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MARCH, 1894.]
FOLKTALES OF HINDUSTAN; No. 10.
83
Anganủ then sent the gardener's wife to the princess to say: "Your first husband has sent for you." She went to her mother and said: "I want to go into the garden this evening with some of my companions." When she came there Anganû instructed Danda : “When you meet the princess tell her to play hide and seek (chipné kú khél) with her companions." When she hid from them she came to Dandâ, who took her to Anganů. Anganû had borrowed a magic elephant from one of the Jinn and directed Danda to mount it with the princess, and then to touch its right ear, when it would take them to the mountain where they were to remain for three days. “But, take care," said he "not to dismount till the third day." But Dandâ said: “The companions of the princess, who are locked up in the garden will die of hunger. I will release them before I take away the princess." So he took the key from her and let out the girls. When they saw him they canght him and said: “Shew us the princess. If you refuse we will take you to the king."
When Anganû saw that Danda was caught he went there, and, untying a necklace made of cloves of gold from his neck, he flung the beads before them, and as the girls ran to seek them Dandà escaped, mounted the elephant, touched its right ear and carried the princess off to the mountain.
When the girls saw that the princess was being carried off they raised a cry, and the king of Russia heard them. So he sent his army to arrest Danda and the princess. But Anganû took up some potsherds and threw them into the air. When one of these fell on a mau, his lead was broken: and demons (deo) rising out of the ground began to devour the corpses of the Russian troops. They began calling out: “We are dead men;" and again they said: "Angana Miyan is dead." When Danda heard that Anganû was dead, he said to the princess: " I must go and see if this is true or not." So he touched the left ear of the elephant, which immediately descended to the ground. When he dismounted the troops of the king of Russia fell on Danda and killed him. When Anganû saw he was dead, he put his corpse on the elephant and carried him off to the mountain, and said to the princess : "I warned him not to dismount for three days. Why did you let him go ?" Then he prayed to Khuda: "Revive this youth for half an hour, 50 that I may give him something to eat." Khuda heard his prayers, and brought Dandâ to life for balf an hour. Anganû fed Danda and the princess with his own hand. Meanwhile two faqirs came up and asked for alms. The princess said to Dandâ : "You have gone through much trouble for my sake: and now you must die. I will die too, and we will be buried in one grave. If you allow me, I will give all the jewels I am wearing to these faqirs." Dandâ said : "Give them, if you please." So she gave them to the faqirs, and they seeing the purity of her heart prayed: "O Khuda ! measure their life to the space of a hundred years !” Khudâ heard their prayers and measured their lives to one hundred years each. So Danda, the princess and Anganû came to the palace of Danda, and there was great delight at Danda's return, and the pair lived in great love and happiness for a hundred years, and their eldest son, who was wise and beautiful, ascended the throne of his father.
Notes. We have the flying elephant in many of these stories. Thus Svetarasmi is turned into an elephant and can fly through the air (Tawney, Katha Sarit Ságara, I. 328), and later on in the same book (II. 540) we read of two air-going elephants, Kanchanagiri and Kanchanasekhara, It is the flying horse of the Arabian Nights, which Sir R. Burton (Lady Burton, Arabian Nights, II. 138) thinks may have originated with the Hindu tale of a wooden Garuda built by & youth for the purpose of a vehicle. This is Chaucer's -
" Wondrous steed of brass
On which the Tartar king did ride." For various other miraculous vehicles in Indian folklore see Temple, Wideawake Stories, 425 sq. For scrambling for gifts among servants see an instance in Arabian Nights, V. 357.3
? [It is to be noted that this tale opens precisely as do the Adventures of Raja Rasálů; see my Legends of the Panjai, Vol. I. p. I ff. - ED.)
