of tom-toms throughout the country that to a person who should seize and give him the wicked man who caused the disgrace to the royal Princess, he will give goods [amounting] to a tusk elephant's load.

A certain old woman, having caused the proclamation tom-tom to stop, said, "I can catch and give the thief," it is said. Thereupon they took the old mother near the King.

Then the King having spoken, asked, "Canst thou catch and give the thief?"

"It is so; may the Gods cause me to be wise," the old woman said, it is said.

"Dost thou require something for it?" he asked.

"[You] must give me a permission for it in this manner," she said. "That is to say, whether in the [right] time or in unseasonable time, [250] it is proper that I should receive permission for coming to any place I please in the palace," she said. And the King gave permission for it.

The old mother, upon that same permission having come to the royal house, while conversing in a friendly manner with the Princess after many days had gone by ascertained that from outside anyone was unable to approach the palace. But perceiving that some one could hide inside the lamp that is in the Princess's chamber, one day, in the evening, at the time when darkness was about to fall, she came to the Princess's chamber, and having been talking, dishonestly to the Princess she scattered white sand round the lamp, and went away.

In the morning, having arrived, when she looked she saw the foot-marks of a person who went out of the lamp, and perceiving that most undoubtedly the rogue is in the lamp, told the King (rajuhata), it is said. Thereupon the King having employed the servants and brought the rogue out, made the tusk elephant drink seven large pots of arrack (palm spirit), and ordered them to kill him by means of the tusk elephant.

Having made the Prince sit upon the tusk elephant, they went near the upper story where the Princess was. The elephant-driver was a servant who was inside the palace for much time. As he was a man to whom the Princess several times had given to eat and drink, the Princess said for the elephant-keeper to hear, "With the tusk-elephant face don't smash the tips of the cooked rice." [251]

The elephant-keeper also understanding the speech, without killing the Prince saved him. Although he employed the tusk elephant even three times, and made it trample on his bonds, at the three times he escaped.

Thereupon the King [said], "This one is a meritorious person;" [252] and having caused him to be summoned, and made notification of these things after he came, at the time when he asked, "Who art thou? What is thy name?" he told all, without concealing [anything]. Thereupon he married and gave the Princess to the Prince.

While the two persons were living thus, a longing arose for the Princess to wear blue-lotus flowers. As this time was a season without flowers, having heard that there would be flowers only at one pool at a Kinnara village at a great distance, the Prince went there. While he was there, a Rodi (Kinnara) woman by means of a [knowledge of the] teaching of the Kala [253] spells caused the Prince to stop there, it is said.

When time went in this manner without the Prince's coming, the King started off and sent four Ministers for the purpose of finding him. The four persons, ascertaining that the Prince had been captured and taken into the Kinnara caste, went there, and spoke to the Prince.

Perceiving that while by the mouth of the Rodi (Kinnara) [254] woman the word "Go" was being said, he was unable to go, [255] they spoke to the Prince, and did a trick thus, it is said; that is, they told the Prince to say, "Certain of my friends have come; we must give them amply to eat and drink." "Because of it [be pleased] to tell the Kinnara woman to cook food amply," they said. When the Prince told the Kinnari to cook food in that manner she did so.

When the Prince summoned the Ministers to the food, they, the four persons, putting sand in their waist pockets and mixing it with the food, endeavoured to eat, it is said. Having done so, the four Ministers said, "Although we came so far seeking our friend, we were unable to eat even a mouthful of rice from our friend without sand and stones [being] in it," and having scolded the Prince they went away. At that time the Prince appeared as though approaching great grief.

The Rodi (Kinnara) woman who saw this spoke to the Prince, "Go, calling your friends to come," she said. After the way in which she said this [word] "Go," the Prince very speedily having started, went with the four Ministers to his own country. Having gone thus and arrived at the palace, he told of the beauty of the Kinnara woman, and all his story.

In the meantime the Kinnara woman also having arrived in front of him, the Kinnara woman having said, "Here he is," when she seized the Prince's hand the King, having pushed the Rodi (Kinnara) woman from there, sent her out of the way.

The Kinnara woman because of this trouble drew out her tongue, and having bit it died, it is said; and after that having cast out the dead body they burned it. On the grave mound a plant [used as a] vegetable grew.

Two women of the village near this place came here to break fire-wood. Because one of the two women had pregnancy longing, uprooting the plant [used as a] vegetable, she cooked and ate it to allay the longing. After she ate thus, the woman having given birth to a female child she grew up extremely beautiful, like the dead Kinnara woman.

During this time, the Prince in succession to his father-in-law had come to the sovereignty, it is said. At the time when the child born like the Kinnara woman had arrived at sufficient age, the King having come and having seen her when he was going [past], remembered the dead Kinnara woman, and having tied his affections on the young woman endeavoured to obtain her, it is said. But her two parents not being pleased at it, as the King was going to walk away beat him, and killed him.

After the King died, when the King's men were burying him they gave the kingship to his son. After this son arrived at the time when he understood matters, he asked his mother how his father the King died, and ascertaining it he seized the men of the village at which they killed the King, and having put them in a ship he launched it on the sea. The men having cast nets, catching fish [in them] got their livelihood. After this, having cast the net and made efforts, catching a hundred Seer fishes they went to the village that was visible on shore. That village, indeed, is now Migamuwa (Negombo).

Western Province.

The capture of the Prince by a low-caste village girl is apparently borrowed from Sinhalese history. In the second century before Christ, Prince Sali, the only son of King Duttha-Gamani, fell in love with a beautiful village girl of low-caste,--according to tradition a Duraya girl--married her, and in order to retain her abandoned his succession to the throne. According to the historians, his infatuation was due to his grandfather's having been a pious man of low-caste in his former life, and to the Prince's marrying the girl in a previous existence, both of them then being of the same caste.

NO. 246

THE WAY IN WHICH THE PRINCE TRADED

In a certain country the son of a King having thought that he himself earning it he must obtain a living, asked permission for it from his father the King.

Then the King said, "Son, if the goods that there are of mine will do without your earning a living and [thus] obtaining it, you can live happily, enjoying the possession of this wealth which there is," he said.

But the Prince, being dissatisfied with it, said to his father the King, "In order for me to do trading, having loaded goods in a ship please give me charge of it," he said.

Because of the strong wish of the Prince in this matter, the King having caused three ships to be constructed, loaded goods in one and gave the Prince charge of it, and sent the other two ships for the purpose of his protection.

After these three ships had sailed a considerable distance, a strong wind struck them; and the two ships which went for his protection having sunk, the ship in which was the Prince drifted to a shore.

Thereupon the Prince having said, "At what country have we arrived?" when he began to walk there for the purpose of looking, he saw a city in which were houses without men, and an abandoned palace. At that time, in order to find a country in which are men, he caused a dependant of this Prince to climb up a very high tree; when he looked he saw at a place not far from there a city at which men are dwelling, and they went there.

When the Prince asked the men who were at the city the reason of there being a city with abandoned houses and an abandoned palace, the men said thus, that is, "Because the King who exercised the sovereignty over that city did much wrong, a deity having sent a fire-ball [256] through the whole city once in three months, began to destroy it."

Thereupon this Prince who owned the ship, asking for a very clever clerk from the Minister who ruled the city, arrived there on the day on which he sends the fire-ball to destroy the city. When he is sending the fire-ball the Prince asked the deity, "What is the reason for sending this fire-ball?"

The deity said, "The King who ruled here stole the goods of such and such men to these extents, put in prison falsely such and such men." When he is saying a quantity of such-like matters, the clerk who went with the Prince wrote down the whole.

Thereupon the Prince said to the deity, "The goods which the King stole from the men I will apportion and give to them. I will assist the men who were put in prison without cause. Because of it, henceforward do not send the fire-ball and destroy the city." When he said it the deity accepted it.

After that, the Prince having sold the goods that were in the ship and the ship also, and having assisted the families whom the wicked King had injured, together with the Minister governed the country.

One day this Prince having gone for hunting-sport, when he was going hunting, a deer, feeling the wound at the shooting and shooting, ran off in front. The Prince having run after the deer, became separated from his retinue. Having seen, when going along, that a very beautiful Princess is at a rock cave in the midst of the forest, when he asked her [regarding] the circumstance, she said, "A Yaka brought me and put me in this rock cave. Once in three months he comes to look [at me]." Thereupon the Prince, calling for his retinue, and when it came having gone away taking this Princess, gave her in marriage to the Minister.

After this, because neither this Princess nor the Minister, both of them, paid regard to this Prince who had assisted them, the Prince having become angry went away.

Having gone thus, becoming wearied he went to sleep near a pool in the midst of the forest. At this time, two robbers having come, placed [there] a very beautiful Princess on a golden bed, and being unable to divide them, [each] cried out, saying, "The bed for me; the Princess for me. Give me them."

Thereupon the Prince, having opened his eyes and said, "Who are ye?" sprang near them, taking his sword, and said, "I am such and such a Prince. I will kill you. If I am not to kill you, give me the Princess, and if ye want the bed take ye it away." The two robbers having become afraid, taking the bed went away.

This Prince went away, taking the Princess, and having arrived at a country, dwelt there in misery. At this time, her father the King made public that to the person who, having found, gave him this Princess, he will give a share from the kingdom, and marry and give her.

Well then, for the purpose of finding her, a young man from the Princess's country having walked to all places, at last arrived by chance at the place where both of them are residing. Recognising the Princess, and during that day night getting a resting-place there and having stayed at it, he stole the Princess, and went near her father the King.

Thereupon the Princess said to her father the King, "Do not give me in marriage to this wicked one. There is a Prince who at the very first delivered me from robbers. While that Prince was there [after] finding me, this wicked one having gone [there], stealing me by force came away." Thereupon the King commanded them to impale this man, and kill him.

Through grief at [her loss], that Prince who was [there] having come after seeking her for three months, [the King] gave him this Princess in marriage, and gave him the kingship of that country, also.

Western Province.

NO. 247

A PRINCESS AND A PRINCE

In a certain country a King had an only daughter, it is said. The Princess was a possessor of an extremely beautiful figure. The King taught her the sciences to the extent to which she was able to learn. This Princess having arrived at maturity, the King ordained that a Prince who having heaped up masuran [amounting] to five tusk elephants' loads, should show [and give] him them, may marry her.

After that, although from several countries Princes came to marry her because this Princess's figure is beautiful, having been unable to procure masuran [amounting] to five tusk elephants' loads their minds became disheartened, and they went away.

At last, out of the seven sons of a certain Emperor-King, one person said to his father the King, "Father, [257] should you not give me masuran [equal] to five tusk elephants' loads, undoubtedly, cutting my throat (lit., neck) myself, I shall die."

The King asked, "What is that for?"

"In such and such a country there is a very beautiful daughter of the King. To marry her, first it is necessary to give masuran [equal] to five tusk elephants' loads."

Thereupon the Emperor-King having loaded the masuran into a number of carts, handed them over to the Prince. Well then, this Prince, taking the masuran also, approached near the Princess's father, the King. Having weighed his masuran, when he looked [into the account] still a few were short. Because of it having sold even the tusk elephant which the Prince brought, and having righted the five tusk elephants' loads, after he showed them to the King, the father of the Princess, he gave the Princess in marriage to this Prince.

Because of this Prince's act, the Princes who having come first to marry the Princess and having been unable went away, became angry, and formed the design to steal the Princess for themselves.

After the Prince lived in happiness for a little time at the palace of the King, the father of the Princess, he asked the King, the Princess's father, for permission to go to his own country with the Princess. When he had asked permission even many a time because the father of the Princess was very unwilling, by very strong effort he set off to go, together with the Princess.

When going thus, the Princess's father gave her ten masuran. As these two persons, taking the ten masuran, were going journeying they fell into a great forest wilderness. Leaving behind the forest wilderness, when they arrived at another country, because [only] two masuran remained over for them, getting a living became very difficult.

Thereupon the Princess said to the Prince, "I know the means to earn our living, therefore be not afraid. For [the value of] the remaining two masuran bring threads of such and such colours," she said.

The Prince having brought them, the beautiful Princess knitted a scarf [like one] she was wearing, and having put flower work, etc., [in it], and finished, gave it to the Prince, and said, "Having gone taking this scarf and sold it to a shop, please bring and give me the money," she said. Thereupon the Prince having taken it and gone, and having sold it for twenty masuran, thereafter bought at the price the requisite threads of several colours, and gave them to the Princess. Well then, while the Princess is making ready scarves, having obtained money and rented a house at the city, she dwelt with the Prince.

While [they were] dwelling thus, a Prince came to the shop at which she sold the scarves, and buying an invaluable scarf of these, and ascertaining that it was the scarf woven by such and such a Princess, asked the shopkeeper, "Who brought and sold the scarves?"

Then the shopkeeper said, "Such and such a handsome man sold them to me," he said.

Having said, "When will the scarf trader come again to the shop?" and having ascertained it from the shopkeeper, he came on the day which the shopkeeper mentioned, in order to meet the Prince scarf trader.

Having come thus, and met with the very Prince who trades in the scarves, and conversed well, he asked, "Who knits the scarves?"

Then the Prince gave answer, "My wife knits them."

Thereupon the other Prince said, "The scarves are extremely good. I want to get knitted and to take about ten or fifteen of them."

Having said [this], and having come to the place where this Princess and Prince are living, and given a deposit of part of the money for the month, he got a resting-place there that day night.

In this manner getting a resting-place and having been there, in the middle of the night stealing the Princess, the Prince who got the resting-place took her to his palace. This Prince, for the Princess whom he stole and the Prince who was her lord to become unconscious, caused them to drink a poisonous drug while they were sleeping. This Prince who stole the Princess was a person who at first having gone to marry her, was not wealthy [enough] to procure the masuran [amounting] to five tusk elephants' loads.

Well then, on the day on which he went stealing the Princess, he received a letter from his father the King, that he must go for a war. Because of it, having put the Princess whom he stole in the palace, and placed guards, and commanded that they should not allow her to go outside it, he went for the war.

While she was [there] in this manner, in the morning consciousness having come to the Prince who had married the Princess and become her lord, he opened his eyes, and having seen that the Princess was not there, as though with madness he began to walk to that and this hand. While going thus, he went to go by the street near the palace in which his Princess is put. When going there, after the Princess had looked in the direction of the street from the floor of the upper story, she saw that her Prince is going; and at that very time having written a letter she sent it to the Prince by the hand of a messenger.

In the letter was said, "At night, at such and such a time please come to such and such a place. Then I having arrived there, and both of us having joined together, let us go by stealth to another country."

The Prince as soon as he received the letter went near a jungle, and thinking, "Here are no men," read the letter somewhat loudly.

Then a man who, having gone into the jungle to draw out creepers and having become fatigued, was lying down near there, heard his reading of the letter. Because the man heard this matter, in the night time, at the time which was written in the Princess's letter, taking a sword also, he went to the place which she mentioned. When the Princess, too, at the appointed time went to the said place, the man who went to cut creepers having waited there, seized her hand, and they quickly travelled away. While they were going, in order that the guards and city residents should not be able to recognise them, not doing much talking they journeyed quickly in the darkness, by the jungle, to the road.

The Prince who was appointed the husband of the Princess, having read without patience the letter which the Princess sent, arrived at the place mentioned before the appointed time; and having [sat down and] leaned against a tree until she comes, after the journey he made went to sleep. At this time the man who went to cut creepers came, bringing the sword. If he had met with the Prince, he would have even killed him, with the design to take away the Princess.

This Princess, together with that man, having arrived at a great forest wilderness, both persons went to sleep under a tree. After it became light, having opened her eyes, and when she looked having seen that she had come with a very ugly man, unpleasing to look at, becoming very distressed she began to weep.

Then the man said, "After you have now come so far with me, should you leave me you will appoint yourself to destruction. Because of it, are you willing that I should marry you?" he asked.

The Princess said, "I am willing; but in our country there is a custom. In that manner we must keep it," she said.

The creeper cutter agreed to it, that is, the woman and man, both of them, who are to marry, having looked face to face, with two ropes of fine thread are to be tied at a post, and after they have proclaimed their willingness or unwillingness for their marrying, they must marry. "Well then, because in this forest wilderness there are not ropes of fine thread, let us tie ourselves with creepers," she said.

Because there was not anyone to tie the two persons at once (eka parata), the other having tied one person, after this one proclaimed her or his willingness the other was to be tied. Firstly having tied the Princess with a turn of creeper, after she proclaimed her consent he unloosed her. After that, the Princess, having very thoroughly made tight and tied to the tree the creeper cutter, quickly went away backward to seek her lord.

While going in that way she met with two Vaeddas. Thereupon the two Vaeddas, with the design to take this Princess, began to make uproar.

Thereupon the Princess said, "Out of you two, I am willing to come with the skilful one in shooting furthest," she said.

At that time the two Vaeddas, having exerted themselves as much as possible, shot the two arrows [so as] to go very far, and to fetch the arrows went running to the place where they fell. While they were in the midst of it the Princess went off very stealthily.

The two Vaeddas having come and having seen that the Princess had gone, began to seek her. When they were thus seeking her, that creeper cutter whom she had tied and placed there when she came away, somehow or other unfastening the tying, came seeking the Princess; and having joined with these Vaeddas began to seek [her with them].

While they were in the midst of it, the Princess having gone walking, met with a trader. The trader, taking her and having journeyed, at noon became wearied, and went to sleep in the shade under a tree. Then the Princess taking a part of the trader's clothes and putting them on, went like a man, and arrived at a royal palace. The King having said to this one, "What can you do?" [after] ascertaining it, gave this one the charge to teach the King's son and also the Minister's son.

During the time while she is thus educating in the sciences these two Princes, one day the Minister's son, because of an accidental necessary matter went into the room where this Princess who was made his teacher is sleeping. At the time when he went, the Princess's outer robe having been aslant, the Minister-Prince saw her two breasts, and went seeking the King's son to inform him that she was a woman.

The Princess, ascertaining this circumstance, stealing from the palace the clothes of a royal Prince and putting them on, went away very hastily. She went away thus in the disguise of a Prince, by a street near a palace of the chief city in another country.

Because a handsome husband, pleasing to the mind of the daughter of the King of that country, had not been obtained by her, she remained for much time without having married. Although many royal Princes came she was not pleased with them. But having been looking in the direction of the street from a window of the upper story floor, and having seen this Princess of extremely beautiful figure going in the disguise of a Prince, very hastily she sent to her father the King, and informed him, "Please give me the hand of that Prince who is travelling in the street, as my lord-husband."

Then the King, having sent a messenger and caused this Prince to be brought near the King, and shown him the Princess, said, "You must marry this Princess. If not, I shall appoint you to death." This Princess who was in the disguise of a Prince through fear of death consented to it.

After that, having appointed the wedding festival in a great ostentatious manner, they married these two persons. In that night the Princess who was in the disguise of a Prince, having told the other Princess all the dangers that occurred to her, and told her that she is a Princess, said to her, "Don't inform any one about it."

Remaining in this manner, the Princess who is in the Prince disguise began to seek her husband. It was thus:--This Princess having caused to be made ready a very spacious hall which causes the minds of the spectators who saw it to rejoice to the degree that from the outer districts men come to look at it, began to cause donations [of food] to be given to all who arrive there.

Having caused her own figure to be made from wax, and having put clothes on it, and established it at a place in front of this hall, she caused guards to be stationed around, and commanded them, "Any person having come near this wax figure, at the very time when he has touched it you are to bring that person near me." She said [thus] to the guards.

While a few days were going, men came from many districts to look at this hall. Among them, having walked and walked seeking this Princess, were her Prince and the creeper cutter, the two Vaeddas and the trader, the royal Prince and the Minister-Prince. The whole of them having come and seen this wax figure, touched the hand of the wax figure. The guards who were stationed there, because the whole of these said persons touched the wax figure, arrested them and gave charge of them to the Princess.

Thereupon the Princess commanded them to kill the creeper cutter. Having censured the Vaeddas she told them to go. To the son of the King who caused her to teach, she gave in marriage the Princess whom, having come in the disguise of the Prince, she married. Taking charge of her own Lord she from that time lived in happiness.

Western Province.

The story of the Prince and Princess (No. 8, vol. i) bears a close resemblance to this tale in some of the incidents; see also No. 108 in vol. ii.

In the Arabian Nights (Lady Burton's ed., vol. iii, p. 62) the story of Ali Shar and Zumurrud also contains similarities. When the two had no other means of support, Zumurrud sent her master or husband to buy a piece of silk and thread for working on it. She then embroidered it for eight days as a curtain, which Ali Shar sold for fifty dinars to a merchant in the bazaar, after she had warned him not to part with it to a passer-by. They lived thus for a year, till at last he sold one to a stranger, owing to the urging of the merchants. The purchaser followed him home, inserted opiates into a half plantain which he presented to him, and when Ali Shar became unconscious fetched his brother, a former would-be purchaser of Zumurrud, and they carried off the girl. By arrangement with an old woman, a friend of the youth's, she lowered herself from a window at midnight, but Ali Shar, who waited there for her, had fallen asleep, and a Kurdish thief in the darkness took her away, and left her in charge of his mother. When this woman fell asleep she escaped on horse-back in male attire, was elected King at a city at which she arrived, and by giving a monthly feast to all comers in a great pavilion that she erected for the purpose, seized all her captors, and caused them to be flayed alive. At last she found her husband in this way.