________________
OCTOBER, 1893.]
When his sister-in-law saw him, she said :
"Well! have you found Fireflower Princess ?"
"She is at the well," he answered.
FOLKTALES OF HINDUSTAN.
291
So he took a retinue and brought her home, and lived with her as his wife.
But a month after, a blaze, like that of a lamp, appeared over the well, and all who saw it were astonished; but whenever they went near the well the light was quenched. By-and-by this news reached the ear of the Raja, and he sent the Prince to see what had happened.
At break of day the Prince went to the well, and saw the place ablaze with light. So he threw himself into the water, and found there a flower bud, which he tied in his handkerchief and brought home. For many a day he kept the handkerchief carefully by him, but one day he happened to drop it in the courtyard, and his son, who had meanwhile been born of the handmaid, saw it and took it to his mother. She found the bud tied up inside, and threw it on the dunghill behind the palace.
In one night it grew into a large mango tree, and next morning the false queen saw it and fell ill of fright.
Her mother-in-law asked :-"What ails you ?"
"I have fallen ill," said she, "since I have seen this mango tree. Have it cut down and I will soon recover."10
Her mother-in-law told this to the old Râja, and he sent for labourers to cut down the tree. The Prince went to his father and said :
"To cut down a green mango tree is a sin. Let me remove it elsewhere, and the princess will not see the cause of her illness and recover."
"Be it so," said the Râja.
So the Prince removed the tree to his own orchard and said to his gardener :"When this tree fruits, let no one touch it but myself."
By-and-by the tree blossomed and bore fruit, and one of them fell on the ground. This the gardener's wife picked up and laid on a shelf to keep till the Prince should come. Meanwhile she went to buy grain and her cat knocked down the mango, and the moment it dropped, a lovely girl twelve years old stepped out of it.
When the gardener's wife returned and saw her, she was afraid, and said to the girl :"Stay here, but never leave the house even for a moment."
But one day she ventured into the courtyard, and the handmaid of the false queen saw her and told her mistress. The queen called the keeper of the elephants, and said:
"Go to the gardener's house and crush the girl you will find there to dust under your elephant's feet."
When the keeper of the elephants went to kill the girl, she brought out a great club and beat them and routed all the Râjâ's elephants.
Then the queen fell ill again and her mother-in-law asked her what ailed her.
"If the heart of the gardener's daughter be not brought to me I shall die," she said.
The Râjâ sent for the gardener and his wife and ordered them to bring out their daughter. "We have had neither chick nor child all the days we tended Your Majesty's garden. How can we give our daughter when we have none ?" they answered. But the Râjâ did not
10 So the mother is changed into a tree in the "Wonderful Birch," Lang, Red Fairy Book, 123 sqq..
