________________
110
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1896.
In their travels in the eighth direction the brothers were enchanted with the varied scenery of the pleasant country, the sweet valleys covered with verdure, the distant blue mountains of every imaginable altitude, with the primeval forest abounding in trees-ever-green and deciduous of thick foliage, resounding with the melodious notes of some of Nature's famous songstresses, with the beautiful sheets and wide expanses of limpid waters, with artistic orchards of luscious fruits and delectable gardens of shrubs and odoriferous plants, carrying through the agency of the wind for miles around sweet fragrance from their chalices, side by side with the charmingly beautiful harmonies of music that emanate from the eighth direction in full volume of sound; and it was by these charmingly beautiful strains of music, resembling those of the Apasarasas of the Indra's heavens above, that the brothers were bewitched. So, with a view to find out whence they came or who shared in them, the intrepid travellers went to the furthermost end of the eighth direction, and to their great surprise discovered there a magnificent abode of fairies, which was responsible for the delicious music, with which our heroes, being friends of that fine art, were so delighted.
The inmates of this solitary magnificent abode, who were seven fairies of great personal beauty, and whom the brothers found to be the participators in the music, received the princes with every mark of kindness, and the latter inferring at once from the outward signs that the former were greatly in love with them, and harbouring no suspicions of danger arising from that quarter, returned the love, and made them their consorts by mutual agreement. For some days the princes lived with the fairies in great amity, enjoying ambrosial viands, delicious drinks hot and cold, melodious music vocal and instrumental, scented baths, and wearing the finest, lightest and the most valuable of clothing.
But one day the youngest of the princes observed that his wife- the youngest fairyhad turned her back and was weeping bitterly, while taking her dinner. For some reason or other he did not ask his wife about the matter, neither did he ascertain the cause of it from other sources. But when this continued for three or four days, the husband asked his brothers in a general sort of way, and at the same time without mistrusting his fairy-wife, whether their wives also wept, as his did. On receiving a reply in the negative, he asked the fairy one day as to the cause of her sorrow.
"I am sorry for you," she replied, "because I have a great love for you. And the day is approaching when you will be killed along with your brothers, and this will happen on the Occasion of a festival amongst us fairies, which is fast approaching."
The prince narrated what he had heard to his brothers, who, realizing that they had fallen into dangerous hands, advised him, for their common safety, to ask the fairy what should be done to avert this catastrophe.
He accordingly asked, and the fairy, possessing a very kind heart, replied :—
"My lord, I advise you, as also ask you to tell your brothers to shew signs of extreme disgust or discontentment (such as, amongst others, of rending your clothes, throwing your turbans to the ground, etc.), to charge the fairies with inattention, to raise complaints on every possible occasion in the matter of viands, drinks, baths and wearing apparel, and most important of all to break the legs of your horses without the knowledge of the fairies. On this the fairies will press to know the reason of your general discontent, and then you should tell them in detail of your being displeased with them in every way and also impress on them the fact that nothing short of those horses that neigh in the middle of the night will satisfy you by way of compensation for the unrivalled steeds incapacitated by the breaking of their legs and now in a dying. state. It is by possessing these wonderful animals, which have the power of saving those riding on them in an emergency, that you will set yourself free from the calamity that is overhanging you. Thus I advise you for your own preservation and for the preservation of my lord's brothers, and in so doing I am endangering myself it is true, but I do not consider it a danger if my first
