Part 12

Then the Princess asked, "For what matter has He Himself come here?"

The Prince said, "To marry the Princess; I for no other business whatever have come."

The Princess said, "If so, stay."

After that, the Princess marrying the Prince, when he was there for a considerable time the Prince said, "I must go to our city and come back." Then the Princess said, "I also must come."

The Prince having said, "Ha, it is good; let us go," the two went to the Prince's city. Near the city there is a well; near the well there is a tree. Having caused the Princess to stay in the tree, the Prince went into the city to bring a horse for the Princess to go to the city.

After he went there, a woman of the smiths' caste (aciri gaeni) came to the well for water. Having come, when the smith woman looked in the direction of the well, the reflection of the Princess who was in the tree appears in the well. She saw the figure, the smith woman.

Having seen it, the woman thought it was the woman's [own] figure, and having seen the beauty of it, thought, "Ade! I am such a good looking woman as this! Why came I for water?"

When she looked up the tree she saw that the Princess is [there], and the smith woman says, "Ane! Having descended, please bathe with a little water [that I will draw for you]. Why are you there?" The Princess remained there without descending.

The smith woman once more said, "Please descend." Afterwards, the Princess having descended, and taken off her clothes, while she was bathing the smith woman said, "Please bend down for me to rub your back." The Princess bent down. Then the smith woman raised her and threw her into the well.

The Princess was unable to come to the ground. The smith woman, putting on the clothes of the Princess, climbed up the tree.

Then the Prince having come there bringing a horse, the Prince stopped, and thinking that the smith woman was the Princess, told the smith woman to descend; and the Prince and the smith woman went to the city on the horse.

Then a blind man came near the well for water. The Princess, being in the well, said, "Having torn the cloth of the person who came for water, and knotted the pieces together, put it into the well."

Afterwards, having torn the blind man's cloth, he put it into the well. Seizing it, the Princess came to the ground; and making clear the two eyes of the blind man, she went with the blind man [? to her palace].

North-western Province.

In Indian Fairy Tales (M. Stokes), p. 3, while a King and Queen were travelling, a shoemaker's wife pushed the Queen into a well when she was going to drink, and then took her place, and held the King's head on her lap. Evidently she was accepted by the King as his wife, since she accompanied him when he proceeded on his journey.

In the same work, p. 143, while a Prince was sleeping, his Princess, who was sitting at his side, was induced by a woman who came up, to exchange clothes and hand over her jewellery. Afterwards the two strolled about, went, at the woman's suggestion, to look at themselves in the water of a well, and the woman then pushed her in, and took her place beside the Prince. When he awoke, the woman attributed the change in her appearance to the bad air of the country, and he went off with her, and married her.

NO. 107

THE WICKED PRINCESS

In a country there was a King; the King had a Prince (son). He sent the Prince to a school to learn the arts, and the Prince quickly learnt the arts. The teacher, having become pleased with the Prince, gave his daughter in marriage to the Prince. When they were thus for no long time the Prince's father, the King, died.

At that time he set out to go back with the Princess to his own country. When going, they were obliged to go through the middle of a forest on the path on which they were going.

In the midst of the forest there was a Vaedda King. The Vaedda King having seen this Princess and Prince, asked, "Who are you? To go where, came you?"

Thereupon the Prince says, "I indeed am the Prince called Manam, of the King here; this is my Princess," he said.

"It is good. Who gave you permission to go through the middle of this forest of mine? Owing to your coming without permission, I shall now kill you," he said. "Otherwise, if you wish to go to your kingdom, having now made this Princess remain here, you may go."

The Prince says, "I will not go, leaving here my Princess whom I married in my youth. If you will not let us go, it will be better that we two should die."

When he had said this, the Vaedda King, although he spoke about it again and again, did not listen to him. Afterwards, having caused his army to be brought, "Look now at this army of mine," he said; "they will kill you. Then you will not have your kingdom, nor your Princess. Obtaining your kingdom will be better than that, having caused your Princess to remain here, and having gone, saving your life," he said.

Then the Prince said, "My kingdom does not matter to me if there be not my Princess."

"It is good. If so, look, now, in a little [time], at the way I shall kill you."

"No matter for that."

"My army! Come. Kill this Prince."

Then the Vaeddas came running, bringing bows and arrows. The Prince having said to the Princess, "You sit down. Look at what I do to these Vaeddas. Don't cry. The favour of the Gods is for us," taking his bow, fights with the army of the Vaedda King. Having said, "Shoot! Kill the Prince!" all came, and sprang [forward], and began to shoot. The Prince having given his sword into the hand of his very Princess, taking the bow began to shoot at them.

Well then, all having fallen, a few persons, only, being left over, they bounded off and went away.

At that time the Vaedda King said, "Is He [105] a great clever one! What of my army's inability! I will not allow Him [105] to take the Princess and go. Come to fight,--we two persons;" and he called him.

Thereupon the Prince, after he (the Vaedda King) took his bow, says, "Not in that way. We two having wrestled, must cut off the head of the person who should fall," he said.

"It is good. I am satisfied."

"If so, come. Princess, take this sword of mine," he said.

At that time, the Vaedda having looked in the direction of the Princess, and having spoken [to her] without the Prince's knowing, the Princess was mentally bound to the Vaedda King. He had no beauty,--a very black colour. The Prince was a very beautiful person.

Well then, while they were wrestling, the Vaedda King having got underneath, fell. Then the Prince asked the Princess for the sword. The Princess quickly having given the sheath of the sword to the Prince, gave the sword blade to the Vaedda King. Well then, the Vaedda King cut the Prince's neck with the sword blade. The Prince died.

The Princess says, "Good work! That indeed was in my mind. Now then, there is no fear; we can remain," she said.

The Vaedda King says, "You are very good. If you were not [here] to-day, no life for me. Owing to your faithfulness, indeed, I survive. Having taken off your clothes, and the tied things (belt, bracelets, necklace, etc.) and ornaments, give them into my hand, in order to place them on the [other] bank of that river, and come back," he said.

Seizing them, and having taken them and placed them somewhere, and returned [he said], "Let us go; we have not any fear."

Taking her to the middle of the river, he said, "Throughout this world there is not an evil bad woman like you." Having said, "It is bad [even] to remain in the country in which is the woman who gave the sword sheath, in order to kill outright the Prince whom you married while young,--having tied your mind on me whom you saw to-day [only]," having said this, he bounded off and went away.

Her ornaments and her clothes having been lost, without even a place to go to for food or clothing, while she was on the bank of the river in the midst of the forest, a Jackal came running to the place where the Princess was staying, holding in his mouth a piece of meat.

Having come there [and seen the reflection of the meat in the water], he placed the piece of meat on the ground, and sprang to seize a piece of meat that was inside the river.

Then a kite that was flying above, having come, flew away, taking the piece of meat.

The Princess having been looking on at it, says, "Bola! Foolish Jackal! Putting aside the piece of meat that was in thy mouth, thou wentest to eat meat in the river! Was that good?"

After she had scolded him, the Jackal says, "Not like my foolishness was yours. Having been staying married to the King here, having indeed gone to be married to the Vaedda King seen [by you] at that very instant, now you are staying in that way, without even to eat or to wear, or even a place to go to. It is thou thyself hast done foolishness more than I." Having said this, and scolded her well, he went away.

Afterwards the God Sakra having come, taking a Jackal's disguise, because of the wickedness which the Princess did, bit her and tore her to pieces.

(According to a variant related by a Washerman she joined a poor man and went about with him, getting a living by begging, until she died.)

P. B. Madahapola, Ratemahatmaya, North-western Province.

In The Orientalist, vol. i, p. 184, this story was given by Mr. H. A. Pieris, extracted from a dramatic work called Kolan-kavi-pota. A King named Maname and his Queen while on a hunting excursion lost their way in the forest. The Vaedda King stopped them, but offered to release the King if he would hand over the Queen. The King refused, they fought, and the Vaedda King got him down. Maname asked the Queen for his sword; but as she had fallen in love with the handsome Vaedda she held out the sheath, and when the King seized it drew out the sword and gave it to the Vaedda, who cut off the King's head. Afterwards the Vaedda made off with her jewels and clothes at the river. While she sat there, Sakra appeared in the form of a fox (jackal), holding a piece of meat, Matali as a hawk, and another deva [Pañcasikka] as a fish. The jackal dropped its meat on the bank, and plunged into the water to seize the fish as it swam by; the hawk then carried off the piece of meat. The Queen remarked on the stupidity of the jackal, which replied that her folly was greater than his; and she died of a broken heart when she realised it. This story is simply the Jataka tale No. 374 (vol. iii, p. 145), except that in the Jataka the woman is not described as dying or being killed.

In the Aventures de Paramarta of the Abbé Dubois, a dog which had stolen a leg of mutton in a village, while crossing a river with it observed its reflection in the water, let go its own mutton, and sprang to seize that of the other dog, of course losing both.

In the Tota Kahani (Small), p. 81, a young married woman eloped with a stranger one night, and while near a pond he stole her jewels when she was asleep. In the morning a jackal came up, carrying a bone. Seeing a fish that had fallen on the bank, it dropped the bone and rushed to catch the fish, which floundered into the water. In the meantime the bone was carried off by a dog. The woman laughed, quoted a proverb, "He who leaves the half to run after the whole, gets neither the whole nor the half," and told the jackal her story. It recommended her to return home shamming insanity; she did this, and allayed suspicion by it.

In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 76, a fool who went to drink water at a tank saw in it the reflection of a golden-crested bird that was sitting on a tree. Thinking it was real gold, he entered the water several times to get it, but the movement of the surface caused it to disappear each time. In Julien's Les Avadanas this story is No. XLVI, vol. i, p. 171; in this tale the man saw the reflection of a piece of gold which the bird had placed in the tree.

In the Preface to The Kathakoça, p. xvii, Mr. Tawney quoted from Professor Jacobi's introduction to the Parisishta Parvan the Jain form of the story, in which the robber left the Queen without clothing on the river bank. The Vyantara god, in order to save her soul, took the form of a jackal carrying a piece of flesh. When he dropped it and rushed to seize a fish that sprang on the bank, a bird carried off the meat. The Queen laughed, the jackal retorted, exhorted her to take refuge in the Jina, and she became a nun.

In Les Avadanas (Julien), No. LXXV, vol. ii, p. 11, a woman eloped with her lover, who carried her gold, silver, and clothes across a river and abandoned her. A fox which had caught a sparrow-hawk came up, let go the hawk in order to spring at a fish in the river, and lost both. When the woman remarked on his stupidity, the fox admitted it, and retorted that hers was still greater. This is the form in which the story occurs in Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. i, p. 381; but in vol. ii, p. 367, there is a variant which agrees with the following Tibetan tale.

In A. von Schiefner's Tibetan Tales (Ralston), p. 232, a robber chief for whom a woman abandoned a blind man, sent her first into the river and then made off with her things. A jackal which came with a piece of flesh dropped it in order to seize a fish on the bank; this sprang into the water, and a vulture carried away the meat. After the usual retorts, the jackal agreed to assist her on her promising it meat daily, told her to stand in the water immersed to the neck, and persuaded the King whose wife she had been to pardon her on account of this penance.

NO. 108

HOLMAN PISSA

A certain King had a very beautiful Princess (daughter). With much affection he sent the Princess to school. Having sent her, during the time while she was learning, the teacher who was instructing her asked this Princess, "Princess, wilt thou come to marry me?" Thereupon, the Princess because he was her teacher did not scold him, and did not say, "It is good"; from that day she stopped going to school.

At that time the Princess arrived at maturity. Because that teacher was also the astrologer (naekatrala), the King went near him to ask about the naekata (prognostics depending on the positions of the planets) for her arriving at maturity.

When he went, the teacher, in order to marry the Princess to himself, said on account of the manner in which she arrived at maturity, "Should you keep this Princess in this city, this city will become desolate throughout."

At that time, the King, the father of this Princess, having heard that word, becoming afraid, prepared a little ship; and having put food inside the ship, and put in the Princess, and spread the sails, and gone down to the mouth of the river, sent her away. [106]

Thereupon, that ship having gone, descended near yet a city. At that time, the ship was visible to the King of that city. Having been seen by him, he told the Minister to look at it and return. Then the Minister having gone, when he looked a Princess of beauty such as could not be seen [elsewhere] was inside the ship.

In order that the Minister might marry the Princess, he went to the King, and said, "O Lord, Your Majesty, a leopardess is coming in the ship."

Thereupon the King having said, "It is good. If so, let us go to look at the leopardess," set off.

Then the Minister, because the Minister's lie is coming to light, having gone to the road, said at the hand of the King, "O Lord, Your Majesty, I did not say it in the midst of your multitude. What though I said leopardess! It is a Princess who is wonderful to look at."

The King taking that speech for the truth, having gone, when he looked it was a good-looking Princess. Then the King having asked the Princess regarding the circumstances, came back, summoning her to the palace, and married her.

When she was there a little time a Prince was born. Having been born, during the time while he was there, that teacher who had imposed [on the King], in much grief wrote false letters to the whole of the various cities that her father the King was very unwell, and that having seen the letter she was to come speedily; and he sent the letters.

The King who had married this Princess having received the letter and looked at the letter, told the Princess. Because a King does not go to yet [another] city, he told the Princess to go with the army and Minister, and come back, and started off the Princess-Queen to go to the city at which is her father the King.

Thereupon, at the time when the Queen, carrying that Prince, was going with the Minister on the sea, the Minister said thus to the Queen, "O Queen, now then, that King does not matter to us. Because of it, let us go to another city."

Then the Queen, at the time when they were going ashore, said thus, "Why do you speak in that manner in the company of that crowd? We are now going ashore; when we have gone ashore let us go somewhere or other," she said.

The Minister said, "It is good." Having come ashore and said, "Let us go to another city," and gone a little far, the Queen gave into the Minister's hand the Prince, and having said, "I will go aside and return," went and hid herself. Having hidden herself, and gone into a tree on which are many leaves, she remained looking in the direction of this Minister. When he had been looking out for a considerable time, she remained there looking on, and said, "When I am not [there], he will put down the Prince and go; then having gone there I will go away, carrying the Prince."

While she was looking, the Minister, having called the Queen, because she was lost took the Prince by both legs, and having split him, and thrown him into the sea, he sought the Queen. He could not find her.

After that, this Minister went away. Having gone, he said to the King of the city, "The Queen got hid, and went off with another man."

This Queen thinking, "What is it that he has killed that Prince! My womb has not become barren," descended from the tree, and having gone through the chena jungle to a cemetery at another city, came out into the open ground. Having come out, when she looked about a daughter of a Moorman (a resident of Arab descent) having died, he came near the grave in which she was buried, and saying and saying, "Arise, daughter; arise, daughter," the man was weeping and weeping.

This Queen trickishly having stayed looking at it, and thinking, "It is good. This Moorman will come to-morrow also, and will weep here. Then, having been lying at the grave, when he is calling I will get up," remained hidden there. After the man went away, she scraped away a little earth on the grave, and at the time when the man was coming she remained lying there.

The man having come, when he was calling, "Arise, daughter," she said, "What is it, father?" and arose. Thereupon, the man having put on the face cloth, [107] closing her to the extent that [her face] should not be visible to anyone whatever, took her to the man's house, and placed her on the floor of the upper story.

That Minister having gone back, and said that the Queen went off, at the very time when he was saying it, it caused the young younger brother of the King to seek the Queen, and he came away [for the purpose].

Having come away, and come seeking her through the whole of the various cities, and come also to the city at which is this Queen, while he was walking [through it] this Queen, who was on the floor of the upper story, saw him, and waved her hand to the Prince, and causing him to be brought, wrote a letter and threw it below from upstairs.

The Prince taking the letter, when he looked at it she said [in it] that the danger which had occurred to her was thus. [It continued], "Because of it, to-day night having brought a horse to such and such a place, and put on it two saddles, and made ready for both you and me to go off, come and speak to me." So the Prince having made ready in that very manner, came at night, and [leaving the horse went near, and] spoke to the Queen.

Then the Queen, having descended from the floor of the upper room, and come running by another path, a man of the city who walks about at night, called Holman Pissa, was [there]. The man met her first.

After that, having gone holding the man's hand, sitting on the back of the horse she gave him the whip, and told him to drive it along a good path. At that time, that Holman Pissa, owing to his insanity, [108] turned down a bye-path without speaking at all, and driving the horse they began to go away. As he was going driving it, it became light. There when the Queen looked the man was a madman.

In order to come away and save herself from the man, she said, "It is good. Now then, we two must get a living. Because of it, go and bring water for cooking." The madman having said, "It is good," went for water.

Thereupon this Queen having bounded off, went along in the chena jungle, and came out (eli-baessa) at another city.

Then this Holman Pissa having come bringing water, when he looked the Queen was not [there]. Because of it, he said, "Ane! If there is not my piece of gold what should I stay for?" and began to seek her. At that time, the teacher, and the King, and the Minister, and the King's son, and the Moorman, and Holman Pissa were seeking her.

After that, this Queen having got hid in the chena jungle of the city to which she went, while she remained there looking out, she saw that an Arab having died they are bringing him to bury.

Having buried the Arab, after they went away this Queen broke open the grave, and taking all the few Arab clothes, dressed in the Arab trousers and put on the Arab jacket. Tying on the turban,--there was an axe--hanging it on her shoulder, she went to the Arab shops at the city, and practising the means of livelihood which that party were practising, she stayed [there] a little time.

The younger brother of that King having gone to his village, while he was there the King of the city died, and there being no one for the sovereignty, they decorated the tusk elephant and sent it [in search of a King]. At that time, the tusk elephant having gone, kneeled down near that Arab Queen. After that, they appointed the Arab Queen to the sovereignty, and she remained there. She issued commands in such a way that to either the place where she bathes or the place where she sleeps, no one whatever could come.

When she was there in that manner no long time, the city King who had first married her, having shot (with an arrow) a deer, when he was coming bounding along was unable to catch the deer. The Queen's father, the King, taking dogs and having gone hunting, while he was there this King's dogs having seen the deer, they also began to chase the deer along the path. While they were coming chasing it, they came to the city at which this Arab Queen is staying. At that time, the people of the city having shot the deer, killed it.

After it died, the three parties began to institute law-suits. The King who had married the Arab Queen says, "If I had not shot it, how would your dogs chase it?"

The King, the Arab Queen's father, says, "If there had not been my dogs, how would you catch the deer?"

The men of this city say, "If we had not killed it, how would you kill the deer?"

After that, as they were unable to settle it, they came for the law-suit, near the Arab King (Queen). That King having explained the law-suit, and said that it belonged to the whole three parties, ended the law-suit.

None whatever of those parties was able to recognise this Queen yet; the Queen recognised all. Recognising them, she said, "Nobody of you can go away; I must give you an eating (kaemak)." Having said [this] she caused all to remain.

Having stopped them, the Queen went away and dressed in woman's clothes, and having returned, asked, "Can you recognise me?"