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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(SEPTEMBER, 1893.
When they heard these words, they thought it best not to meddle with the box, but to take it and present it to their king for what it might be worth.
Accordingly they set sail, and with a favourable breeze reached their native shore in a very short time. When they had landed, they carried the box into the presence of the king, who was impatiently waiting to see the prince back with the kambals, and thus addressed him :
"Sire, here we are after a long absence. When we had reached in the middle of the sea the young lad, who promised to bring the kambals, descended into the sea with the aid of the long iron chain, which he had so particularly ordered you to make, and diving under the waters disappeared. Before doing so he told us to hold the chain in its position till we felt it getting heavier, when we were to pull it up. After waiting there for many days, we felt an unusual and extraordinary weight, upon which we pulled up the chain, expecting, every moment, to see the lad, but to our surprise we found this box tied to the chain. We cannot say what bas become of the lad. When we attempted to open the box, we heard a female voice speaking from inside the following words:- Hold! Be cautious what you are about. Do not open the box. Any one, who dares to do it in spite of my remonstrances, will be plagned with worms.' We, therefore, refrained from opening the box, which we now present to your Majesty."
The king was pleased to accept the box, and proceeded to open it, expecting to hear the words the khalasis had told him, bat our heroine let him open it. When the box was, however, opened, out popped a damsel of unequalled beauty.
The maid-servants, who saw her, at once exclaimed: - "Sire, she is fit to be your queen, while the queen ought to be made her maid-servant."
The king, thereupon, asked her if she was willing to be his queen, but she said :-"I am under a vow for twelve years; should any one dare touch me before that period has elapsed he will be plagued with worms. If, however, you wish to keep me, you must allot me a separate room, to which no one is to be allowed admittance, except one or two maid-servants. When my twelve years of vow have passed away I will be yours."
The king did not wish her to violate the vow of twelve years which she had mentioned. He, therefore, ordered a large room to be furnished in an elegant style for her to live in separately, and provided her with maid-servants and everything else necessary to her comfort.
To return to our hero, the prince, whom we left behind in the country under the sea. As soon as he found that the chain with the box was hauled up, and there was no chance of his coming out of the sea, he walked back, and wandered about in the gardens, subsisting on the various fruits with which the place abounded. He lived in this way for many days. One day he felt himself fatigued and so lay down to rest under a pimpal-tree.
Now it happened that two birds, a male and a female, called gårúpaksha and gúrúpaksh'n, were in the habit of breeding in that pimpal-tree, but, to their misfortune, as soon as they left the place in search of food or for any purpose, some wild animal or bird used to come and eat up their young ones. That day, too, the girupakshi'n gave birth to two littles ones, after which she and the gúrúpaksha went away in search of food. During their absence a huge wild hird came and was about to gobble up the little birds, when our hero at once rose up to their help, and killed their enemy. Some four or five hours afterwards the gúrúpaksha and gúrúpakskin came to the tree carrying some food in their beaks, and proceeded to feed the little ones, upon which they said :
"Before you feed us, tell us if you had any othex issue besides ourselves, or are we your first-born ?"
Tlie parent-birds said :- "Dear little ones, we had many children born before you, but some cruel bird deprived us of all of thein. We are certainly astonished to find you alive ; and even now we are not certain how long you will be spared to us."
(To be continued.)
