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274
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPTEMBER, 1895.
RÂjá tried to dissuade her from marrying a madman ; but her love was fixed on him alone, and she would not heed their words.
One day the old Raja, her father, was seized with & sore disease, and the physicians said that nothing would save him except the flesh of the simurgh. His other sons went in search of it, but they all failed. Then Panchphula Rani exhorted her husband to undertake the quest. But he said:
“What can & madman like me do ?"
At last, when she forced him, he asked for a horse and, as all of them wished that the mad man who had married the Rani should die, they gave him the most vicions horse in the royal stables. Bnt he overmastered it and rode oatside the city. There he halted and burnt a black hair, and the Black Demon in the form of a black horse of heavenly beauty appeared. On this he rode over monatain and forest to the land where the simurgh abonnds, and caught many of them and rode back. On the way he felt thirsty and looking round, saw a house in the midst of the forest, in which water and all kinds of food were prepared. He went in and roasting & simurgh ate and lay down. His brethren came there, and he knew them, but they did not recognise him. They asked him for one simurgh, and he gave it to them on condition that they would allow him to brand each of them on the back. This he did and let them go. He came home aud told his wife and the Raja that he had failed to find the simurgh. Meanwhile his brothren arrived with the bird and tho Raja was fed on the flesh and recovered. The Raja was pleased with them, and gave them half his kingdom.
After some time an enemy of the Raja attacked his dominions, and the brothers of his wife went ont to fight, but they were defeated. The Râņi Pañchphula was looking on from the roof of the palace, and when she saw the army of her father defeated, she called her husband to their aid. At first he said :
4 What can a madman like me do P"
Bat at last he burnt a hair and a heavenly steed and armour appenred. He rode to the fight and mowed down the foe, as a husbandman mows down the standing corn, The Raja knew not whether it was an angel or a demon that fought on his side. When the enemy was ronted, the brothers of the Kaņi claimed the honour of the victory ; but the Raja knew well that this was but idle boasting. So he had search made for the hero of the battle. Finally, Rani Patchphali told her father that it was her mad husband who had saved him in the hour of need. When the prince was called before the darbár, he asked the Raja to see if his brethren were branded or not. When they had to shew the marks, the prince told how he had captured the simurgh, and the brethren were overcome with shame and were driven out of the kingdom.
Then the prince went home in splendour and found his father blind from lamenting the loss of his son. When he saw him, his sight was restored to him, and the prince and Panchphâlâ Râşi lived for many years in the utmost happiness.
Notes. This tale, as usual, is made up of a collection of tolerably familiar incidents. We have the cfcle of the youngest best (Grimm, Household Tales, Vol. I. p. 364: and other references collected by Jacobs, Report, Folklore Congress, p. 98). Next comes the swayamvara where the prin. cess allots tasks to her suitors. It then branches off into the search for the Simurgh, the Rukh of the Arabian Nights, abont whose size the narrator has only the very vaguest notion. The hair-burning charm is found in the Arabian Nights. The Ifritah says :-"When as thou wouldest see me, burn a couple of these hairs and I will be with thee forthright, even though I be beyond Caucasus Mountain." (Lady Burton's edition, Vol. I. p. 163.)?
2 For the powers hair, so wide-awake Stories, p. 113i.
- ED.]
