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148
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1881.
Queens' palace; so she had everything that bow and shot one dead. It came tumbling even a witch could desire.
down past the very window where the White Now soon after their imprisonment, the Hind was sitting. She got up to see what was first Queen's baby was born and the six other the matter, and looked out. There she saw a Queens were so hungry that they killed it, handsome young lad, and the moment she set divided it into seven portions, and each ate eyes on him, she knew by her arts that he was their share
the king's son--for she was a witch. The next day the second Queen's baby was She became furions at the sight, and at once born, and they did the same with it, and so on determined to destroy the lad. She therefore every day till the last Queen's baby was born sent a servant to fetch him, and asked him to on the seventh day. Now when the other sell her the pigeon he had shot. Queens came to the young mother, and said,
But the lad answered "Not so. This pigeon "Give us your baby to eat as we gave you
is for my seven blind mothers, who live in the ours," she answered, “Not so! See here are dark tower, and would starve unless I brought the six pieces you gave me as my share un
them food, touched, eat them, but leave me my child, you Then the white witch said, “Oh poor souls ! cannot complain."
if they could only get their eyes again! Give The other Queens were displeased, but could me that pigeon, my dear, and I promise to say nothing. They were jealous nevertheless give you back your blind mothers' eyes." At that the young Queen should have preserved this the Son of Seven Mothers was delighted. her baby's life by her self-denial and fore
The White Hind then said: "My mother will thought.
give you the eyes, for she wears them as a At first, too, they disliked the handsome little necklace. Take this message from me and she boy, but they soon found out what a treasure will give them without fail." he was : before he even began to walk he Then she gave him a bit of broken potsherd used to sit in one corner of the prison on which was written "Kill the bearer at once, courtyard and scrape away at the wall. In an and sprinkle his blood like water." incredibly short space of time he had scraped Now as the boy could not read he took the a hole large enough for him to creep through. potsherd cheerfully, and set off to find the White
Out he went, and soon returned laden with Hind's mother. On the way he passed through sweetmeats and comfits, which he divided equal a king's city, where every one looked very sad. ly amongst the Seven Queens.
"What ails you all ?" asked he. Then the As he grew older he made the hole bigger people answered, "The king's beautiful young and slipped out two or three times a day to daughter will not marry, so there will be no play with the little nobles in the town; and he heir to the throne when the king dies. Every was so funny, so full of tricks and antics that young man in the kingdom has been shown to he was sure to be rewarded by some present or her, but she will have none but the Son of other, and whatever he received, he took home Seven Mothers. Who ever heard of such a to his "seven mothers" as he called the Seven thing? However the king has ordered that Queens.
every stranger who comes to the town shall be At last one day, when he was quite a big lad, brought before the Princess; so come now with he took his bow and arrow, and went to | us." Accordingly they led him into the presence, the palace where the White Hind lived in splen- and no sooner had the Princess caught sight of dour and magnificence.
him than she blushed saying, "Dear father, this Pigeons were fluttering round the white is my choice." marble turrets, so taking good aim he drew his Everyone rejoiced immensely at these wel• 3149 Dayan-awitch. In the Panjab a woman with of Swayamvara or self-choice of a husband by Hindu
princesses-the most popular form of marriage among Vedic
Aryans. In the Mahabharata there is an account of the mantar for destroying life by taking out the heart. Dain, Swayamvara of Draupadi.-Griffith in his Idylls from the
Sanskrit gives an admirable metrical account of the dakni and dakin are synonyms of this word, which re.
Swayamvars of Indumati and Aja from the Raghuvausa. presents the Sansk. 1 dakini, female demon
The refusal of a princess to choose & husband till & certain attendant on Kali, Goddess of Destruction.-R. C.T. man comes is a very common feature in German Folklore.
. Appears to be an allusion to the long obsolete custom F.A.S. and R.C.T.
| dafn ka دائن کا منتر the evil eye who known a charm
