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52
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[FEBRUARY, 1896.
The minister took the pearl and gave it to his wife, asking her to keep it carefully, but in the meantime the king employed every means, false or foal, to become possessed of the pearl. For this purpose he made a serving-woman get herself engaged under the minister's wife. In course of time this serving-woman ingratiated herself into the favour of the minister's wife, and one day asked her mistress to array herself in all her paraphernalia, for she said she was very anxious to see how her mistress looked when thus bedecked.
The minister's wife, though vain, was ignorant of the tricks of the world ; so she dressed herself in her best robes and adorned her person with very valuable trinkets of exquisite workmanship and shewed herself to the deceitful servant-woman. The woman, on looking at the minister's wife, at once said:
"Madam, you look beautiful in the apparel and ornaments you now wear, but an additional beanty would be imparted to you, if you would ornament your person with the pearl belonging to the king, which you have now in your keeping."
Flattered thus, the vain lady at once unlocked a casket and out of it took the pearl that was reposing there, and with it further adorned her already much-adorned person. On this she received & profusion of praise frein the serving-woman, and exulting in the praises lavished on her, she became unmindful of her personal adornments. This gave the serving. woman the opportunity she wanted to carry off the pearl to the palace.
The RAJA, on receiving the pearl, had it thrown into the deep waters of the blue sea, and the next day called upon his minister to return the object of great price entrusted to him for safe keeping. The minister went to his mansion and asked his wife to bring the pearl, which he had given her to keep. She searched amongst the caskets of her jewellery, and in the thousand and one folds of her robes, but all to no purpose ; for how could she get what had been removed from her without her knowledge and by sheer craft?
Not blaming his wife, but cursing his own fate, the minister reported the disappearance of the pearl to the king, who, expecting as mach, gave him a week's time for the produotion of the pearl, failing which the minister was to suffer the extreme penalty of the law. The minister feeling that it was not possible to find the lost pearl, and that in consequence his end had approached, sold off his vast landed estates, and with the proceeds of these and with the money he had in hand gave grand feasts and magnificent boisterous dances, enjoying himself greatly, though fally knowing that he was soon to die.
On the last of the seven days' time given him, he called his wife and said :-"My love, I am now going to the sea-shore with fishing tackle to fish, and you must cook the fish I shall bring. For, before I die to-morrow, I wish to eat a fish dish specially prepared by your loving hands." With these words the minister went to the sea-shore and in due time returned with only one fish. This he gave to his wife and went off to enjoy the company of his friends for the last time.
His wife, heavy at heart for her husband who was to die on the morrow, ripped open the belly of the fish in order to dress it, when to her amazement she found a pearl. She recognized it to be the one which her husband had given her and she had lost, for which the minister was to suffer capital punishment the next day. As soon as the preparation of the dish was over, she dressed herself in her best garments, decked herself in all her silver and gold ornaments, and anxiously awaited her husband.
In due course the minister returned. Struck with the change in his wife-- a beaming face and noble attire as contrasted with her rueful countenance and careless dress since her husband's doom - he said in an angry and sarcastic tone (for in a moment of weakness like this the
* Rang is the vernacular expression. It refers to the red colour used at the Hojt, or the feast of Hclikd, which is also called Wasant Panchami. To give rang, then, means to give a boisterous feast, one at which the colour
d at the Hill is used. To give ndch, or dance, implies a much more decorons entertainmept.
