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OCTOBER, 1893.]
EOLKLORE IN SALSETTE, NO. 16.
277
In this guise he went past the king's palace. The king, who happened to be standing in the baloony of his palace, saw him, and thought to himself :
“How old that man looks! Surely, he must have seen many countries, and must be acquainted with many stories. It will certainly be worth while to hear some tale or other from him."
Thus thinking, he called him in, addressing him as ájjá (grand-father), and said : -"Ajjú, you look a thousand years old. Won't you oblige me with one of the old tales of which you must be full ?"
But our hero modestly said : -"No, no; what do I know about old stories ?"
The king then again said : -" Come, come, újjá, who will believe that you are not acquainted with stories? Do oblige me."
After much begging and coaxing, the supposed old man began :
"Sire, as I told you, I do not know any old stories, but listen to what little I can tell yon. Once upon a time, there lived a king with his queen, whose dominions extended far and wide, and who possessed an immense hoard of treasure, but, to their great grief, they had had no issue, to procure which the queen every day gave away one súpli (sieve) full of gold in alms to beggars, hoping that the recipients of the alms would pray and thereby obtain them a son.
"One day she was seated in the balcony with a sieve fall of gold for the purpose of distributing among the beggars, when a gôsánvi, who happened to come to beg, saw this gold, and asked her what she had in the sieve. The queen told him it was gold, upon which the gôsánci asked her:- Is there any one that will eat it? And the queen answered in a sorrowful tone: - No; and that is the reason why I am sitting here with this sieve full of gold, hoping that, by distributing it, the receivers of it may pray and obtain a son for me, but to this day it seems that their prayers have not been heard.' The gôsánvi then asked her if the king, her husband, was at home, but she said that he had gone out. Very well,' said the gôsánvi. • Tell him, when he returns, to come to my mat in a certain village, and then I will tell him what to do in order that your desires may be satisfied. The queen promised to send the king on his return, and the gosínvi, after receiving alms, went away.
“This is the story, O king, I know; and now let me go."
The king, who suspected that this story was all about himself, was anxious to hear more, and so said to him: – "Go on, újjá, tell me further. It is a very interesting tale."
But the sapposed old man pretended to know nothing more. The king, however, begged of him, and urged him to tell more, upon which he continued : -
"Then, Sire, when the king returned in the evening, the queen laid out supper for him, and while he was partaking of it, the queen said :-*My dear husband, this morning, as I was seated as usual in the balcony with a sieve full of gold to distribute to beggars, a gôsánvi, who says his hut is in a certain village, came up and asked me what I had in the sieve, and when I told him it was gold, he asked me if there was any one who would eat it, but I said there was no one, and that was the reason why I distributed it among beggars, in order that, through their prayers at any rate, we may get a son. Upon this he asked me if you were at home, and when I told him you were gone out, he asked me to send you to his ma! on your return.'
“The king listened to her very attentively, and, when she had finished speaking, said :My dear wife, you are distributing a sieve full of gold every morning, besides which we are performing other charitable acts, and all to no avail. What can & gosdivi tell, and much less do. that our desires may be fulfilled ?' But the qaeen pressed and begged of him to go, saying:
Let us see what he may have to say. Who knows but that he may help us to obtain our wishes.'
