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NOVEMBER, 1887.]
felt very jealous of her, but because they had that evening planned the destruction of the good Prince Sabar. So while some of them held their unsuspecting sister in conversation the others quietly glided into the room where Prince Sabar's bed was, and pulling out the bed-sheet, spread upon the mattress with their own hands a quantity of pounded glass, mixed with a poison of the worst kind, which they had brought with them for the purpose. Then hastily spreading the sheet again they got out of the room and joined their sisters.
When night had far advanced the six wicked princesses left their sister's palace on their return home.
FOLKLORE IN WESTERN INDIA.
Hardly were they gone when the princess waved her fan and got her beloved Prince Sabar once more near her. As it was late at night when he came he felt tired and sleepy, and went at once to bed, while the princess proceeded to say her prayers before doing the same. All at once however Prince Sabar cried out, "Help! O help me! I am pierced on all sides with something and don't know what to do! I am sure it is the work of those wicked sisters of yours. I told you not to countenance their visits; but you would have your will. Now you will soon be able to enjoy their company to your heart's content, for I am wellnigh dead! Do! for Heaven's sake wave your fan, and let me go back to my parents."
The bewildered princess ran up to him and found him covered all over with powdered glass which had entered his flesh and had caused it to bleed on all sides. She had him at once removed to another bed and was proceeding to extract the pieces of glass from his flesh when the prince cried out that he was not going to remain with her any longer, and forced her much against her will to wave the fan, and thus had himself transported to his native country.
After his departure the princess was in the greatest distress. She wept and tore her hair and waved her fan again and again to make him come back to her, but to her great sorrow he did not come. She cursed herself for having confided in her sisters, and wept very much at the thought that it was perhaps because her lord was dead that he did not return to her. After passing a sleepless night she rose betimes and dressed herself in the guise of an
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itinerant vendor of drugs, such as go through the jungles collecting roots and herbs, and administer to the cure of human ailments. Thus disguised she soon left the palace to go in search of her lost lover's abode.
For days she wandered from jungle to jungle without finding the least trace of her dear prince Sabar, till at last she felt so fatigued and ill that she almost despaired of her own life. One day, as she was resting herself on the banks of a large river under the shade of some trees, she observed a pair of song birds sitting upon its branches, conversing with each other like human beings. One of them said
"How poor Prince Sabar is suffering! How I pity the unfortunate young man! I wish somebody would come to know of the healing properties of my excrement! If one were only to apply it all over his body, in the twinkling of an eye all the poisoned glass would come out of his flesh and a second application would heal the wounds and make the skin as whole as before."
"Oh! this is all very well, but supposing some one were to collect a quantity of your excrement how is he to go with it to the other side of this large river where the prince's palace is situated ?" asked the other bird.
"Easy enough," said the first, "he has only to remove some of the bark of this very tree that we are perching upon, and make it into a pair of enchanted sandals for his feet, and by wearing them he would be able to walk safely over the river. I wish there were some human being about here to listen to what I am saying!"
Having uttered these words, the birds flew away. The poor disheartened princess was so overjoyed to hear what the bird had said that she regained her lost strength, and starting rapidly up from the ground on which she had been lying, she tore out a long strip of the bark of the tree with a knife and soon fashioned a pair of sandals out of it., She then made them fast to her feet with the aid of some fibres, and then collected as much of the excrement as she could carry in her valise. Then swinging it over her shoulders she hastily prepared to cross the river, though her heart misgave her and she could hardly believe that a pair of sandals such as she wore could have the power of enabling her to wade through
