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SEPTEMBER, 1884.]
FOLKLORE IN SOUTHERN INDIA.
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agreed to do so, and meanwhile asked his friend murderer. He is bathing in the river, and is to rest himself for a while to have his bath of such and such appearance, was the reply. and meals; and Gangadhara, who was very | At once four armed soldiers fly to the river, observant of his religious ceremonies, went and bind hand and foot the poor Brahman, who direct to the river to bathe.
sits in meditation, without any knowledge of How came a crown in the jaws of a tiger? the fate that hangs over him. They brought It is not a difficult question to solve. A king Gangadhara to the presence of the prince, who must have furnished the table of the tiger for turned his face away from the murderer or a day or two. Had it not been for that, the supposed murderer, and asked his soldiers to tiger could not have had a crown with him. throw him into the kárdgriham. In a minute, Even so it was. The king of Ujjaini had a without knowing the cause, the poor Brahman week before gone with all his hunters on a hunt- found himself in the dark caves of the káráing expedition. All on a sudden a tigeras griham. we know now, the very tiger-king himself
In old times the kárágriham answered the started from the wood, seized the king, and purposes of the modern jail. It was a dark vanished. The hunters returned and informed cellar underground, built with strong stone the prince about the sad calamity that had walls, into which any criminal guilty of a capital befallen his father. They all saw the tiger offence was ushered to breathe his last there carrying away the king. Yet such was their without food and drink. Into such a cellar courage that they could not lift their weapons Gangadhara was pushed down. In a few hours to bring to the prince the corpse at least of after he left the goldsmith he found himself his father; their courage reminds us of the inside a dark cell stinking with human bodies, couplet in the Child's Story :
dying and dead. What were his thoughts “Four and twenty sailors went to kill a snail; when he reached that place ? " It is the goldThe best man among them dares not touch smith that has brought me to this wretched her tail."
state ; and, as for the prince: Why should he When they informed the prince about the not enquire as to how I obtained the crown? death of his father he wept and wailed, and It it of no use to accuse either the goldsmith gave notice that he would give half of his or the prince now. We are all the children kingdom to any one who should bring him news of fate. We must obey her commands. Dasaabout the murderer of his father. The prince varsháni bandhanam. This is but the first day did not at all believe that his father was de- of my father's prophecy. So far his statement voured by the tiger. His belief was that some is true. But how am I going to pass ten years hunters, coveting the ornaments on the king's here? Perhaps without anything to keep up person, had murdered him. Hence he had my life I may drag on my existence for a day or issued the notice. The goldsmith knew full two. But how to pass ten years ? That canwell that it was a tiger that killed the king, not be, and I must die. Before death comes let and not any hunter's hands, since he had me think of my faithful brute friends." heard from Gangadhara about how he obtained So pondered Gangadhara in the dark cell the crown. Still, ambition to get half the underground, and at that moment thought kingdom prevailed, and he resolved with of his three friends. The tiger-king, serpenthimself to make over Gangadhara as the king, and rat-king assembled at once with king's murderer. The crown was lying on their armies at a garden near the kárágriham, the floor where Gangadhara left it with his and for a while did not know what to do. A full confidence in MâņikkaśAri. Before his common cause-- how to reach their protector protector's return the goldsmith, hiding the who was now in the dark cell underneathcrown under his garments, flies to the palace. united them all. They held their council, and He went before the prince and informed him that decided to make an underground passage from the assassin was caught, and placed the crown the inside of a ruined well to the kárágriham. before him. The prince took it into his hands, The rat rája issued an order at once to that examined it, and at once gave half the kingdom effect to his army. They with their nimble to Manikkasari, and then enquired about the teeth bored the ground a long way to the
