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SEPTEMBER, 1885.]
filling our stores with the choicest provisions, and satisfying our every wish, that our hearts are one with thine. What could we do, and how could we live if thou wert slain and lost to us ?"
THE SHIPWRECKED PRINCE.
The ogre laughed heartily on hearing these words, and replied that he should never die. No power could oppose him; no years could age him; he should remain ever strong and ever young, for the thing wherein his life dwelt was most difficult to obtain, even if it could be known. This was just the reply, that the woman wanted, and so smiling most sweetly and affectionately she praised God for this assurance of the ogre's safety and then entreated him to inform her of this thing. The ogre, nothing suspecting, complied and said that there was a stool in the cave, and a honeycomb upon the tree yonder. He mentioned the stool because if anybody would sit upon it and say whither he or she wished to go it would at once transport them thither. He mentioned the honeycomb, because if any person could climb the tree and catch the queen-bee within it, then he, the ogre, must die, for his life was in that bee. But the bees within that honey-comb were many and fierce, and it was only at the greatest risk that any person dare to attempt this thing. "So you see," added the ogre, "thou weepest without cause. I shall never die."
13
Then the woman smiled with joy and told the ogre how thankful she was, and how henceforth she should abide in peace, happy by day, and happier at night, when he returned; and how glad she was that he had told her of the stool and the honeycomb, for although there was not the slightest cause for fear concerning their safety, yet she should have pleasure in especially guarding themremembering that his dear life was holden in them. After some further conversation they all arranged themselves for sleep."*
On the following morning the ogre went out as usual. Before midday the prince and prin
1 Pith was the word used. I do not know of any other story in which the pith is quoted as a miraculous vehicle. In Indian Fairy Tales, p. 156, mention is made of a bedstead, which carried whoever sat on it whithersoever he wished to go.
13 This species of bee manifests such fury and determination on being annoyed as to make it a very formidable enemy. A large nest (honey-comb) was hanging from the roof of the Mission Hospital at Srinagar for a long time. No one would remove it. The natives everywhere are terribly afraid of them. Now
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cess concluded their arrangements for bringing about his death. The prince was to do the deed. He clothed himself from head to foot most carefully. Every part was well covered except his eyes. For these a narrow horizontal aperture was cut in the cloth which was wrapped about his face. Thus prepared he sat on the stool, and soon was seen floating away in the air in the direction of the tree. It was an exciting moment when he lifted the stick to strike the honeycomb. It seemed as if thousands of bees came out and attacked him; but he was thoroughly protected, and so cared only for his eyes. His purpose was to catch the queen-bee and to crush her, and thereby crush out the life of the ogre. He succeeded and no sooner had he dropped the lifeless bee than the ogre fell down stone-dead upon the ground with such force that all the land around trembled with the shock. The prince then returned to the cave on the stool and was welcomed by the princess with much rejoicing and congratulation. Still there was fear lest the shock, which they felt, should only have been an earthquake, and the ogre having told them a lie should return. But the evening arrived, and then the night, yet no ogre turned up, and so they felt sure that they were rid of their enemy; and gathering together the special treasures which were in the cave, they both sat together on the stool and were quickly carried away miles distant to the spot where the ogre's carcass lay stiff and cold, stretched out to a tremendous length upon the ground. Reassured by this sight the prince bade the stool to carry them to the place where his three wives were, living or dead. The stool obeyed and they were quickly landed close by the king's garden. The prince at once rose from the stool and telling the princess that he would presently return, he asked her to remain. He had not gone far before some poisonous insect alighted on him and stung him so that he then and there got the
and again cattle are stung to death by them. Wilson, in the Abode of Snow, p. 14, mentions the case of an Englishman, who was so severely stung by these insects that he died from the effects. [Many such cases have from time to time been reported.-ED.]
Cf. tale" Prince Lionheart and his three friends" in Wide-awake Stories, pp. 58-60. Capt. R. C. Temple has some valuable notes on the "Life-Index" in his "Survey of incidents in modern Indian folk-tales," one of the appendices to Wide-awake Stories, pp. 404-405.
