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136
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
BAY, 189+
In duc time the pardhan's wife was delivered of a daughter. This girl grew up beautiful, and was the pride of her parents, who spared neither pains nor parse to bring her up well. When she was about nine or ten years old, she asked her father to buy her a horse with which she could play and amuse herself, and sometimes take a ride. The father readily bought a very good horse for her. Now, it happened that the king had a mare, which was covered by the horse of the pardhan's daughter, which resulted in the mare's bringing forth, in due time, a colt. The pardhan's daughter ordered her servants to bring the king's mare, with the colt, into her own stables, and when the king's servants remonstrated with her, she gave up the mare, and said the colt belonged to her, as the issue of her horse. This led to a serious quarrel with the pardhan's daughter and the king's servants, who said that the colt belonged to the king, as it was a issue of the king's mare, but the girl would not give it up, and at last they agreed to ask the king to render them justice. When the king, who had till then been ignorant of the affair, heard the case, be naturally decided in favour of his servants, which, of course, meant in his own favour. Upon this the pardhan's daughter quietly remarked :
"Sire, your decision is not just! Do you remember how you decided in the case of the two sparrows about their chicks? You said the young ones belonged to the father, the cocksparrow, and deprived the mother, the hen-sparrow, who had, with much trouble and anxiety, saved them from a fire, of her young ones. You must act op to that decision in this case too, and I contend that the colt belongs to my horse, its father."
The king was dumb-founded by this remark, and at last gave up the colt to the pardhan's daughter, saying:-" Go away, you stupid girl, and take the colt; and if you can bring me the milk of a bullock I shall certainly consider you very clover!”
The pardhan's daughter listened to this quietly, and went away without saying a word, On the following day she collected a basketful of rags in the streets, and began to wash then in u tank, from which the king's servants got their water for drinking and cooking purposes. When the servants saw her, they asked her what she was doing, and she answered:
"Last night my father was confined of a baby, and I am washing the clothes used by him at the time!"
The servants burst out laughing, and asked the girl to go away, as she was spoiling their drinking-water by washing rags; but the girl refused to go away, and kept washing the rags, upon which the servants, after repeating their request, two or three times, began to beat het. The girl immediately ran to the king and complained to him of his servants' conduct, and that they had beaten her. The king summoned the servants, and asked what the row was about. The servants said :
“ Sire, as we were passing by the tank we saw this girl washing rags in it, and thus spoiling our drinking-water. We remonstrated with her, but she would not listen, and hence the quarrel."
Upon this the king cried out to the girl :-"Is this true that I hear?”
The pardhan's daughter replied :-"Sire, these people are telling lies, when they say they caught me washing rags. I was not washing rags; but my father has given birth to a baby, and I was washing the clothes that were used at the time of his confinement."
"What a girl!" thundered out the king. “Are you mad ? How can a man give birth to a child?
"Ha ha ha,” laughed the girl, and asked the king :-"If a man cannot give birth to a hild, how can I get milk from a bullock P'
Tho king at once perceived that, in trying to make a fool of the pardhan's daughter, he himself had been befooled, and, as a second attempt to try the skill of the girl, he said :
"Get away, you mad girl ; if you can put together the roofing of a house before it is built, I will admit that you are a very clever girl,"
