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MAY, 1892.]
FOLKLORE IN WESTERN INDIA; No. 17.
161
who had taken care to put their own particular marks on their arrows, shot them in sever different directions.
After a long interval of anxious waiting, the arrows were one by one recovered and bronght back to their owners, along with tokens from the fair ladies at whose feet chance or fate had guided them; all except that of the merchant's youngest son. Long and vigorous was the search made for it not only all that day, but for many and many a day following, but to no purpose. The arrow bad flown over hill and valley and over river and ocean, for no trace of it could be found over the entire country.
At last, when no stone had been left unturned, and all hope of finding the lost arrow was abandoned, the old man taunted his son about his ill-luck in not being able to procure himBelf a partner in life, and expressed his belief that he must be a very wicked fellow thus to have incurred the displeasure of God. The poor youth felt so humiliated at this that he quitted the land of his birth in despair, and became a wanderer in distant countries; whilst his father celebrated the naptials of his six sons with great pomp and rejoicings, and, regardless of his yotngest son's claims, distributed his large wealth equally amongst them. Our hero roamed about for days and months from one place to another in search of his lost arrow, but in vain, till at last he became a mere aimless and homeless wanderer, for whom life could have no zest or charm.
One day, however, as he was thus roaming through a large forest in an unknown country, his eye chanced to fall upon a large iron ring fized to what appeared to be a door, and what was his joy to find, in close proximity to the ring, his own long-lost arrow entangled amongst some thorns and brambles that grew there! Naturally the youth's first impulse was to draw out the arrow from its place; but he soon changed his mind, reflecting that perhape it marked the spot where he ought to look for his bride. So he took hold of the ring and palled at it with all his might, and to his great joy the door yielded and revealed to his astonished gaze a dark and narrow passage, which evidently led to some subterraneous abode.
Without any delay our hero boldly entered this passage, and soon found himself sliding downwards and downwards, as if impelled by some unknown power within. When he st last recovered the use of his legs, he found himself in the midst of a beautiful garden, so tastefully laid out and so well stocked with beautiful fruits and flowers of a strange kind, that he was for & while quite entranced, and felt certain that he could be nowhere but in fairy-land, for such things could not belong to the world he had lived in. He looked about him to see if he could find any traces of the inhabitants of that strange and most picturesque place, but nothing met his eye, far and near, save fruits and flowers, and butterflies and birds of rare plumage, while the only other living being he noticed there, was & solitary she-monkey, that was swinging herself to and fro amongst the branches of the trees.
As he walked about in the garden, however, our hero saw in one part of it, a large and very beautiful palace, and on entering it, found it full of gold and silver jewels. Every piece of furniture in that noble edifice was made either of one of these metals or the other, and was, moreover, studded with diamonds and rubies. But go where he would in it, he could find no evidence of any living being, human or otherwise. As he was sitting, however, in one of the balls of this wonderful palace, be perceived to his great surprise, that a sumptuous feast was being spread before him by invisible hands, while a voice whispered in his ear-"Get up, take thy bath, and partake of these good things." He instantly turned round and looked about to find who it was that had spoken to him, but could see no one. So he got up, and, doing as he was bid, sat down to the repast, and did ample justice to the rich viands that were placed before him, having had no food all that day. By and by, the she-monkey he had observed in the garden oame in also, and began skipping about from room to room and making herself quite at home, just me if she were sole mistress of the palace.
