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NOVEMBER, 1889.)
FOLKLORE IN SOUTHERN INDIA.
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351
very engrossing. The more attentively the neighbour listened, the more excited. Somuśetti's wife became, and went over and over the same facts. Having thus learnt the whole affair, the neighbour took her leave, and naturally the first thing she did was to communicate it to her husband, who in his ambition and covetousness at the increasing prosperity of Somasetti, robbed him of the remaining eight rubies that very night.
A day or two passed without our hero knowing of the heavy loss that had befallen him. buty on the third day after the communication of his secret to his wife, Sômašețți began to be a little uneasy in mind at having disclosed it in spite of his father's strict injunctions, and resolved to go that very night to the temple of Kali to examine his treasure. Accordingly he wenty without informing his wife about it, and from that moment his happiness left him. When he missed his rubies, he stood like a stone for a while and then went mad.
Plucking wild flowers, making them into wreaths, and adorning his body with them, he began to wander from village to village and from city to city, crying " Give me back my eight rubies," and saying nothing else, no matter what people might say to him. His wife, who knew well enough why the change had come over her husband, cursed herself for her carelessness, and not knowing what else to do, followed her husband, secretly watching him and feeding him. For very shame, she never gave out the reason of her husband's madness, nor mentioned her relationship to him ; bat as her inward conscience chided her for being the cause of all his grief, she, like a good wife, determined to share his miseries. In this way more than two years passed. And Somasetti, among other peculiarities, would never taste & morsel of rice, even when hungry. If rice was placed before him by some one through the kindness of his wife, he would fling it away, mattering, "Give me my eight rabies."
Thus wandering over several countries, our mad hero at last reached a great city, the king of which was famous throughout the country for his liberality to beggars. Never would he taste a handful of rice without feeding them first, and for their special entertainment he had built a large dining-shed, and used to superintend their meals in person. The day on which Sômusetti joined the beggars of the city at their dinner, the king, as usual, came to watch the feeding. Every beggar was soon engaged at his meal, except our hero, who was almost famished with hunger. A man in his state would naturally go straight for his dish. But Sômasetti cared for nothing that was placed before him, but kept mattering “Give me back my eight rubies," sometimes to the wall, sometimes to the leaf-plate in front of him, and sometimes to the servants. The king's attention was drawn to this unfortunate beggar, who never even tasted the rice, famished though he was, but kept on talking about rabies instead. He thought that there must be some connection between rubies and his madness, and as he had bought a ruby the previous day from a merchant, he sent for it, in the hope that the beggar might take a little food on seeing it. The ruby was brought and placed before our mad hero, who seized it and said :-"One has come ; bring back the other seven." This he kept on saying incessantly. The king now concluded that there was some special reason for his madness, and ordered his servants to watch him carefully, and do their utmost to feed him, He also secretly issued orders to have the merchant who had sold him the ruby the previous day brought to him. Now this man, it must be explained, was no other than the neighbour of Somusetti who had stolen the rubies. To avoid all suspicion he had travelled to this distant country to sell his ill-gotten gains, but fearing that a sudden sale of all the rubies might awaken suspicion, he had begun, on the previous day, by selling one only to the king, promising to bring another the next evening. In the evening, according to his promise, he brought the second raby. The king gladly bought it, and, promising to double the price for a third, demanded it on the third evening. Thus the rubies began to come to him one after another, and every evening, after a purchase, the king returned with it secretly to Sðmusetti, whose madness began to decrease by degrees on the recovery of his lost rabies one by one. The king went on playing the trick of promising double and treble the price, till the last and eighth ruby was bought, and then he at once issued orders to have the merchant arrested and imprisoned till the history of the rubies was known. On the production of the eighth ruby Somusetti was entirely
