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824
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1893.
himself close by, and in the evening a Deo arrived. When he came in, he joined the fairy's head to her body, and gave her a slap on her right cheek, when she revived, and they began to talk and laugh together. Then she got up and brought food for the Deo. When he had eaten, he slept beside her, and in the morning he started off in search of his prey.
When the boy saw that she was alone, he went in and revived her as the Deo had done. She asked him how he had found his way there. "If the Deo finds you here," said she," he will cat you." "As I am here I will stay here," he said, and as he was very handsome, the fairy allowed him to remain. Towards evering when it became time for the Deo to return she taught him a mantra and said, "I am going to turn you into a bug. When you please you can regain your original shape by repeating this spell." So he became a bug, and she put him into her own bec. Whon the Doo arrived he called out, "Khanmansayan, khannansáyan," that is to say, "Fee fo fum! I smell a man." But she pacified him and said, " There is no one here but me." And he lay down and slept till morning, and, as usual, cutting off her head he went abroad. The boy then turned himself back into his original shape and revived the fairy. She asked him why he had left his native land, and he told her the whole story. "We are three sisters," said she; “my name is Chandi Pari (Silver Fairy); the second is Sopa Pari .(Gold Fairy); and the third is Zamurrnd Pari (Topaz Fairy). We are all in the hands of this Deo. If yon go to Sônä Pari your object will be accomplished."
So she gave him a letter to Sônâ Pari, and he took it to her. He found her in the same state as Chandi Pari, and he brought her to life in the same way. When she read her sister's letter she received him very kindly, and when the Deo came she also turned him into a bug. Next day she gave him a letter and sent him on to Zamurrad Pari, whom he also found in the same condition as her sisters. He began to plot with her how he could manage to release the three sisters. He said, "If you agree to accept my aid, when the Deo comes, tell him that, when 1.c goes away, you are very lonely and frightened here all by yourself, and that it would be a good thing if he would bring your sisters here." When the Deo came that night he began to boast and said, " The world does not hold the man who can take my life. Bat, of course, I would dic if my pigeon were killed.” “Which pigeon do you mean?” she asked. “In Fulân jungle," he said, "there is a banyan tree, and on it hangs my pigeon in a cage. If any one were to get my pigeon I am ruined." She then induced him to bring her sisters to her, and he repeatedl a mantra and the three came together. After some time the boy asked leave from the fairies to go home, and they said, "All three of us love you, and you shall not go without us." Further they said, "You must go to Fuliin jungle and find the banyan tree, open the cage kill the pigeon, and then the Deo will die also.”
He did as they told him, and when the Deo was dead, he asked them leave to go home. They gave him three pictures of themselves, and taught him a mantra and said, “Whenever yon wish our presence you have only to repeat this spell, and we will come out of our pictures." Further they said, "If you wish to make a platform of silver and the other things such as your grundfather saw in his dream, you have only to cut off our heads, and anything you desire will appear."
So the boy dived up the well, and when he was only two cubits from the top he called out to the princes to help him out; but they said, “We will not take you out unless you give us the things which you have brought with you." He gave them the pictures of the fairies; but when they got them, they would not take him out, and he was obliged to go back and live in the house to wbich he had gone at the beginning. The princes went home, and as they were passing the place where the boy's mother lived, she asked them what had become of her son, They answered that he had been with them until a few days before, and had then gone away by himself. She sent men to search for him, and by chance they halted by the same well. Hearing the sound of voices he came up, and when they saw him they pulled him out. When he came to his mother he told her all that had happenod, and then he went to see his grand