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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NovemBER, 1893.
offered a large reward to any one who would undertake to persuade ber to let him have just a look at her.
Several persons came forward to compete for the reward, but the Raja selected ont of then one, a shrewd old hag with a glib and flattering tongue, and sent her forth on her errand.
By bribing the servants of Chandra, the fair lady of the golden palace, this old hag succeeded in getting admitted into her presence and soon ingratiated herself into her favour. As poor Chandra was often left by herself all day long, while her brother was engaged in some outdoor pursuit, she gradually began to like the company of the old hag, who frequently found means to visit her when alone, on some pretence or other. Soon the shrewd woman succeeded in wheedling the innocent young creature into telling her all her strange story, and then set about devising a plan to get rid of Chandra's brother. So, one day she said to her: "Fair lady, you have got the best garden the eye ever beheld, all the large trees in it are both beanti. ful and rare, and is it not a pity, therefore, that such a magnificent collection should lack that rarest of all trees, the sandal-wood tree, which is found at bottom of the well of Chandan Pari!"
"Ah!" sighed Chandra, " I should so like to have it !" and the cunning woman, seeing her opportunity, enlarged so much upon the merits and the beauty of the tree, that Chandra was seized with an eager desire to possess it, and would not let her brother rest, till he promised to go and bring it for her! So one morning Surya set out in the direction indicated by the old woman, determined to procure the sandal-wood tree. He travelled on and on for many a day, till one day he perceived a most lovely fairy sitting on the brink of a well in the midst of a very dark and deep jungle. But just as Sûrya's eye fell on her the little sprite hid her face with her hands and dropped swiftly into the well! Surya threw himself in after her, and soon found at the bottom & dry path, leading into a large palace situated in the bowels of the earth. He entered it, and the same sweet little fairy again greeted his sight. She would have run away from him this time also, but he speedily took hold of her hand, quieted her fears, and sncceeded in getting her to conyerse with him. They sat talking, till the time came for the return home of the rákshasa, whose daughter the pari was, when the pari converted Sûrya into a fly, in which guise he remained sticking to the ceiling right over the lady's head. The riksha88 soon entered, with a number of dead bodies of men and women slang over his back, and began sniffing about and calling out loudly that he suspected the presence of a human being in or about the palace. But his daughter said: "Do not be so angry, dear father, without cause, for the smell of human beings that pervades this place proceeds only out of the dead bodies you carry on your back!" The rákshasa, however, continued fretting and foaming, and made things very unpleasant for his poor daughter that evening. When morning came, the giant again went out, and the parí soon restored Súrya to his original shape. This went on for some time, till the two became fast friends. So one day Sûrya persuaded his fair companion to tell him whether she knew how her father was to come by his death. Now, the pari had learned from her father that there was a pair of doves living. in a vice in the walls of the well, over their heads, one grey and the other milk-white, and that milk-white dove held his life in its bosom, so that, if it were destroyed, the ráksi would fall where he stood, and instantly come by his death. The simple little pari repeated all this to her admirer, and he lost no time in profiting by the information he thus obtained, and one morning as soon as the rakshaşa went ont, he went to the well, and pulling the two doves out of the crevice, Aung the grey one away into the air, and instantly broke the neck of the milk-white one.
The rákshasa, who was somewhere about, gave a tremendous yell as he felt his own neck wrung violently, and fell down dead with a heavy thud. Instantly, there sprung up around Borys a host of other rakshasas, fierce, strong, and wild, who would have instantly killed
