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OCTOBER, 1893.]
FOLKTALES OF HINDUSTAN
289
FOLKTALES OF HINDUSTAN.
BY WILLIAM CROOKE, C.S.
No. 6. - Princess Fireflower.! Once upon a time there was a Rajî who had two sons, the elder of whom was married, while the younger was a bachelor. The younger prince used to come for his food to the house of his elder brother, but one day, when he asked for something to eat very early in the morning, his sister-in-law tauntingly said to him :
“How can I get up to cook for you? If you want your breakfast so early, you had better marry the Princess Fireflower, and she can do your cooking for you."
“Well! I will find Princess Fireflower," said he. And off he went on his travels in search of her.
On he went the whole day and in the evening reached the Brindaban Khakhasapurs forest. There he found & faqir, who used to sleep for twelve years at a time and remain awake again for twelve whole years. When the Prince saw the faqir asleep, he began to fan him, so that he soon awoke and said :
“Son! Thou hast done me good service. Aak now the boon that thou most desirest."
" Father!" replied the Prince, “if thou wishest to do me & service, give me Princess Fireflower in search of whom I have come hither."
“My son," he answered, "ask any boon but this."
"Nay," said the Prince," through your kindness I want naught else but her. Paramésar has given me all else I lack."
The fagir meditated for some time and said :
"Well! If you long so for Princess Fireflower, I will tell you how you can win her. But mind my words, and if you disobey me it will be your ruin. I am going to turn you into & parrot. Then fly to the island where Princess Fireflower lives, which is across the seven oceans. This island is guarded by demons (déo) and you can escape them only by watching when they are engaged in playing ball (gând khélté hain). When you reach the island pluck a flower and fly away with it in your beak. If the demons call you, do not look back. Otherwise ruin will befall you."
So saying the fagîr transformed the Prince into a parrot, and he flew across the seven oceans to the island of Princess Fireflower. Arriving there, he plucked the flower and was carrying it off in his beak, when the demons called out to him :
"You thief! Come back and pluck one flower more. We will not hurt you." Hearing this he turned a little back and was at once burnt to ashes.
Meanwhile the faqir was awaiting his return, and when he did not return in two days, he knew that disaster had befallen the Prince. He went in search of him, and when he reached the place he found only one of the tail feathers of the parrot, which had escaped the burning.
A tale told by Chhabináth Mahti, a Manjhi, one of the Dravidian races, resident of Járókhar, Dudht, Mirzapur District, recorded by Pandit Ramgharib Chaube. The number of the last tale of this series, published at p.75 ff., should have been No. 5 and not No. 4 as printed.
2 Augárkali Rant, the titlo of the princess means "the flower of blazing charcoal."
3 Brindaban is of course in the Mathura District-where Khakhafapur is I do not know. It is not given in Mr. Growho's list of villago namos in Tahsil Mathura. Possibly it is merely an imaginary name.
• The word used is Babu, & common way of addressing faqirs.
. For many instances of similar metamorphosis see Temple, Wideawake Stories, 420 sqq. : Tawney, Katha Sarit Sagara, II. 215, &c.
The sat samundar, or seven oceans, constantly appear in Indian folktales, see Temple, loc. cit. 432.
For the "looking back" taboo, see Grimm, Household Tales, II. 400: Miss Stokes, Indian Fairy Tales, 282-3, and the logonds of Orpheus and Eurydice and Lot's Wife.
