Indian Antiquary Vol 27

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 86

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MARCH, 1898.
FOLKLORE IN SALSETTE.
BY GEO. F. D'PENHA.
(Concluded from p. 56.) In due course, the wedding-day came, and the marriage took place with all possible éclat. The relations and friends of the king were feasted for several days. The bridegroom, the crane, hopped about the palace and the large compound and in the adjoining garden, causing much emusement to all. During meals, too, he would stretch his long neck and pick what he would desire from the table.
After thus spending some time at the king's Palace, the crane one day expressed, to bis father-in-law, his desire to go home with his bride. The king could not object to this, and so his son-in-law, after bidding everyone adieu, took his royal bride home.
Now in the nights, after supper, while the princess lay down to sleep, the crane would keep hopping about. As soon as he observed that his wife had fallen asleep, he would remove his crane-skin, and assuming the form of a man, would take his place at the side of the princess. A few days passed this way. At last the princess began to entertain some doubts about her husband, the crane. To find out the realities about him, she one night went to bed, but kept awake, snoring all the while to make believe that she was fast asleep. Her husband, little thinking of the dodge, having no cause to suspect her action, divested himself of his crane-skin, and, as usual, lay down beside the wife. The princess thus found out that her husband was not really a crane as be appeared to be, but a human being like herself, and, therefore, she had no reason to regret her marriage, although he was very poor, for her father could give her what she might want, being the king's only child.
The princess's next thought was how to make her husband remain in his human form, and she hit upon the following stratagem. She pretended that she had a strong fever, and that she was feeling very cold. She asked her mother-in-law, therefore, to keep a good fire under her cot, to keep her warm during the night, as she said. The mother-in-law, too, did not suspect what was really in her daughter-in-law's mind, and, thinking what she stated might be true, kept a brisk fire burning under the cot of the princess. Night soon came, and supper over, the princess not eating anything that night on the pretence that she had no taste nor any appetite for food, they all retired to bed. That night, too, the princess kept awake, pretending to be asleep. Her husband, the crane, after a good while, thinking his wife was asleep, removed his crane-skin, and, assuming the form of a man, lay down beside the princess, and was soon fast asleep. The princess left the bed without making the slightest noise, and, getting hold of the crane-covering of her husband, threw it on the fire, which soon reduced it to ashes. Having done this the princess again lay down quietly and went to sleep. When, at the usual time, the husband woke up, he searched in vain for his covering, but, looking at the fire under the bed. he soon discovered the trick which his wife had played upon him. He questioned the princess, who frankly confessed what she had done, and craved forgiveness, which he granted with all his heart.
The news of the metamorphosis of the crane soon spread in the country, and reached the ears of the king, who came and saw for himself that it was only too true, and learnt from the princess what she had observed for several nights, and how she had brought about the transformation.
As they were very poor, the king invited them all to live with him, and on his death his son-in-law succeeded him to the throne. They then lived bappily to a good old age, loved and respected by all.