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dattá sleeping by the side of the prince, she shook her head, and said in her heart :
O the beauty, O the splendour, of this fawn-eyed fair one! Happy indeed is the man whose beloved she has become.'
Then that witch smeared the face of Rishidattá with blood,* placed some flesh on her pillow, and, after killing a man, filed from the palace of the prince. Accordingly, in the morning the prince's retinue, seeing that a man had been killed, made a confused murmur. Hearing the murmur the prince said to himself : Alas! alas! I hear that a man has been killed in the night, so I wonder if this beloved of mine is a Rákshasí.' Then, seeing that the mouth of Rishidattá was stained with blood, and that flesh had been placed on the pillow-beholding, I say, his beloved in this position-he said to himself : 'Alas! the saying of the Çástras, that the gift of beauty is prolific of misfortune, is indeed true.' Having formed many ideas of this kind in his mind, and having again felt doubtful about them, he at once woke up his beloved, saying: 'Queen, rise up, rise up! And then, seeing his darling aroused from sleep, he thus addressed her : Queen, I wish to ask you something. Are you, though born in the family of Harisheņa, a Rákshasí ?” She was terrified, and said: 'Royal sir, why do you talk in this way to me?' The prince said: 'My dear, last night a man was killed ; there is flesh on your pillow; your mouth is stained with blood. These two things I have seen with my own eyes.' When Rishidattá heard this speech of her husband's, and saw the facts for herself, she said to the prince : 'Royal sir, if I have been a flesh-eater in the past; how could I, as I do, prohibit the eating of flesh? I know nothing about all this; it must have been done by some enemy, impelled by my deeds in a former life. But if you have any displeasure
* See p. 289. of vol. i. of my translation of the Katha Sarit Ságara, and the note on p. 631 of vol. ii. In No. 20 of Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen,' the holy Francis takes away the three children of his god-daughter, and besmears her mouth with blood. She is accused of being a were-wolf. A similar incident will be found in Grimm's notes on No. 3 in his collection (Marienkind).
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