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OCTOBER, 1886.]
THE FOUR PRINCES.
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Accordingly he went and dug some pits in shock, she reiterated to the king all that she the court on the east side of the palace, filled had seen and heard, with sundry additions. some of these pits with milk and some with She also showed the king her blood-stained water, and threw flowers on every side and toes. These things, together with what His right up to the door of the king's bedroom. Majesty himself had witnessed, made him Then, when everything was ready, he took resolve on the speedy execution of his sons. a naked sword in his hand and standing on the “Undoubtedly," he said, “when my sons doorstep awaited the coming of the serpent. found that by themselves they could not harm All this had been done after the king and me during your lifetime, they compacted á queen had retired to rest.
league with rákshasas. May the gods deliver The first watch of the night had scarcely us!" passed, when the prince, thus standing on the | The queen's joy was now almost complete. alert, heard a sound as though something had At last she thought she had gained the end fallen. Presently he noticed the faint move- of her desires ! Bright pictures of the future ment of some animal through the pools of passed before her mental vision. She saw her milk and water; then there was a rustling | own sons, great, clever, and wise, ruling in the through the flowers which he had scattered land, all people praising them and all counaboat the palace; and then he descried what tries doing them honour. Impatiently she looked like the body of serpent wriggling waited for the day when the only obstacles to towards him. Now was the time! The the accomplishment of this wish would be prince tightened his hold on the sword, and cleared away. as soon as the snake reached the doorstep, he Very early next morning the king went to cat it in two. He quickly took some of the council-chamber, summoned his friends and the warm blood of the reptile, and having advisers, and ordered his four sons, now blindfolded himself, quietly opened the door prisoners, to be brought before him. Deprived of the bedroom and entered. He had covered of their princely robes, their faces and hands his eyes because he did not like to look on his soiled from contact with the damp dirty walls father in his private room. Carefully he felt of the dark vault wherein they had been for the toes of Their Majesties, and when he imprisoned for the greater part of the night, had hold, as he thought, of the toes of the they looked very wretched. Still they did not king, he smeared some of them with the blood. despair. Hope was written on each one of But he could not see what he was doing, and their foreheads. stained some of the toes of the queen instead. Not a sound was heard when the four princes This woke Her Majesty, who was a very light entered and walked up to the place appointed sleeper; and when she noticed a man leaving for them to wait and hear their sentence. the room, she shrieked aloud and aroused the After a few minutes' pause, the king, trembling king.' Presently she noticed some blood on with anger, charged them with having done her toes, and imagining that a rákshasa had what was worthy of death, an act which the visited them she became almost frantic with gods, and therefore he, could not pardon. fright. The king also woke just in time to see He accordingly ordered their immediate exethe figure of his eldest son pass out of the cution. bedroom.
On the conclusion of the sentence the exe“Yes, yes," exclaimed His Majesty, “it is cutioners ran forward and laid hands on the all true, even as you said. Now I am quite prisoners. Then some of the ministers and assured of the wickedness and deceit of my others present took upon themselves to ask sons. To-morrow I will order the execution of what the crime of the four princes might be. all four of them. Such wretches must not be But the king would not listen. "Remove allowed to live."
these men," he said. "I will explain their Of course the queen improved the occasion. crime afterwards." When she had sufficiently recovered from the
(To be continued.) J. Folk-taler of Bengal, pp. 46, 147, 148.
suspected of being rikshaens and rakshasts (ogres and . For other canon of human beings having been ogresses) of. Wide-awuke Stories, p. 396.
