________________
JUNE, 1886.)
PRIDE ABASED.
161
Thun will I declare you to be my own dear the captain of a vessel, the wife was stolen and sons, and beseech the king to allow me to go taken away to far distant regions, where she free of this merchant and live with you where became engaged to a wealthy trader; while the I may choose for the rest of my days."
exiled king and his two sons wandered in The sons consented to her proposal, and the another direction, till they came to a river, next night, when the merchant, also, was sleep- where the king was drowned. The two boys ing on the premises, the woman raised a great were found by a fisherman and brought up by shout, so that everybody was awakened by the him as his own song. noise. The merchant asked what was the matter. "These two boys, o king, are before you, and
"The two boys, who look after your shop, I am their mother, who was taken away and sold have tried to violate me; so I shouted, in order as a wife to the trader, and who after two days that they might desist."
must altogether live with him. For I promised Hearing this the merchant was much epraged that if within a certain space of time I should He immediately bound the two boys, and as soon not meet with my dear husband and two as there was any chance of seeing the king, he sons again, then I would be his wife. But I had them taken before his Majesty and explained beseech your Majesty to relieve me of this man. the reason of their thus appearing before him. I do not wish to marry again, now that I have
“Whut have you to say in defence of your my two sons. For the reason that I might get selves ?" inquired the king. “Because, if this an andience of your Majesty, this trick was is true we will at once order the execution arranged with the two boys." of both of you. Is this the gratitude you manifest | By the time the woman had finished her for all my kindness and condescension towards story, the king's face was suffused with tears, you? Say quickly what you may have to say." and he was trembling visibly. Presently,
"Oking, our benefactor, we are not affrighted when he had slightly recovered, he left the by your words and looks ; for we are true throne, and walking towards the woman and servants. We have not betrayed your Majesty's the two boys embraced them long and fervently. trust in us; but have always tried to fulfil your “You are my own dear wife and children," Majesty's wish to the utmost of our power. he cried, "God has sent you back to me. I, The charges brought against us by the merchant the king, your husband, your father, was not are not correct. We have not attempted to | drowned, as you supposed; but was swallowed violate his wife; we have rather always re- by a big fish and nourished by it for some days, garded her as our own mother. May it please and then the monster threw itself upon the your Majesty to send for the woman and shore and I was extricated. A potter and his inquire further into this matter.
wife had pity on me and taught me their trade, The king assented, and the woman was and I was just beginning to earn my living by brought. Is this true," he said, "which the making earthen vessels, when the late king of merchant, your affianced husband, witnesses this country died and I was chosen king by the against the two boys."
elephant and the talcon, I, who am now "O king," she replied, “the boys, whom you standing here." gave to help the merchant have most carefully Then his Majesty ordered the queen and her tried to carry out your wishes. But the night two sons to be taken to the palace, and he ex. before last I overheard their conversation. The plained his conduct to the people assembled. elder was telling the younger brother a tale, The merchant was politely dismissed from the made up out of his own experience, so he said. country. As soon as the two princes were old It was a tale of a conceited king who had been enough to govern the country, the king commitconquered by another mightier than he, and ted to them the charge of all affairs, while he obliged to fly with his wife and two children retired with his wife to some quiet place and to the sea. There, through the vile trickery of spent the rest of his days in peace."
• This story should be compared with its most inter 1108 A.D., and borrowed professedly from the Arabian enting variant, "Plaoidus," a tale from the Gosta Roma. fabulista. norum, mediaval oompilation of tales from Roman his- Another variant of this story is to be found in Tibetan tory. The collection was much enriched with tales of Talos, the story of "Kriss Gautami," pp. 222, 283. A all kinds and conntries, but especially with those derived third variant in the story of "Swet-Basanta" in Folktales from eastern souroes, such as the Clericalia Disciplina, of Bengal, pp. 99-107. Another is that of "Barwar and #work by Petrus Alfonsus, a Christian Jew, who lived in Nir" in the Legends of the Panjab, Vol. III. p.97 .
