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JUNE, 1892.]
FOLKTALES OF HINDUSTAN
187
reverse order : and as he did so the fairy got up and suid : "Why bave you killed my master the snake, and dared to enter here?” The prince answered: “Yes, I have killed him. Had you killed him, you would have been my mistress."
Then the prince went into another room and saw & golden fairy sleeping on a golden couch. She was even lovelier than the silver fairy. Her necklaces also he displaced and she woko. She asked him the same question and he gave the same answer.
Then the prince entered the third room and there he saw the red fairyt (lal part) asleep: and she was even lovelier than the other two. Her necklaces he also displaced. She also &woke, asked the same question and got the same answer.
Then he went into the fourth chamber and there he saw the jewel fairy (jawahir pari) and she was the queen of all, and it was her image which was set up at the tank. When the prince saw her loveliness he was confounded and bit his finger (dánt se ungli dabát). The fairy was greatly surprised how a human being managed to get there. So she asked him : " How did you find me out, and how did you manage to kill my master the snake, by a blast of whose breath a man will die ?” So the prince told her how he had seen her image, and how the moment he saw it he had fallen in love with it. "I made a vow,” said he," that I would never leave this place until I married the woman, of whom this was the image." So he described to her the end of the snake, and she said: "We are all slaves of him who is master of the jewel," and she married, the prince and they lived together.
One day the prince and the fairies went for a walk on the edge of the tank, when suddenly they saw an army approaching and retired into the tank. But as she ran in the jewel fairy dropped one of her shoes on the ground,
Now, there was a king of another land, and he had a son, who had only one eye. He had gone out hunting and by chance came to the tank and saw the fairy's shoe. He took it and went home, and throw himself on his couch and refused to eat or drink. Then his father thought he was sick and asked him what was the matter with him. So the one-eyed prince told him the story, and said: “Until I marry the owner of the shoe I will neither eat nor drink." Finally his father induced him to get up, on the promise that he would send a wise old woman to trace the fairy. So the king called all the wise women, and asked each what her powers were. The first said: "I can make a hole in the sky." The king said: “That is no use." The second said: "I can put a patch in the sky." "You are no use," said the king. The third said: "I can neither make a hole in the sky nor patch it, but if you want any particular woman I can get her by fraud and trickery." "You are the person I want, and I will reward you nobly if you bring this fairy."
So the wise woman made a flying bed (urán khatóla) and came to the tank. There she stayed some days until one evening the fairies came out, and when she saw them the wise woman began to weep. Then the jewel fairy asked her what was the matter. She replied: "Why are you asking me? Don't you know me. I am your family barberecs (náin). Your mother was exactly like you, but she is dead, and you never think of me, and now I am dying of hunger." The jewel fairy believed her, and in pity took her home and entertained her.
When the old woman had been there some time, one day, when the prince was asleep, she asked the fairy where his life was - whether in his heart or in something else.' The fairy replied: "Formerly it was in his heart, but since he has become master of this jewel his life has come into that." Then she had to go into the other room and the old woman snatched up the jewel. She went to the jewel fairy and found her feeding her parrot Hîraman. So she said to the fairy : "Let us take the parrot out for an airing." She agreed, and they went
. We are now embarked on a variant of Cinderella.
• Kane, always an evil sign in India. There is an incident like this in Old Deccan Daya, Seventee Bai's necklace held her life. For many other instances of the life index, see Wide Awake Stories, p. 104, 4. ED.).
