________________
MAY, 1890.)
FOLKLORE IN WESTERN INDIA.
153
something to do with his not being liked by his grandfather, for, though made of better stuff than his cousins, he was thoroughly unassuming in his manners; while the other two Princes, though they did but little, made a show of doing much and used continuously to boast of their exploits.
Be that as it may, the poor lad took the old King's cold treatment of himself much to heart, and longed for some opportunity of doing him some signal service whereby he might win his approbation, for, be it mentioned, that the lad entertained a sincere regard for his grandsire.
Now, one day it happened that the Raja was enjoying a noonday siesta from which his wazir a woke him rather abruptly. At this the Raja was very angry and frowned upon him in such a manner that the poor old man began to tremble, and falling upon his knees, asked his sovereign's forgiveness, for having so thoughtlessly disturbed his rest. But the Raja's wrath was too great to be appeased by this mark of his wazir's repentance, for by being thus rudely disturbed from his slumbers he had lost something much more precious than his noonday rest.
“You have not the slightest idea," cried the monarch fiercely, “what this folly of yours has cost me. Just at the moment you called out to me to awake, I was in the midst of such i very delightful dream as seldom falls to the lot of mortals to dream. I found myself in a strange country where, among other strange things, I saw a wonderful tree rising up to the skies, whose trunk was made of a solid silver, whose branches were of gold, and whose leaves were nothing but large bright emeralds, while thousands of peerless pearls were hanging on it i!l place of fruit !
Whilst I was wrapt in admiration at this wonderful sight, somebody was just going to tell me how I could obtain possession of that magnificent tree, when you so rudely spatched me away from dream-land, and the glorious vision vanished, leaving me in the dark as to how I was to become the happy possessor of such a grand work of Nature. I charge you, therefore. to go this instant and bring me just such a tree, on pain of forfeiting not only all your worldly goods, but your boary head as well!"
The poor wasir was ready to faint with fear and gave himself up for lost, for he knew not where to go in search of such a object as the Raja had dreamt of. But the two favourite grandsons of the Raja, who had been attracted there by the noise, went to their grandfather and begged hard to be allowed to go in search of the marvellous tree, instead of the old wuzír. 'Now these two crafty young follows had hardly courage enough to undertake any ordinary enterprise, let alone going in search of such an unheard of object, but they hoped by these means to get a lot of money in their hands so that they might go abroad and enjoy themselves. The Râjâ, however, believed them, and giving them great praise for what he called their pluck, handed them as much gold as they asked for and sent them away well equipped and supplied with ample provisions. No sooner were the two young men out of their grandfather's city, than they fell into bad company and began to squander the money away to their hearts' content.
Whilst the two brothers were thus enjoying themselves, their cousin, the only son of the Raja's eldest daughter, also coming to hear of his grandfather's remarkable dream, got his mother to scrape together some gold, and with it started quietly off in search of the wonderful tree.
After wandering about from one country to another for some time, he at last found himself in the midst of a large forest. He journeyed through it for some distance, when one day he encountered a huge nag (serpent) who lay stretched at full length in his way, and arrested his further progress. The young Prince, however, was not daunted by this sight. He mustered up all his courage, and drawing his sword, boldly attacked the fierce monster which was in reality a demon in the shape of a serpent and was known far and wide by the name of LAL. This demon,
