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MAY, 1928)
FOLK-TALES FROM NORTHERN INDIA
27
pot in which she had cooked it. He bought some food and went to the prince. The prince was very hungry and began to eat the flesh of the cock and the old man said :-"When you have done, throw the bones to me." As the prince was eating the meat he found in it a ring, and when he put it on his finger, two demons stood before him. When the prince asked who they were, they said :-"We are the slaves of thy finger." The prince said :-"Co and call the old man, my servant." When the old man came, the prince told him with delight how the demons had become his slaves. But he said :-"I will not live with these demons." "Do not mind them," answered the prince." They are now members of our household."
Said the old man :-"We have naught in the house to feed so many mouths as these. Let us go out hunting and kill something for food." Then one demon rolled on the ground, and at once he was turned into a horse with splendid trappings, and the other rolled on the ground and became a servant finely dressed and armed. The prince mounted the horse and rode off to the forest. By and by he came to a fort in the forest, and from it there came & piteous cry. The prince rode on and, entering the fort, he saw a Sadhu crying and a crowd of nen stood watching him. The prince asked the Sadhu why he was lamenting, and he said :-" Will you share my trouble ? " "I will share it," said the prince. Then the Sadhu said :-"In a certain land a girl has been born, and from the day of her birth twenty-five maunds of food are daily cooked. A great pan is full of boiling ghi. There are eighty-eight million tanks full of water, and the garden is in charge of a MAlin who lives two hundred million miles away. If any one were to cons:ime the food, drink the water, and go to the Malin and come back in the space of eight minutes with a garland of flowers, the girl will be given to him in marriage. But if any one attempt these tasks and fail, he will be ground to pieces in a sugarcane-mill."
The prince determined to attempt the task. When he came to the palace in which the girl lived, he saw a mighty drum hanging at the gate and this he struck to announce his coming. When the maid-servant of the girl heard the sound of the drum, she said to her mistress "Some one has come to sacrifice his life for thee." The girl told her maid to bring him, and he was taken into her presence. The girl said :-" Eat all this mass of food which has been cooked since the day I was born." The prince and the demons began to eat it, and so quickly was it eaten that they ate it all in eight mouthfuls. Then she said to them :-" Drink the water of all the tanks." They drank it all up in one gulp. Then she said to the prince :" Jump into the pan of boiling ghi." The prince was about to jump, when the demons made & sign to him, and the prince said: "Any one can do this. Let my servant do it." The princess agreed, and the deinon spat into the pan and all the heat left the ghi. Then he told the prince to jump in and he did so.
Then the princess said :-"Only one deed remains to be done. Bhura Deo (The Brown Demon) is holding a cup in the sky. You must strike it with an arrow and cause it to fall." The prince shot three arrows, but Bhura Deo held the cup so tightly that he could not make it fall. Then one of the demons flew up to the sky and broke the hands of Bhura Deo, and the other demon told the prince to shoot one arrow more. The prince did so and immediately the cup fell on the ground. Then the princess said "You must now bring the garland of flowers from the Malin." He said :-"Let one of my servants do this." The princess consented, and one of the demons flew away. Hardly a moment had passed when he returned with the garland.
So the prince married the princess. Great store of wealth she had, and they lived long in happiness.
