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November, 1902.]
FOLKLORE IN THE CENTRAL PROVINCES.
FOLKLORE IN THE CENTRAL PROVINCES. BY M. N. VENKATASWAMI, M.R.A.S., M.F.L.S.
(Continued from Vol. XXX. p. 200.)
No. 18.--The Nymph of the Wire Hill. A king had two wives: the elder wife brought forth no children, so he built a separate palace a mile distant from him for her, and lived with his younger wife, and waited, but she also had no issue. "What is the use of my waiting ?” thought be, and, handing over the kingdom to the minister to be governed in his name, he set out to a forest. In the forest there was an anchorite practising austerities. He saw the king and asked him :
"Where are you going, O King?"
"I have married two wives. Neither of them have borne any offspring, and so leaving my kingdom, I am going to distant countries."
“Why should you go to distant countries? There is a in go-tree yonder; you climb and pluck three mango fruits and give them to your wivos. They will bring forth children," said the anchorite.
Accordingly, the king went up the tree and plucked as much fruit as he chose, but only three mangoes remained with him. Again he went up and plucked as much as before, but only three remained, and for the third time he went up the tree and plucked much fruit, but, strange to say, only three remained : and with these he returned to his country and gave them to his young wife. The wife ate the fruit and threw the peel and the seed underneath l-er cot.
Now it was the duty of the senior queen's maid to go to the younger queen's pulace and bring provisions-wheat, rice, vetch, &c.-every morning for her mistress, and, as usual, the maid-servant went the morning after the arrival of the king and saw the mango peels and seeds underneath the young queen's cot.
"So the king bas brought nice fruit and given it to his youuger wife, but nothing to the elder one," thought she, and as she got the food she pat the mango peels and seeds under the grain and came to her mistress and said :
" See, Lady, the king has brought such nice fruit. He gave it all to his younger wife, and nothing to you."
"The younger wife is near him and so he gave her the fruit. I am at a distance, and so he gave me nothing," said the elder wife with great calmness, and, taking the seeds, broke them and ate the kernel and gave the husk to her maro.
In due course the king's younger wife, the senior wife, and the mare became pregnant, and in their season the king's younger wife brought forth two sons, the senior wife gave birth to a tortoise and the mare to a foal. The senior quoon was very very kind to her offspring; she would make it sleep on her cot and nurse it tenderly. Now the tortoise was no other than a human being of tender years, and when all the people were asleep he used to come out of his tortoise covering, and, taking food from the vessels, would eat thereof and then go to the Devendraloka to learn. For a long time the queen and the servant-maid were very much perplexed as to what became of the food in the vessels.
"This won't do. The thief must be caught," said the queen, and, outting open her finger and boring a little hole in a lime, put her flager into it and went to sleep.
