Indian Fairy Tales (10 page)

Now, as days went on, much treasure, both of gold and jewels, had been
stolen by a thief from the palace of the king. As the thief was not
known, the king quickly summoned Harisarman on account of his
reputation for knowledge of magic. And he, when summoned, tried to gain
time, and said, "I will tell you to-morrow," and then he was placed in
a chamber by the king, and carefully guarded. And he was sad because he
had pretended to have knowledge. Now in that palace there was a maid
named Jihva (which means Tongue), who, with the assistance of her
brother, had stolen that treasure from the interior of the palace. She,
being alarmed at Harisarman's knowledge, went at night and applied her
ear to the door of that chamber in order to find out what he was about.
And Harisarman, who was alone inside, was at that very moment blaming
his own tongue, that had made a vain assumption of knowledge. He said:
"O Tongue, what is this that you have done through your greediness?
Wicked one, you will soon receive punishment in full." When Jihva heard
this, she thought, in her terror, that she had been discovered by this
wise man, and she managed to get in where he was, and falling at his
feet, she said to the supposed wizard: "Brahman, here I am, that Jihva
whom you have discovered to be the thief of the treasure, and after I
took it I buried it in the earth in a garden behind the palace, under a
pomegranate tree. So spare me, and receive the small quantity of gold
which is in my possession."

When Harisarman heard that, he said to her proudly: "Depart, I know all
this; I know the past, present and future; but I will not denounce you,
being a miserable creature that has implored my protection. But
whatever gold is in your possession you must give back to me." When he
said this to the maid, she consented, and departed quickly. But
Harisarman reflected in his astonishment: "Fate brings about, as if in
sport, things impossible, for when calamity was so near, who would have
thought chance would have brought us success? While I was blaming my
jihva, the thief Jihva suddenly flung herself at my feet. Secret crimes
manifest themselves by means of fear." Thus thinking, he passed the
night happily in the chamber. And in the morning he brought the king,
by some skilful parade of pretended knowledge into the garden, and led
him up to the treasure, which was buried under the pomegranate tree,
and said that the thief had escaped with a part of it. Then the king
was pleased, and gave him the revenue of many villages.

But the minister, named Devajnanin, whispered in the king's ear: "How
can a man possess such knowledge unattainable by men, without having
studied the books of magic; you may be certain that this is a specimen
of the way he makes a dishonest livelihood, by having a secret
intelligence with thieves. It will be much better to test him by some
new artifice." Then the king of his own accord brought a covered
pitcher into which he had thrown a frog, and said to Harisarman,
"Brahman, if you can guess what there is in this pitcher, I will do you
great honour to-day." When the Brahman Harisarman heard that, he
thought that his last hour had come, and he called to mind the pet name
of "Froggie" which his father had given him in his childhood in sport,
and, impelled by luck, he called to himself by his pet name, lamenting
his hard fate, and suddenly called out: "This is a fine pitcher for
you, Froggie; it will soon become the swift destroyer of your helpless
self." The people there, when they heard him say that, raised a shout
of applause, because his speech chimed in so well with the object
presented to him, and murmured, "Ah! a great sage, he knows even about
the frog!" Then the king, thinking that this was all due to knowledge
of divination, was highly delighted, and gave Harisarman the revenue of
more villages, with gold, an umbrella, and state carriages of all
kinds. So Harisarman prospered in the world.

A merchant started his son in life with three hundred rupees, and bade
him go to another country and try his luck in trade. The son took the
money and departed. He had not gone far before he came across some
herdsmen quarrelling over a dog, that some of them wished to kill.
"Please do not kill the dog," pleaded the young and tender-hearted
fellow; "I will give you one hundred rupees for it." Then and there, of
course, the bargain was concluded, and the foolish fellow took the dog,
and continued his journey. He next met with some people fighting about
a cat. Some of them wanted to kill it, but others not. "Oh! please do
not kill it," said he; "I will give you one hundred rupees for it." Of
course they at once gave him the cat and took the money. He went on
till he reached a village, where some folk were quarrelling over a
snake that had just been caught. Some of them wished to kill it, but
others did not. "Please do not kill the snake," said he; "I will give
you one hundred rupees." Of course the people agreed, and were highly
delighted.

What a fool the fellow was! What would he do now that all his money was
gone? What could he do except return to his father? Accordingly he went
home.

"You fool! You scamp!" exclaimed his father when he had heard how his
son had wasted all the money that had been given to him. "Go and live
in the stables and repent of your folly. You shall never again enter my
house."

So the young man went and lived in the stables. His bed was the grass
spread for the cattle, and his companions were the dog, the cat, and
the snake, which he had purchased so dearly. These creatures got very
fond of him, and would follow him about during the day, and sleep by
him at night; the cat used to sleep at his feet, the dog at his head,
and the snake over his body, with its head hanging on one side and its
tail on the other.

One day the snake in course of conversation said to its master, "I am
the son of Raja Indrasha. One day, when I had come out of the ground to
drink the air, some people seized me, and would have slain me had you
not most opportunely arrived to my rescue. I do not know how I shall
ever be able to repay you for your great kindness to me. Would that you
knew my father! How glad he would be to see his son's preserver!"

"Where does he live? I should like to see him, if possible," said the
young man.

"Well said!" continued the snake. "Do you see yonder mountain? At the
bottom of that mountain there is a sacred spring. If you will come with
me and dive into that spring, we shall both reach my father's country.
Oh! how glad he will be to see you! He will wish to reward you, too.
But how can he do that? However, you may be pleased to accept something
at his hand. If he asks you what you would like, you would, perhaps, do
well to reply, 'The ring on your right hand, and the famous pot and
spoon which you possess.' With these in your possession, you would
never need anything, for the ring is such that a man has only to speak
to it, and immediately a beautiful furnished mansion will be provided
for him, while the pot and the spoon will supply him with all manner of
the rarest and most delicious foods."

Attended by his three companions the man walked to the well and
prepared to jump in, according to the snake's directions. "O master!"
exclaimed the cat and dog, when they saw what he was going to do. "What
shall we do? Where shall we go?"

"Wait for me here," he replied. "I am not going far. I shall not be
long away." On saying this, he dived into the water and was lost to
sight.

"Now what shall we do?" said the dog to the cat. "We must remain here,"
replied the cat, "as our master ordered. Do not be anxious about food.
I will go to the people's houses and get plenty of food for both of
us." And so the cat did, and they both lived very comfortably till
their master came again and joined them.

The young man and the snake reached their destination in safety; and
information of their arrival was sent to the Raja. His highness
commanded his son and the stranger to appear before him. But the snake
refused, saying that it could not go to its father till it was released
from this stranger, who had saved it from a most terrible death, and
whose slave it therefore was. Then the Raja went and embraced his son,
and saluting the stranger welcomed him to his dominions. The young man
stayed there a few days, during which he received the Raja's right-hand
ring, and the pot and spoon, in recognition of His Highness's gratitude
to him for having delivered his son. He then returned. On reaching the
top of the spring he found his friends, the dog and the cat, waiting
for him. They told one another all they had experienced since they had
last seen each other, and were all very glad. Afterwards they walked
together to the river side, where it was decided to try the powers of
the charmed ring and pot and spoon.

The merchant's son spoke to the ring, and immediately a beautiful house
and a lovely princess with golden hair appeared. He spoke to the pot
and spoon, also, and the most delicious dishes of food were provided
for them. So he married the princess, and they lived very happily for
several years, until one morning the princess, while arranging her
toilet, put the loose hairs into a hollow bit of reed and threw them
into the river that flowed along under the window. The reed floated on
the water for many miles, and was at last picked up by the prince of
that country, who curiously opened it and saw the golden hair. On
finding it the prince rushed off to the palace, locked himself up in
his room, and would not leave it. He had fallen desperately in love
with the woman whose hair he had picked up, and refused to eat, or
drink, or sleep, or move, till she was brought to him. The king, his
father, was in great distress about the matter, and did not know what
to do. He feared lest his son should die and leave him without an heir.
At last he determined to seek the counsel of his aunt, who was an
ogress. The old woman consented to help him, and bade him not to be
anxious, as she felt certain that she would succeed in getting the
beautiful woman for his son's wife.

She assumed the shape of a bee and went along buzzing, and buzzing, and
buzzing. Her keen sense of smell soon brought her to the beautiful
princess, to whom she appeared as an old hag, holding in one hand a
stick by way of support. She introduced herself to the beautiful
princess and said, "I am your aunt, whom you have never seen before,
because I left the country just after your birth." She also embraced
and kissed the princess by way of adding force to her words. The
beautiful princess was thoroughly deceived. She returned the ogress's
embrace, and invited her to come and stay in the house as long as she
could, and treated her with such honour and attention, that the ogress
thought to herself, "I shall soon accomplish my errand." When she had
been in the house three days, she began to talk of the charmed ring,
and advised her to keep it instead of her husband, because the latter
was constantly out shooting and on other such-like expeditions, and
might lose it. Accordingly the beautiful princess asked her husband for
the ring, and he readily gave it to her.

The ogress waited another day before she asked to see the precious
thing. Doubting nothing, the beautiful princess complied, when the
ogress seized the ring, and reassuming the form of a bee flew away with
it to the palace, where the prince was lying nearly on the point of
death. "Rise up. Be glad. Mourn no more," she said to him. "The woman
for whom you yearn will appear at your summons. See, here is the charm,
whereby you may bring her before you." The prince was almost mad with
joy when he heard these words, and was so desirous of seeing the
beautiful princess, that he immediately spoke to the ring, and the
house with its fair occupant descended in the midst of the palace
garden. He at once entered the building, and telling the beautiful
princess of his intense love, entreated her to be his wife. Seeing no
escape from the difficulty, she consented on the condition that he
would wait one month for her.

Meanwhile the merchant's son had returned from hunting and was terribly
distressed not to find his house and wife. There was the place only,
just as he knew it before he had tried the charmed ring which Raja
Indrasha had given him. He sat down and determined to put an end to
himself. Presently the cat and dog came up. They had gone away and
hidden themselves, when they saw the house and everything disappear. "O
master!" they said, "stay your hand. Your trial is great, but it can be
remedied. Give us one month, and we will go and try to recover your
wife and house."

"Go," said he, "and may the great God aid your efforts. Bring back my
wife, and I shall live."

So the cat and dog started off at a run, and did not stop till they
reached the place whither their mistress and the house had been taken.
"We may have some difficulty here," said the cat. "Look, the king has
taken our master's wife and house for himself. You stay here. I will go
to the house and try to see her." So the dog sat down, and the cat
climbed up to the window of the room, wherein the beautiful princess
was sitting, and entered. The princess recognised the cat, and informed
it of all that had happened to her since she had left them.

"But is there no way of escape from the hands of these people?" she
asked.

"Yes," replied the cat, "if you can tell me where the charmed ring is."

"The ring is in the stomach of the ogress," she said.

"All right," said the cat, "I will recover it. If we once get it,
everything is ours." Then the cat descended the wall of the house, and
went and laid down by a rat's hole and pretended she was dead. Now at
that time a great wedding chanced to be going on among the rat
community of that place, and all the rats of the neighbourhood were
assembled in that one particular mine by which the cat had lain down.
The eldest son of the king of the rats was about to be married. The cat
got to know of this, and at once conceived the idea of seizing the
bridegroom and making him render the necessary help. Consequently, when
the procession poured forth from the hole squealing and jumping in
honour of the occasion, it immediately spotted the bridegroom and
pounced down on him. "Oh! let me go, let me go," cried the terrified
rat. "Oh! let him go," squealed all the company. "It is his wedding
day."