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MARCA, 1891.]
FOLKLORE IN SALSETTE; No. 7.
111
FOLKLORE IN SALSETTE.
BY GEO. FR. D'PENHA.
No. 7. - The Princess and the Lonse. In a certain country there lived a king who had an only daughter. When the princess was born the king engaged a Negress as a nurse for her, who tended her with all possible care, and the princess grew up to be strong and beautiful.
One day as the nurse was combing her hair, she caught a louse, and was about to kill it, but the princess prevented her from killing it, telling her she wanted it for some purpose. She then ordered the nurse to get her a large bottle with a wide mouth. The nurse fetched a bottle with a wide mouth, and the princess put the louse into it, and every time she took her tea or milk she always poured a spoonful or so in the bottle for the louse. Now drinking tea and milk made the louse attain an incredible size, so much yo that, with the exception of the princess and her nurse, no one could detect the louse in it.
A few years rolled away, and the princess, attaining the twelfth year of her age, was considered marriageable. Her parents, the king and the queen, began to think of disposing of her in marriage. When it came to the ears of the princess that her parents were looking out for a suitable husband for her, she objected, saying she would marry only him who would be able to recognise an animal she had. For this purpose she told her father to prepare a grand dinner to which princes and kings from far and near must be invited, when she would produce the animal, and accept in marriage whosoever could tell its proper name. The king, who was passionately fond of his daughter, consented to do as she had proposed.
The king now sent messages to different countries, to kings and princes and nobles, to the effect that any one, who was able to recognise an animal the princess had, would win ber in marriage, and that therefore they should come and dine with him on a certain day. Grand preparations were made for the dinner for several days, and on the appointed day, hundreds of kings and princes and nobles, and other persons of wealth and renown, came. Dinner was scarcely served when the princess asked her father to shew the animal to his guests; but the king said :
"Not ret, my dear daughter, let them first take their dinner, for otherwise, if they cannot recognise the animal, they may all leave the house without their dinner, and all the trouble and expense we have gone to will be wasted. Let them finish eating their dinner, and when we are serving them with pin sôpári (betol-leaf and nut) we will ask them to recogniso the animal just as they touch it."
The princess saw that this was a reasonable proposal, and so allowed him to do as he pleased, Dinner was soon served, and the guests did ample justice to the various dishes set before them. When dinner was over pán sópárt was brought out, but the king gave ordets that no one should take it up before they recognised the animal in the bottle, which was produced at the same time. The size the loase had attained was too prodigious for an animal of its kind, and no one had the remotest idea of what it was. Consequently the louse remained anrecognised, and all the king's guests left one by one with sorrow at having been foiled in their attempt to win the princess.
Now it happened that a few days before this the princess's nurse, who had, by this time, amassed a large fortune, expressed a desire to leave her service and go home. The king and the princess urged her very much to stay for a few years more, or at least till such time as the princess should be married, but her anxiety to go home was so great that nothing could persuade her to change her mind. The king, therefore, paid her her dues and dismissed her, giving her besides a few presents in the way of jewels, dresses, and wach' like other things.
