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November, 1893.
FOLKLORE IN WESTERN INDIA: No. 19.
317
inveigling him into marrying her! The Râjâ was beside himself with rage at this, and when he went into the presence of the Rânî, and the broom and the log of wood were produced before him, he struck the poor lady in his anger and forth with ordered her to be cast into prison.
And what a prison her enemies contrived her to be consigned to ! It was a dreary little room hemmed in between four massive walls, with just one small window in one of them to let in the air. Some coarse food and water was all that was given to her each day through that small window, and that, too, was barely enough to keep body and soul together; and in this wretched state the poor creature had to pass endless days and nights. Hope, however, sustained her through this trial, for she knew that she was innocent, and that a day would come when those who had brought about her ruin would be exposed.
While these events were taking place, the wooden box which contained the two little babes floated calmly on the surface of the ocean, till at last it was cast on a distant shore just at the feet of a poor devotee of the Sun, who lived by begging, and spent his days and nights on the desolate beach, worshipping the San and the Moon by turns. He eagerly picked ap the box, and on opening it, was no less surprised than delighted to see what it contained! The cry of hunger, which the dear little things gave just as the box was opened, awakened a feeling of the deepest love and tenderness in his breast, and he wished he were a woman and could suckle them, for he had with him then neither milk nor any other kind of food which he could give them. In sheer desperation, therefore, if only to keep them from crying, he put a finger of his into each of the little mouths, when lo! the poor hungry babes began to derive sustenance from them and were soon satisfied. The devotee was delighted at this, and, taking the little ones into his hut, fed them in this strange manner whenever they were hungry, and soon found that they throve beautifully on the nourishment they derived from his fingers!
After a year or so, when the little ones were able to ent solid food, he would put them in some safe place, and, going into the neighbouring town, beg food for them in the name of the Sun and the Moon. The people all reverenced this good man, and cheerfully gave him what they could spare, and he would return to his hat and divide what he thus got with the littse ones, just as a loving mother would do. Now the devotee, by means of his occult powers, had found out who his little charges were, and had consequently named the boy Surya and the girl Chandra. When Sûrya and Chandrà were about seven or eight years old, the good old man felt that his end was approaching. So, one day he called them to his bedside and gave them two things, a stove in which he had constantly been in the habit of keeping a fire burning, and a stick with a rope attached to it. He told them that if they wanted for anything after he was dead, they had only to burn some incense on the fire in the stove, and they would get it. As for the stick and the rope, he told them that, if ever they wanted to chastise or panish any one, they had only to whisper their instructions to the stick and the rope, and they would immediately set to work and give the.calprit as good a thrashing as ever was given to anyone,
Soon after the good old devotee had gone to his rest, the two young people thought of going forth into the world and finding out who their parents were, for they had learnt from their late benefactor how they had been discarded and entrusted to the mercy of the waves.
So, as a first step, they expressed to the stove a wish to have a beautiful garden, and in it a golden palace, such as buman hands could never build, in a place they chose for themselves. And soon they found themselves in a gorgeous golden palace whose walls and roof shone so brightly against the Sun, that they cast a strong reflection on their father's palace which was, as chance would have it, situated at the distance of about ten miles from it! The Raja was surprised at this, and sent forth his men to make inquiries as to the source of that strange light, when he was told that a lustrous palace of pure gold had risen up in the midst of the jungle, and was occupied by a beauteous lady and her brother. At this mention of a beauteous lady, the Raja was seized with an eager desire to see her, and to win her favour, and
