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The Princes Amarasena and Varasena
147
a Mātañga, named Canda, to go outside the village, where the two boys were sporting with their horses, to cut off their heads, and show them to him. The Mātañga, wondering why the king was in such rage at his two virtuous boys, went to them, and told them. They, in turn, told him to do as their father commanded: they must have committed some heinous crime, else their father would not have given so severe an order. Caņda induced them to take flight, after first assuaging their fear for his own safety. He took their two horses to show the king, and had two skulls of clay fashioned and painted over. These also he showed to the king, who ordered him to place them in a hole outside the village. The evil cowife was triumfant (59).
The two princes wandered to a lone and dread forest, described grafically (77). There they discussed their father's rage, concluding that it was due to their stepmother's machinations. Amarasena falling asleep, Varasena overheard 8 the conversation of a parrot couple. The male said: “These two youths are worthy of good fortune, but there is nothing at hand to help them with.' The female replied: On the mountain of Sukūţa, in a deep ravine, grow two mango-trees whose seed has been sprinkled by the Vidyādharas with their Science' (vidyā). We heard them say, these trees have each a magic
*A low caste man.
* This is a motif of rather wide application: order to slay disobeyed by pitying executioner. It recurs in Pārsvanātha in the story of Vanaraja, 7. 501 ff., again in connection with a boy; see the parallels there mens tioned. See also Kathås. 3. 40 ff.; 5. 41; Vikrama Carita (Indische Studien xv. 229, 236, 237; Loscallier, Le Trone Enchanté, pp. 66 ff.); ZMDG. lxi. 53; Frere, Old Deccan Days, pp. 6 ff.; 662ff.; Bhojaprabandha. Part Parker, Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon, i. 181. Cf. Benfey, Das Pafcatantra, vol. I, p. 593.
* See the additional note 2, on p. 185.
