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DECEMBER, 1881.]
FOLKLORE IN THE PANJAB.
349
princess after him, and he took her into the palace, and there they lived together.
Now when the prince went hunting, he took the dog with him, but left the cat and the parrot in the palace to amuse the princess.
One day when he returned she was very Bortowful, and when he asked her what was the matter, she said "I want to be turned into gold just as you made this palace of gold."
So to please her the Prince made a holy place, put the ring in it, sprinkled the buttermilk, and said, “Oh ring, turn my wife into gold.” And immediately she became a golden princess. Now one day when the prince was out hunting, the princess washed her head, and while she was combing her hair, two golden hairs fell from her head.
She said to herself: "My golden hairs are of no use here, for there are no poor people to whom I might give them." So she made a cup of leaves, put the hairs into it, and let it float a way over the sea.
At last it drifted to the shore where a washer man was at work. When he saw the cup of leaves with the golden hairs in it, he was very much pleased, and took it to the king of that country," who in turn showed it to his son, and the prince was so struck by it, that he declared he would marry the owner of the beautiful golden hair or die.
Saying this he lay down on a dirty old bed, and refused to eat or drink anything. Now when the king saw his son's state, he was very Borrowful, and cast about how he could find the golden-haired princess, and called all his ministers and nobles to discuss the matter. They thought it over, and agreed that no one but a wise woman" could help. So the king called all the wise women of the city, and one of them said "I will do it on condition that the king grants me all I ask.”
Then the wise woman had a golden barge"
made in which was a silken cradle swinging from silken ropes, took four boatmen, and set sail in the direction whence the cup of leaves had come; telling the boatmen to stop rowing when she put up her finger, but to go on rowing when she put it down.
In two or three months they reached the golden palace. Then the wise woman knew at once that this must be the place where the golden princess lived, so she put up her finger, and the boatmen stopped rowing. Then she went into the palace, and when she saw the princess sitting there, she went up to her swiftly, put her hands on her head," and said "I am your aunt."15
But the princess said "I never saw you before." Then the wise woman answered, "My child, you were quite a baby when I used to visit my sister."
Then she sat down by the princess, and talked to her, and lived with her in the palace.
One day she asked the Princess "Your palace is in the midst of the sea. Tell me how it is your husband comes and goes."
The princess answered “We have a ring which gives us anything we want, and by its help my husband comes and goes. He never forgets his ring, but takes it with him."
Then the wise woman said “My daughter, supposing a tiger were to kill your husband, how would you get out of this palace P"
The princess thought there was some truth in what the woman said, so that night after her husband had come in, and they had had their supper, and were going to bed, she said to him, "Supposing a wild animal were to kill you when you are hunting, and you had the ring with you, there would be no one to look after me here, and I should die. So give me the ring." The prince thought there was reason in what the princess said, so before he went away the next day, he gave her the ring. u s the-phaphe kuens. See former tale, p. 231. -R. C. T.
béra, a large boat; bért, the diminutive form, is the common boat of the Panjab; Hind. MS kisht.-R. C. T.
13 y, y handova, the ordinary swing cradle of India. -R.C.T.
1 The Panjabt custom is when visiting relatives or friends for women to place their bands on girls' or chil. dren's heads before sitting down as a tokon of friendship and goodwin.-R. C. T.
lomdal (Panj. mdf, like the mother) mother's sister.-R.C.T.
uby dondr, .oup made of pipal or fig leaves for food and water by the poorse former tale, Prince Lionheart," ante, p. 231. From the first there is a great similarity between this and that tale.-R. C. T.
This incident occurs again in the popular Panjabi poem by Hlahim ShSh called Sasal Punnan, in which Sassi, the king's daughter, is thrown into the river in a golden box, and floating down the stream is rescued by a Friendly washerman, who eventually presenta her again to the king her father. A romanized version of this poem is now being published by me in the Journal Roman Urdu Society.R.C.T.
See above in former tale for this custom-"Son of Seven Mothers." p. 147-R. C. T.
