________________
346
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
brought her food she refused to eat, saying "Leave it with me. Perhaps I may be hungry by and by." Then she shared the meal with her husband.25
The merchants, thinking they had managed the affair very well, took the minister's daughter and her box back to her father, who was very much pleased, and rewarded them handsomely. She too was quite content, and letting her husband out of the box dressed him up as a woman-servant, so that he lived quite securely in the palace. Now the prince had of course told his wife his whole story, and she in return told him how the king of that country had been elected and how she was convinced he was none other than her husband's brother.
Now every day a bouquet was sent to the king from the minister's garden, and one day in the evening, when the prince in his disguise was walking about the flower-beds, he saw the gardener's daughter making up the bouquet, and said to her,-"I will teach you a new fashion."
Then he took the flowers, and tied them together as his father's gardener used to do.
The next morning when the king saw the bouquet, he turned pale, and said to the gardener, who trembled all over with fright"Who made that bouquet ?"
"I did, sire," said the gardener.
"You lie, knave," cried the king, "but go, bring me to-morrow just such another bouquet. If not, your head shall be the forfeit."
Then the gardener's daughter came weeping to the disguised prince, and telling him all, said "Of your goodness make me yet another bouquet, or my father's head will be cut off."
This the prince willingly did, for he was certain now that the king was his brother, but in the bouquet he put a piece of paper with his name on it.
Now when the king saw the paper, he said to the gardener "Only tell me the truth and I will forgive you."
Then the gardener confessed that one of the
1 In the Bagh-o-Bahar or Chuhar Darvesh, in the Story of Asadbakht, there is a tale in which the hero is thrown overboard by his ungrateful brothers. His faithful dog jumps overboard after him, and just as the unfortunate hero is drowning he seizes the dog's tail, to which he clings safely for seven days (!) and is finally maved, coming to shore on the eighth.-R. C. T.
In the Bagh-o-Bahir a young merchant, just as his brother merchants are starting on a voyage, steals off
[DECEMBER, 1882, women servants in the minister's palace had made it for his daughter.
The king was much astonished, but bid the gardener's daughter take him with her when she went into the minister's garden to cut flowers. Now the moment the disguised prince saw the king he recognised him, and when the king asked him where he had learnt to tie flowers in that fashion, he replied by telling the history of the brothers as far as meeting with the maind and parrot. Then he stopped, saying he was tired that day, but would continue the next. The king was on pins and needles of excitement, but was obliged to wait.
The next day the prince told about his conquest of the demon and delivery by the potters. Then he said he was tired, and the king was obliged to wait yet another day, and so on for seven days, till the prince came to his being saved by the minister's daughter, and being disguised as a woman. Then the king fell on his brother's neck and they rejoiced greatly. And when the minister was told of his daughter's having made such a good marriage, he was so pleased that he voluntarily resigned his office in favour of his son-in-law. So what the maind and the parrot said came true, and the one brother became king and the other minister.
The first thing the king did was to send ambassadors to the court of the king who owned the country where the demon was killed, telling him the truth of the story, and how his brother being minister did not want half the kingdom. At this the king of that place was so delighted that he begged the minister Prince to accept his daughter as a bride. But the prince said, "No, I am married already, but give her to my brother."
So there were great rejoicings, but the Scavenger King was put to death, as he very well deserved.
Note.
Raja Rasálu," which so closely resembles the Before relating that part of the "Adventures of
with the king's daughter. The harbour-master, however, stops the ships and proceeds to enquire. Meanwhile the merchants hide all the pretty girls they have in boxes, leaving only the ugly ones out. The harbour-master happens to sit on the very box which contains the princess, and asks the owner if there are any more female slaves on board. He answers that he has not hidden any of them, but that the others have, and so lets the cat out of the bag.-B. C. T.
