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SEPTEMBER, 1891.]
FOLKLORE IN SOUTHERN INDIA; No. 37.
331
quin had been put down, got down from his vehicle and proceeded on foot to welcome the pilgrim. And for the first time in their lives the father-in-law and son-in-law saw each other face to face without the former knowing the relationship that existed between them. He was lost in admiration. The beauty, the noble bearing, and the holy appearance of the pilgrim were enough for any man to bow to. The monarch, also, on putting the ascetic life of his own daughter and the approaching pilgrim together, thought that there must be some spiritual relationship between them, or that the pilgrim was a real god in human form, and shewed him the greatest respect.
The pilgrim did not like to commit himself by saying anything till he was sure that it was his wife who was at the bottom of all these adventures. There was, therefore, more silence than talk after the meeting, and the little there was of talk was so neutral that it cleared none of the doubts of either party.
Chandragiri was reached at last, and the pilgrim with the holy Ganges water safely in his hand alighted at the royal mansion, and the vessel containing it was placed in the hall. As soon as the palanquin was announced the princess took up a convenient position in her balcony to observe her lord, and when her eyes roamed over him she breathed deep for joy.
"May Mahêsvara be praised! He has brought me back my natha - my true lord !" thought she; " I shall never again lose him now."
From that very moment everything about her and in her began to change. She decorated herself with her choicest ornaments and put on the best of her apparel, and, while the pilgrim was engaged in his ablutions, came down herself from the upper story, and decorated the hall with her own fair hands for the performance of the pújá.
Every one noticed the sudden change that came over the princess, and took it to be her joy at the approaching reunion with her husband, the minister's son.
The time for the worship of the holy water of the Ganges drew on, and almost all the great people of the city were assembled for it. The holy water of the Ganges was not a thing to be had daily, so they were fully sensible of the grandeur of this occasion.
The minister and his son, too, were in the assembly, and, as the son-in-law of the king, the son had taken a prominent seat. His father was seated near him overjoyed at heart that, after all, the princess was compelled by time to choose to be reconciled to his boy. The ceremonies over, every one stood up with outspread palms to receive the holy water, and our hero opened the vessel containing it and, holding it in his left hand, proceeded to distribute the contents with a small spoon (uddharini) in his right hand.
“Shall I assist you, my dearest husband, in carrying that water? I am bound to do so on this occasion by the rules," cried out a female voice, and suddenly the princess stood by the left side of our hero with her hand on the holy Vessel.
“What! what !" cried the king. "I am the wife of this pilgrim! Let the minister be secured at once," was the reply.
The minister was soon so bound that he could not escape, and all the assembly stood in wonder, astounded and astonished. There was no time to be lost now, and the princess explained in detail the whole mystery to the listening crowd : how she had been married to Atirupa; the Sanskrit verse; the substitution of the minister's son in his place, the disappearance of her true lord ; the commencement of her misery; her penance and plans to discover the lost-husband; and her success. She had carefully preserved the cups and the platter, in which she had served. the food on the first night to her husband, and produced them now in proof. The minister
• This is a ceremony, in which worship is performed to the vessel containing the holy water of the Ganges, after which the Ganges water itself is distributed to the people assembled from the vessel containing it.
