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APRIL, 1886.]
GULLALA SHAH.
99
as the king had been very angry with his my charmed pearl necklace I cannot thwart daughter, Pañj Phûl, who had formed an him. Wherever I might wander, he would attachment for a person named Gullklá Shah, cause me to return from thence; and then one of the common people, and refused to be my case would be worse than before. Now married to any other person. She had run go, I beseech you, lest you also get harm; and away, and for a long time there were no pray that the king may have mercy on me, tidings of her,- no doubt she had been trying when he hears that I have been restored to life. to find that common man,-but the king had Away quickly, my dearest, to a place safer for caused her to return by virtue of a most you than this." potent charm, and now a terrible punishment Gullâlâ Shah then told her all that had hap. awaited her. Her body was to be turned into pened to him-how he had wandered about in wood and placed publicly in a certain garden as search of her, and was now the adopted son of a warning to other fairy daughters not to do the chief Wazir of that country, who confided likewise !
everything to him. He would see her again, Hearing this Gullala Shâh experienced great he said, on going away, and even if the king difficulty in keeping his countenance. "Here still wished to punish her, he would get then is Pañj Phál!" he said within himself. to know a remedy, and come and restore "As soon as she gave up the pearl necklace she ber. must have been brought back to her country, The following morning when the royal guard and now she is perhaps suffering the terrible saw that Pañj Phâl was alive again, they went consequences of iny folly. Sorrow, a hundred and told the king. His Majesty was greatly Borrows!"
surprised and sent for her. As soon as she At length, however, he so far overcame his appeared, he said, “How is it that you have feelings as to ask the Wazir if there were no come again to trouble us? Be you a serpent means of saving Puñj Phol from the dread sen- and find a home in yonder jungle," pointing in tence. The Wasir said there were. If Gullala a certain direction where was a jungle, thick, Shâh could come, burn the wooden figure to intricate, and inhabited by wild beasts of variashes, throw the ashes into the pond in the ous kinds. And it was so ! midst of the garden where it was, then she That evening when the chief Waxir returned would become her former self again,
to his house, Gullâlâ Shậh heard all that had Gulla ShAh was very pleased when he heard happened. “Strange," he said, "can anything this, and presently, wishing the Wazir good now be done for the princess ? or must she for night, retired to his room. No sleep, however, ever remain a serpent ?" closed his eyes. His mind was far too excited. "Yes, there is a remedy," replied the Wasir. As soon as he was quite sure that all the in- "If GullAlå Shah coald get to that jungle, dig mates of the house were fast asleep, he went a cave three yards deep and broad enough to forth secretly to Pañj Phûl's garden, burnt admit two people, and make a covering with a her wooden effigy to ashes, and threw the hole in it for the mouth of the cave; and if ashes into the pond. Directly he did this, lo after this he were to walk about the jungle and behold! Pañj Phầl came forth looking as calling "Pañj Phûl, GullAli Shah is here," and he had seen her when she appeared out of the then go back and shut himself np in the other pond on the mountain side.
cave :--if he were to strictly attend to all "My own dearest," said Gullâlâ Shah, "how these directions--then Pañj Phůl, who is now could I have been so stupidly wicked as to have a serpent, will find her wey into the cave caused you all this trial ? Forgive me, and say through the hole in the covering; and there is that you will never leave me again. Come and another thing, also, which he must remember we will wander away into unknown regions, to do, vix, to cut off as much of the snake as whither the hand of your tyrannical father can enter in this way, .chop it up into little cannot reach you."
pieces, carefully collect them, place them in a Pañj Phůl replied, "I forgive you, dear husbandkerchief, take them to the pond in the band, but to go with you is not in my power, midst of Panj Phal's garden, and there throw for my father has all power over me; without them into the water. If all these instructions
