{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_37708/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_37708","id":"gutenberg_37708","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37708","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Adventure","Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Fairy tales -- India"],"text":"Produced by Michael Gray\n\n\n\n\nEAST INDIAN FAIRY TALES\n\n\n\nALTEMUS' FAIRY TALES SERIES\n\n\nTHE MAGIC BED\nA Book of East Indian\nFairy-Tales\n\n\nEDITED with an INTRODUCTION\nBy HARTWELL JAMES\nWITH FORTY ILLUSTRATIONS\nBy JOHN R. NEILL\n\n\n\nPHILADELPHIA\nHENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY\n\n\n\nAltemus'\nIllustrated\nFairy Tales Series\n---\n---\nThe Magic Bed\n     A Book of East Indian Tales\nThe Cat and the Mouse\n     A Book of Persian Tales\nThe Jeweled Sea\n     A Book of Chinese Tales\nThe Magic Jaw Bone\n     A Book of South Sea Islands Tales\nThe Man Elephant\n     A Book of African Tales\nThe Enchanted Castle\n     A Book of Tales from Flower Land\n---\n---\nFifty Cents Each\n---\n---\nCopyright, 1906\nBy Henry Altemus\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n---\nIndia is undoubtedly the home of the fairy-tale. Of those now in\nexistence, probably one-third of them came from India. Gypsies,\nmissionaries, travelers, and traders carried them to other countries\nwhere they were told and retold until much of their original form was\nobliterated, and many of their titles lost.\n\nThe \"Jatakas,\" or birth-stories of Buddha, form the earliest collection\nof fairy-tales in the world, and were gathered together more than two\nthousand years before the Brothers Grimm--well and justly beloved of\nchildren--began to write the stories which have delighted a world of\nreaders, young and old.\n\nIt is from these, and from others told by native nurses, or ayahs, to\nchildren in India--where the belief in fairies, gnomes, ogres, and\nmonsters is still widespread--that five stories most likely to interest\nyoung people have been selected to form this volume. They are stories\nwhich have aroused the wonder and laughter of thousands of children in\nthe far East, and can hardly fail to produce the same effect upon the\nchildren of America.\n\n                                         H.J.\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\nThe Magic Bed\nThe Wise Jackal\nThe Four Brothers\nThe Fish Prince\nThe Talking Turtle\n\n\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\n\nThe Princess Lalun\n\"A tiger stood roaring\"\n\"Sitting under a tree\"\n\"'Cannot I have supper with you?'\"\n\"Spread it gently over the Princess\"\n\"The Prince told her who he was\"\n\"'The Princess sits on the roof\"\n\"The Rajah sent for the Prince\"\n\"His tigers came in\"\n\"He beat the kettle-drum loudly\"\n\"They came to a beautiful palace\"\n\"'I am going to run away'\"\n\"They found a beautiful marble tank\"\n\"Nala cried out 'Oh, oh!'\"\n\"The Rakshas is on his way home\"\n\"Twined red lotus flowers in her hair\"\n\"'They are my father's flowers'\"\n\"A diamond shining in his forehead\"\n\"The monkeys taught him to climb trees\"\n\"All the animals loved him\"\n\"Four men cutting up a deer\"\n\"Chimo dropped the firebrand\"\n\"'Have you got husbands for us?'\"\n\"Their clothes on their heads\"\n\"'You have broken my enchantment'\"\n\"'The kingdom ought to be mine'\"\n\"Threw some powder on his head\"\n\"He was caught in a net\"\n\"The Queen became fond of him\"\n\"'I will find you a wife at once'\"\n\"'You can take her and welcome'\"\n\"The cobra put out his seven heads\"\n\"'I want to see my wife!'\"\n\"Changed into a handsome prince\"\n\"'Two wild ducks are carrying a turtle!'\"\n\"'Tells the cranes where our hiding-places are'\"\n\"'Where are you going?' he asked\"\n\"Hanging from the stick by his mouth\"\n\"Hazar ran to pick him up\"\n\"A golden turtle was set up in the palace\"\n\n\n\nTHE MAGIC BED\n\n\n\nEAST INDIAN FAIRY TALES\n\n\nThe Magic Bed\n\n\n_The Ant-King extols the beauty of the Princess Lalun, the Tiger gives\nthe Prince the best of advice, and by the aid of the Magic Bed\nwonderful things occur._\n\nONE very hot day, a young Prince, or Rajah as they are called in India,\nhad been hunting all the morning in the jungle, and by noon had lost\nsight of his attendants. So he sat down under a tree to rest and to eat\nsome cakes which his mother had given him.\n\nWhen he broke the first one he found an ant in it. In the second there\nwere two ants, in the third, three, and so on until in the sixth there\nwere six ants and the Ant-King himself.\n\n\"I think these cakes belong to you more than they do to me,\" said the\nPrince to the Ant-King. \"Take them all, for I am going to sleep.\"\n\nAfter a while the Ant-King crawled up to the Prince's ear as he lay\nthere dreaming, and said, \"We are much obliged for the cakes and have\neaten them up. What can we do for you in return?\"\n\n\"I have everything I need,\" replied the Prince in his sleep. \"I cannot\nspend all the money I have, I have more jewels than I can wear, and\nmore servants than I can count, and I am tired of them all.\"\n\n\"You would never be tired of the Princess Lalun,\" replied the Ant-King.\n\"You should seek her, for she is as lovely as the morning.\"\n\nWhen the young Prince awoke, the ants were all gone; and he was very\nsorry for this, because he remembered what the Ant-King had said about\nthe Princess Lalun.\n\n\"The only thing for me to do,\" he said to himself, \"is to find out in\nwhat country this princess lives.\"\n\nSo he rode on through the jungle until sundown, and there beside a pool\na tiger stood roaring.\n\n\"Are you hungry?\" asked the Prince. \"What is the matter?\"\n\n\"I am not hungry, but I have a thorn in my foot which hurts me very\nmuch,\" replied the tiger.\n\nThen the Prince jumped off his horse and looked at the tiger's foot.\nThen he pulled out the thorn and bound some healing leaves over the\nwound with a piece of cloth which he tore off his turban.\n\nJust as he was ready to mount his horse again, a tigress came crashing\nthrough the jungle.\n\n\"How nice!\" she cried. \"Here is a man and we can eat him.\"\n\n\"No, indeed,\" replied her husband. \"He has been very good to me. He has\ntaken a thorn out of my foot and I am grateful to him. If he wants help\nat any time, we must give it to him.\"\n\n\"We would much better eat him,\" grumbled the tigress, but her husband\ngrowled so in reply that she bounded off into the deep jungle.\n\nThen the Prince asked the tiger if he could tell him the shortest way\nto Princess Lalun's country, and the tiger told him it was across three\nranges of hills and through seven jungles.\n\n\"But,\" said the tiger, \"there is a fakir or holy beggar in the next\njungle to this, and he has a magic bed which will carry you anywhere\nyou wish to go. Besides this, he has a bag which will give you whatever\nyou ask for, and a stone bowl which will fill itself with water as\noften as you ask it. If you can get these things you certainly can find\nthe Princess Lalun.\"\n\nThen the Prince was very much pleased and set out to find the fakir. He\nfound him sitting under a tree on the edge of the jungle, his bed on\none side of him and the bag and bowl on the other side.\n\nThe fakir sat very still for a long time when he heard what the Prince\nwanted, and then he asked, \"Why do you seek the Princess Lalun?\"\n\n\"Because I want to marry her,\" replied the Prince very earnestly.\n\n\"Look into my eyes while I hold your hands,\" said the fakir, and as the\nPrince did so, he saw that he was one who could be trusted.\n\nThen the fakir agreed to lend him the things and to take care of his\nhorse until the Prince came back.\n\n\"Now lie down on the bed and wish yourself in the Princess Lalun's\ncountry,\" said the fakir, and, taking the bag and the stone bowl in his\nhands, the Prince stretched himself on the bed.\n\nThen the Prince said, \"Take me to Princess Lalun's country,\" and no\nsooner had he spoken, than off he went, over the seven jungles and over\nthe three ranges of hills, and in less than a minute he was set down\nwithin the borders of the kingdom where the Princess Lalun lived.\n\nThe name of the Princess's father was Afzal, and he was the king or\nRajah of that country. So many princes had sought his daughter in\nmarriage that he was tired of saying \"No\" to them. Then he tried the\nplan of giving them impossible tasks to do and so getting rid of them\nin that way, but still they kept coming, and at last Rajah Afzal\nconcluded to keep foreigners out of his kingdom altogether. So he\nissued an edict that no one was to give a night's lodging to a\nstranger.\n\nSo when the Prince came to an old woman's cottage and asked if he might\nspend the night there, she told him that the Rajah would not allow it.\n\n\"Cannot I bring my bed into your garden and sleep there?\" he asked.\n\"And cannot I have supper with you?\"\n\n\"I have nothing for supper but rice,\" said the old woman, shaking her\nhead. But the Prince pleaded so hard to let him come in that she\nconsented, and he put his bag on her table.\n\nThen he spoke to the bag. \"Bag, I want something to eat!\" and all at\nonce the bag opened and there was a fine supper for two people. So the\nold woman ate with, the Prince. The food was delicious and was served\non gold plates with gold spoons.\n\nWhen they were done eating, the old woman said she would go to the well\nfor some water.\n\n\"You need not do that,\" said the Prince, and then he tapped the bowl\nwith his finger. \"Bowl!\" he cried, \"I want water!\" At once the bowl\nfilled with water and the old woman washed the gold plates and spoons.\n\n\"If you will let me stay with you a little while,\" said the Prince,\n\"you may have the plates and spoons for your own.\" Then he ordered the\nbowl to fill with water again and washed his hands in it.\n\nThen the Prince said, \"My bowl gives me all the water I want, and my\nbag gives me everything else I ask for. They belong to a holy fakir,\nand he might be angry if you turned his things out of the house\nto-night.\"\n\nThe old woman sat very quiet for a long time and then she said, \"The\nanger of a Rajah is something to be dreaded, but that of a fakir might\nbe far worse.\"\n\n\"Did you count them?\" asked the Prince. \"There are twelve gold plates\nand twelve gold spoons.\" The old woman nodded, and put them away under\nher bed. \"You may stay,\" she said, \"but be careful that the Rajah's\nsoldiers do not catch you.\"\n\nBy this time it was night and the Prince and the old woman sat in\ndarkness, for there was no lamp in the house. \"The Rajah does not allow\nlamps to be used,\" she said. \"His daughter, the Princess Lalun, sits on\nthe roof of her palace at night and shines so that she lights up the\nwhole country.\"\n\nJust then a beautiful silver radiance filled the room, and when the\nPrince stepped outside he saw that the Princess was sitting on the roof\nof her palace. Her saree or dress was of silver gauze, and her dark\nhair floated almost to her feet.\n\nShe wore a band of diamonds and pearls across her head, and the light\nthat came from her was as beautiful as that of the sun and the moon and\nthe stars together.\n\n\"The Ant-Rajah was right,\" said the Prince. \"Her beauty turns darkness\ninto light, and night into day. I should never be weary of the Princess\nLalun.\"\n\nAt midnight the Princess came down from her roof and went to her room.\nThen the Prince sat down on his bed with his bag in his hand. \"Bed,\"\nsaid he, \"take me to the Princess's palace!\" So the bed took him where\nshe lay fast asleep. Then he shook the bag. \"Bag,\" he said, \"I want a\nlovely shawl, embroidered in red and blue and gold!\" The bag gave it to\nhim and he spread it gently over the Princess. Then the bed carried him\nback to the old woman's cottage.\n\nThe bag gave the Prince and the old woman breakfast and dinner and\nsupper the next day, and when night came the Princess again sat on the\nroof. This time her saree was of white silk covered with diamond\nbutterflies, and she shone more gloriously than before.\n\nAt midnight the Princess went to her room again, and then the Prince\ntold his bed to take him again to the palace. He said to his bag, \"Bag,\nI want a very beautiful ring!\" The bag gave him a ring set with rubies,\nwhich he slipped on the Princess's hand as she lay asleep, and then\nwhen she woke the Prince told her who he was.\n\nWhen the Princess saw what a noble, handsome young man he was, and\nheard that he was the son of a great Rajah, and that he was the one who\nhad brought her the magnificent shawl the night before, she fell in\nlove with him and said she would tell her father and mother that she\nwanted him for her husband. Then the Prince went back to the old\nwoman's cottage.\n\nThe Rajah Afzal, Princess Lalun's father, sent for the Prince the next\nday, and told him he might marry the Princess because she wished it.\n\n\"But first,\" said he, \"you must do this for me. Here are eighty pounds\nof mustard-seed, and you must crush the oil out of them in one day.\"\n\n\"It is impossible,\" said the Prince as he went away from the palace.\n\"How can I do it?\" And when the old woman heard of it she said, \"It is\nquite impossible. Only an army of ants could do it.\"\n\nThen the Prince thought of the Ant-Rajah, and at the very minute he\nthought of him, the Ant-Rajah and all his ants crept under the door and\ninto the room.\n\n\"If I do not crush all the oil out of this mustard-seed before\nto-morrow morning, I cannot marry the Princess Lalun,\" the Prince said,\nshowing the bag to the Ant-Rajah.\n\n\"We will attend to it for you,\" replied the Ant-Rajah. \"Go to sleep and\nleave it to us.\" When the Prince awoke in the-morning there was not a\ndrop of oil left in the mustard-seed, and with a light heart he took it\nto the King.\n\n\"That is very good, indeed,\" said Rajah Afzal, \"but I have something\nelse for you to do. One day when I was out in the hills I caught two\ndemons, and I have them here shut up in a cage. I want them killed,\nbecause they may break out some day and harm my people. You may marry\nthe Princess Lalun if you can kill them.\"\n\n\"How can I fight two demons?\" the Prince asked the old woman when he\nwas back in her cottage.\n\n\"Only a couple of tigers could do it,\" replied the old woman; and as\nsoon as the Prince remembered his tigers they came in at the door.\n\n\"Take us to the King,\" said the tiger.\n\nWhen the Prince asked the Rajah if the tigers might fight the two\ndemons, he said they might do so, for he was very anxious to get rid of\nthe demons. So all the court went to see the fight, and the tigers\nkilled the demons.\n\nBut when the Prince said, \"Now you will give me your daughter,\" Rajah\nAfzal replied, \"There is only one thing more. If you can beat my\nkettledrum you shall marry the Princess Lalun.\"\n\n\"Where is your drum?\" asked the Prince.\n\n\"Up there in the sky,\" replied the Rajah.\n\n\"I don't know how I can get up into the sky,\" sighed the Prince. \"This\nis the hardest task of all.\" So he went back to the cottage and said to\nthe old woman, \"My ants crushed his oil, my tigers killed his demons,\nbut who is to get up into the sky and beat his kettle-drum?\"\n\n\"You are rather stupid,\" said the old woman. \"If your bed carried you\nacross seven jungles and over three ranges of hills, don't you think it\ncan take you up into the sky?\"\n\n\"It is very singular I never thought of that,\" cried the Prince, and\nthen he sat down upon his little bed. Up into the sky it flew, where he\nbeat the kettle-drum so loudly with the handle of his hunting-knife\nthat the King heard him.\n\n\"The wedding shall take place as soon as you like,\" said the Rajah when\nthe Prince came down again; and so the Prince sent the bed and the bowl\nand the bag back to the fakir.\n\nThen invitations to the wedding were sent to all the kings and queens\nof the neighboring countries; and after they were married the Prince\ntook the Princess Lalun home to his own country.\n\n\n\nTHE WISE JACKAL\n\n\n\nEAST INDIAN FAIRY TALES\n\n\nThe Wise Jackal\n\n\n_Showing how the Rajah's daughters ran away from home, how they got\ninto trouble in consequence, and how the jackal helped them._\n\nONCE there were two princesses whose father, the Rajah, was too busy\nwith affairs of state to look after them. They were lonely and\nneglected, for they had a stepmother who treated them very cruelly.\nThey lived in a beautiful palace, but nothing was done to make them\nhappy or contented, for even the servants were afraid of the Rajah's\nsecond wife.\n\n\"I am going to run away,\" said the elder princess to her sister. \"Will\nyou go with me, Dehra!\"\n\n\"Where can we go?\" replied Dehra.\n\n\"There are a great many places where we can go,\" said Nala, \"but first\nwe will go into the jungle. We will make a little house of tree\nbranches and have beds of grass and flowers and there will be plenty of\nfruit to eat.\"\n\n\"I will put on my blue silk saree,\" said Dehra, \"and my pearl necklace,\nand you must wear your yellow silk and your rubies, and then if we meet\nany one they will know we are princesses.\"\n\n\"If we wear our jewels people may steal us,\" replied Nala. \"We would\nbetter tie them in a corner of our sarees. We will wear our bangles,\nthough, for all girls wear them.\"\n\nThe sarees that the princesses wore were long lengths of silk which\nthey wound about their waists and then brought over their heads. They\nwere not at all like the dresses American girls wear, but they were of\nbeautiful material and Nala and Dehra looked very fine in them.\n\nSo the little princesses went a long way into the jungle, where they\nfound all the fruit they wished to eat, and were happier than they had\nbeen for a long time, watching the green parrots flash in and out\nbetween the trees and the monkeys chattering as they swung from bough\nto bough.\n\nAfter a while they came to a beautiful white marble palace with a great\ngateway standing wide open, and over it was written in golden letters:\n\n  _\"Enter, Nala, do not fear;\n  Silver and gold await you here.\"_\n\nBut the words changed as soon as they had read them into these:\n\n  _\"Follow her, Dehra; you shall see\n  How kind and cruel Fate can be.\"_\n\nThe sisters looked at each other, and then Dehra said, \"I do not think\nmine is as nice a verse as yours, Nala. It makes me feel shivery.\"\n\n\"It frightens me a little, too,\" replied Nala. \"I wonder if this palace\nbelongs to a Rakshas.\"\n\nNow a Rakshas is a kind of ogre, and no one but a Rakshas would have\nbuilt such a beautiful palace in the middle of a jungle.\n\n\"If it does, he may come back at any time and eat us up,\" said Dehra,\nmore alarmed than ever. \"Let us go away.\"\n\n\"The Rakshas has gone away,\" said a little jackal with a friendly face,\nwho came running up to the princesses, \"and you can stay in his palace\nfor quite a while. I will let you know when he is coming back.\"\n\nSo the princesses went through the great gateway and across the\ncourtyard into the palace, where they found gold and jewels and lovely\nsilk dresses, and a beautiful marble tank filled with the clearest of\nwater, where they could bathe every day.\n\nRed lotus leaves floated on the water, and the sisters twined some of\nthem in their hair, for the red lotus is a royal flower and princesses\nmay wear them.\n\n\"If any stranger comes here,\" said Nala, \"and asks for food or a drink\nof water, when you are alone in the house, be sure to smear your face\nwith charcoal and put on some ragged clothes to make yourself look ugly\nbefore you let them in.\"\n\n\"Why must I do this?\" asked Dehra.\n\n\"Because if they see how pretty you are they will take you away and we\nshall not see each other any more.\"\n\n\"You must do the same then,\" said Dehra, \"for you are prettier than I,\"\nand then the princesses looked over the edge of the tank at their\nreflections in the water. Both were lovely, but Nala was a little\ntaller than her sister and a little more graceful. Both had beautiful\ncomplexions, with teeth like pearls and eyes that shone like stars.\n\nOne day while Dehra was in the jungle talking to their friend the\njackal, a prince who had been out hunting came to the palace and asked\nfor water, as he and his attendants were very hot and thirsty. But\nbefore Nala went to see what they wanted she covered her silk dress\nwith a ragged one and made her face dirty with charcoal.\n\nWhen the Prince's attendants saw a dirty-faced, ragged girl admit them\nto such a beautiful palace, they laughed outright, but the Prince said\nto himself, \"If her face and hands were clean and her clothes mended,\nshe would be a very pretty girl.\"\n\nNeither Nala nor the Prince could understand each other, but at last\nshe made out that he was thirsty, so she hastened to bring him a\npitcher of water. But instead of drinking the water, the Prince threw a\npart of it over Nala's head and face!\n\nVery much surprised, Nala cried out, \"Oh, oh!\" and started back, but\nthe charcoal was washed from her face, and there she stood, the\nloveliest maiden the Prince had ever seen, even in her ragged dress,\nand he fell in love with her at once.\n\nHe unfastened the ragged dress and it fell off, leaving her prettier\nthan ever in her yellow saree and a string of great rubies around her\nneck.\n\n\"My father is a Rajah,\" said the Prince, \"and I am going to take you to\nhis palace, and you shall be my wife.\"\n\nThen a beautiful palanquin was brought and Nala was carefully placed in\nit and carried away from the Rakshas' palace. On they went through the\njungle, and the frightened Princess could only pull aside the curtains\nand look out upon the Prince riding ahead on his white horse, while the\nmonkeys swung from the boughs and the parrots darted in and out among\nthe branches as they had done on the day when she and her sister had\nrun away from their cruel stepmother.\n\nShe was very unhappy and sobbed out, \"Oh, Dehra, Dehra! I want you, and\nwhat will you do without me?\"\n\nAnd then Nala began to think how she should let her sister know the way\nthe Prince had taken her, so she tore a little piece off her saree and\nwrapped one of her rubies in it and dropped it on the ground.\n\nShe kept on doing this every little while until only one ruby was left,\nbut they had now come to the palace of the Rajah and Ranee, the\nPrince's father and mother.\n\n\"Follow her, Dehra,\" she remembered the golden letters had said, and so\nNala dropped the last of her rubies just outside the palace, saying to\nherself, \"If Dehra does follow me, the rubies will lead her to me.\"\n\nThe Prince's father and mother welcomed the beautiful Princess very\ngladly. The Rajah gave her a new ruby necklace and the Ranee was\ndelighted at the prospect of such a beautiful daughter-in-law. In a\nweek they were married and every one was very kind to Nala.\n\nBut poor Dehra sat in the Rakshas' palace crying as if her heart would\nbreak. \"Nala, Nala! where are you?\" she cried over and over again, but\nno one answered her.\n\nThen she went out of the palace, past the tank where the red lotus\nflowers lay on the clear water, saying to herself, \"Some one has stolen\nher.\"\n\nThen she looked at the golden letters over the gate.\n\n  _\"Follow her, Dehra; you shall see\n  How kind and cruel Fate can be.\"_\n\n\"Half of it is surely true,\" she said aloud, and suddenly, from behind\nher, the jackal asked, \"Which half is true?\"\n\n\"Fate has not been kind yet, so it must be the last part,\" sobbed\nDehra.\n\n\"I think that is very ungrateful of you,\" said the jackal. \"Here you\nhave been living comfortably in a beautiful palace for some time. I am\nnot sure that it is nice of you to complain that you have had no luck\nat all.\"\n\nDehra began to cry.\n\n\"But that is not what I came to tell you,\" the jackal added. \"The\nRakshas is on his way home and you will have to go away.\"\n\nHe was a very wise jackal, so he went on. \"It is sure to come out all\nright, and I will help you to find your sister.\"\n\nSo they went, right away, into the jungle, and pretty soon the jackal's\nsharp eyes saw the first ruby, wrapped in its yellow silk, lying on the\ngrass. And soon after that they found another, and then another, and by\nand by they came out of the jungle.\n\n\"I shall have to leave you here,\" said the jackal. \"There are towns out\nhere in the open country, and where there are towns there are men, and\nmen do not like jackals.\"\n\n\"But what shall I do?\" asked Dehra.\n\n\"I will help you to make yourself look like an old woman,\" replied the\njackal. \"You will have to do something of the kind or some one will\ncarry you off and you will never find your sister.\"\n\nThen the jackal showed Dehra a plant which she rubbed on her face and\nmade it an ugly brown, and then he showed her how to make her face look\nwrinkled. Then he went to a little house not far away and stole a\ncoarse red saree which an old woman had hung on a bush to dry after\nwashing it.\n\n\"Where did you get this?\" asked Dehra, as the jackal brought it to her\nin his mouth; and the jackal told her it was growing on a bush. So\nDehra put it on and went slowly along the road like an old woman.\n\nEvery little while she found one of Nala's rubies, and then they would\nbe a long way apart, but at last she came to the city where Nala was,\nand found the last ruby by the gate of the Rajah's palace. Then she sat\ndown not very far away and wondered how she could get inside the\npalace.\n\nAs night came on, the wife of a laboring man took pity on the poor old\nwoman, as she supposed Dehra to be, and let her sleep in a hut in her\ngarden. Now this garden was very near the palace grounds, in which was\na marble bathing-tank covered with red lotus flowers.\n\nWhen Dehra saw this beautiful place, she said to herself, \"I will bathe\nthere every morning. I will go very early, so as not to be seen.\"\n\nSo Dehra left her hut very early and bathed in the beautiful tank, and\nall the brown stain and all the wrinkles came off her face. She washed\nthe old saree and hung it on a tree, and then put on her own blue silk\nsaree and her necklace of pearls. Then she sat on the steps of the tank\nand twined some of the red lotus flowers in her hair.\n\n\"It makes me feel like myself again,\" she thought, as she looked down\nat her reflection in the water. But the royal lotus flowers made her\nthink of Nala, and she longed more than ever to see her.\n\nAfter Dehra had bathed in the palace gardens for several mornings, his\nservants told the Rajah that some of his beautiful lotus flowers\ndisappeared each day before sunrise. This made the Rajah very angry and\nhe said he would offer a reward for the capture of this thief.\n\nThen the Rajah's second son, who was a very handsome young prince, said\nto his father, \"You need not do that. I will capture the thief without\nany reward.\"\n\n\"He will do it easily,\" said the Ranee, who was very proud of her son.\n\nSo that night the Prince walked about the palace garden for a long\ntime, but at last he was so sleepy that he lay down near the\nbathing-place and did not awake until the sun was just rising.\n\nLeaning against the steps of the marble tank was a lovely girl dressed\nin blue silk with a chain of pearls around her neck and red lotus\nflowers in her hair.\n\nThe Prince jumped up quickly, exclaiming, \"You cannot be the thief!\"\n\n\"I did not mean to be a thief,\" faltered Dehra.\n\n\"They are my father's flowers and you can have more of them if you\nwish,\" said the Prince without taking his eyes off her lovely face.\n\n\"Oh, no!\" said Dehra, running to get the old red cotton saree. \"Please\ndo not tell any one you have seen me.\"\n\n\"You must have come from Nala's country,\" replied the Prince, \"for you\ntalk as she does.\"\n\nThe old woman's dress dropped from Dehra's hands.\n\n\"Is Nala here, and do you talk to her?\" she asked. It had been so long\nsince she had heard her sister's name spoken that it seemed like\nlistening to sweet music.\n\n\"Indeed, Nala is here,\" said the Prince. \"She is my brother's wife and\nwe all love her. She is so beautiful that she is called the 'Star of\nthe Palace,' but you are prettier than she is.\"\n\nAt these words all Dehra's fear left her, and when the Prince said,\n\"Let us go and find Nala,\" she let him take her hand and lead her into\nthe palace, where every one said, \"She is exactly like our young\nRajah's wife!\"\n\nThen the Prince led Dehra into the presence of the Rajah and Ranee, and\nthere she told them that she was Nala's sister and how she had come a\nlong, weary way in search of her. Then the Prince asked permission to\nmarry Dehra, and his father and mother were so pleased with the\nbeautiful girl that they said he might do so as soon as he liked.\n\nThen Dehra was taken to a beautiful room, hung with silk curtains and\nlighted by jewelled lamps. Nala was dressed in the richest silks and\njewels, as the wife of a young Rajah should be, but there was a look of\nsadness on her beautiful face, for she was thinking of the sister from\nwhom she had been separated so long.\n\n\"Oh, Dehra!\" she said, as she looked up and saw her sister standing\nbefore her. \"Oh, Dehra! Fate has been kind at last.\" And then the\nsisters kissed each other again and again, and when Nala heard that\nDehra was to marry her husband's brother and all live together in the\npalace, she could hardly believe that it was true.\n\nThen Dehra said, \"The jackal told me that everything would come out\nright in the end, and so it has.\"\n\n\"He is a nice jackal,\" replied Nala. \"The golden letters over the\ngateway to the Rakshas' palace ought to be changed to:\n\n  _'Seek long, seek far, and you shall find\n  To patient seekers Fate is kind'_\n\nand if he were here I would ask him to have it done.\"\n\n\n\nTHE FOUR BROTHERS\n\n\n\nEAST INDIAN FAIRY TALES\n\n\nThe Four Brothers\n\n\n_Relating how a baby with a diamond in his forehead grew to be a man,\nand what he did for his brothers._\n\nIN the very heart of the jungle there stood a very old tree. It was\nolder than any other tree there and had seen many wonderful things. It\nwas very wise, too, and knew many secrets.\n\nEvery spring it put out fresh green leaves and lovely white blossoms,\nbut one year the flowers were more beautiful than ever, and among them,\non one of the lower branches, was a bud which hung there like a silver\nglobe among the green leaves.\n\n\"I wonder why that bud is so much larger than the others,\" said the\nrose-apple tree, who had a great deal of curiosity.\n\n\"It holds a secret,\" replied the fig-tree, who was quite a gossip and\nloved to talk to the other trees.\n\n\"But when shall we know the secret?\" asked the rose-apple tree.\n\n\"In the middle of the night there will be a thunder-storm and then the\nbud will open. You will see it by the lightning.\"\n\nBut when the storm came and the thunder roared and the lightning\nflashed, the rose-apple tree was afraid and dared not look up. But the\nfig-tree watched the grand old tree stretch its branches out bravely to\nthe tempest, and in the midst of it saw the white bud burst open as the\nthird bough laid it gently on the ground.\n\nInside the flower lay the prettiest little baby ever seen, curled up as\nif asleep, as lovely as a flower himself, and then his eyes opened and\nhe lay smiling at the sky and watching the blue-white lightning\nflashing across it.\n\nThen when morning came and all around was bright and calm and still\nonce more, the baby put out his tiny hand and played with the flowers.\n\n\"He must be a wonderful baby,\" said the fig-tree. \"See his little white\nsilk shirt; it is just the color of the flower in which he was born,\nand look, he has a diamond shining in his forehead!\"\n\n\"Perhaps it is a star and not a diamond,\" said the rose-apple tree; but\nbecause of its brightness it could not tell which it was.\n\nThen the humming-birds and the parrots and the monkeys and the jackals\nall came to look at the baby. \"He would be better off if he had wings\nlike mine,\" said a humming-bird.\n\n\"Or if he had plumage like mine,\" said a parrot.\n\n\"Fur like mine would be much better for him,\" added a jackal; but they\nall agreed that he was a very wonderful baby, or he would not have a\nstar in his forehead.\n\nBy and by the child cried just a little bit, for he was hungry, but the\nfig-tree bent a bough and dropped honey into his mouth, and then he\nsmiled again.\n\nAnd then when sunset came a tigress stole quietly up to the child.\n\n\"I'll bring my cubs here,\" she said to herself. \"He will do for their\nsupper.\" But the flowers and the grasses covered him up so that she\ncould not find him when she came back again.\n\n\"We will not let any harm come to him,\" said the flowers and the\ngrasses. \"He is our baby.\"\n\n\"What shall we call him?\" asked the trees, and the old tree which had\nborne the beautiful bud said, \"His name is Nazim, and you must all of\nyou take care of him and teach him the secrets of the jungle.\"\n\nAnd so as Nazim grew up, the trees and the wild flowers and all the\ncreatures in the jungle taught him all they knew. The monkeys taught\nhim how to climb trees, and Dame, the great turtle who lived in the\nriver, taught him how to swim.\n\nThe humming-birds showed him where the wild fruits grew and which of\nthe blossoms had honey in their cups; and he learned to know the herbs\nwhich would heal bruises, and how to charm the jungle snakes, and many\nother things which children who live in houses never know.\n\nEarly every morning he bathed in the river, hanging his white silk\nshirt to dry on a tree, and at night he slept in a hammock under the\nfig-tree, which the flowers made for him of their twining tendrils.\n\nHe became a tall and beautiful boy, as good and gentle as he was strong\nand fearless, and as for clothes, his white silk shirt grew as he grew\nand never wore out or wanted mending. All the animals in the jungle\nloved him, even the tigress who had wanted her cubs to eat him when he\nwas a baby.\n\nOne day Nazim said to the old tree, \"There are a great many parrots and\njackals and monkeys. Are there no others like me; is there only one\nNazim?\"\n\nAnd the old tree asked, \"Why do you want to know?\" And Nazim replied\nwistfully, \"I should like to see them.\"\n\nThen the old tree said, \"Climb to my topmost branch, and tell me what\nyou see;\" and when Nazim had done this he cried out, \"I see a hill with\na very sharp point.\"\n\n\"Near the top of that hill, which is the needle-shaped hill, is a tree\ncovered with bright pink blossoms. It is called Kidsadita,\" said the\nold tree. \"Go up to it and smell the flowers and ask where the Four\nBrothers are.\"\n\nSo through the jungle Nazim ran to the needle-shaped hill, and there\nwas Kidsadita, the pink-flowering tree. \"Where are the Four Brothers?\"\nhe asked, as he smelt the blossoms.\n\n\"On the other side of the hill,\" said Kidsadita. \"They are preparing\ntheir supper.\"\n\nThen Nazim went on, around the hill, and there were four tall men\ncutting up a deer which they had killed. As he came near they thought\nthey had never seen so beautiful a boy, and ran to meet him. He was\nindeed a beautiful boy, dressed all in white, the star shining in his\nforehead and a look of gentle love on his face.\n\n\"We are four brothers; will you be the fifth?\" they asked Nazim. \"Will\nyou be one of us?\"\n\n\"I will be your brother,\" replied Nazim, \"for that is why I came. All\nthe creatures in the jungle had brothers and sisters, and I had none. I\nwanted to find some brethren.\"\n\nThen Chimo, the youngest brother, said there were two things they\nwanted. One of these was fire to cook their meat, for they were obliged\nto eat the flesh of the deer raw; and the other was a wife for each of\nthem.\n\nThen one of the other brothers said that the giant Rikal Gouree had a\nfire burning on his hearth and four daughters who were anxious to get\nmarried. They knew that he lived not very far away, but they had never\nbeen able to find his house, so they were still without wives and\nfirebrands to light the wood with which to cook the deer they killed.\n\n\"If you will give me a bulrush,\" said Nazim, \"I will show you the way\nto his house.\" So Chimo brought him a bulrush and Nazim fitted it to\nhis bowstring; then he bent the bow, letting the bulrush fly straight\nto Rikal Gouree's palace. \"Follow my arrow,\" cried Nazim. \"It has\ncleared a path for you, and you shall find what you want.\"\n\nThen the Four Brothers followed the path Nazim's arrow had made, but\nChimo, who was the swiftest runner, came to the giant's palace first.\n\nRikal Gouree was sleeping by the fire in an immense room where the\ncouches were twenty feet long and eight feet high. The fireplace was\nlike a huge, red, glowing cavern in which whole tree-trunks lay burning\ninstead of logs, and the ceiling was so high that Chimo could hardly\nsee it.\n\nChimo stole a look at the sleeping giant and then snatched up a\nfirebrand and ran for the door. But as he passed the sleeping giant a\nspark from the brand lighted on Rikal Gouree's hand.\n\nThe giant sprang up with a cry of pain and rushed out of the house\nafter Chimo, but could not catch him. In his flight Chimo dropped the\nfire-brand and got back to his brothers with nothing to show for his\ntrouble but a bad fright.\n\n\"We want to leave Rikal Gouree alone,\" he told them. \"I would rather\neat raw flesh all my life than go near that monster again.\"\n\nFinding he could not catch Chimo, the giant went back to his house and\ninto the room where his wife and four daughters were. He was very\ncross, for he had lost his nap and the burn on his hand pained him.\n\nAs soon as he had thrown himself into his great chair his oldest\ndaughter asked him, \"Have you got husbands for us yet?\" Every day one\nof his daughters asked him this question and the sulky old giant would\nreply, \"No! who can get husbands for four daughters all at once?\"\n\nThen the youngest daughter asked her father who the young man was that\nshe had seen running away from the house. He told her that while he was\nasleep a young man had come in and stolen a firebrand.\n\n\"I think you did very wrong to send him away,\" said the giant's wife.\n\"He would have been one husband at any rate, and giants' daughters do\nnot get husbands easily. Here is the arrow which came into the room\nthis morning, which was a sign that men would soon follow it. You have\ndone a very foolish thing and we shall probably suffer for it.\"\n\nSome giants' wives are afraid of their husbands, but this one was not,\nand she went on to give her husband such a scolding that Rikal Gouree\nwas glad to get away and go to sleep by the fire again.\n\nAfter a while the giant was awakened by beautiful music which came from\na tree which grew close to his palace wall. He lay still enjoying the\nsweet sounds, but presently they seemed to call him outside, and\nlooking up he saw Nazim sitting on one of the branches of the tree\nplaying on a lute.\n\nUnderneath the tree the dogs and cats and all the other animals\nbelonging to him were listening to the music, and the boughs were\ncovered with birds who were listening too. Presently the music grew so\nmerry that Rikal Gouree held up his skirts and began to dance.\n\n\"What a silly old man you are!\" cried his wife as she came out of the\nhouse and saw what he was doing. \"You silly old man!\" But in a few\nminutes she was dancing too, holding up her saree with one hand like a\nyoung girl, while her bangles and anklets tinkled merrily.\n\nThen the giant called to Nazim, \"Here, young man, come down from the\ntree and I will give you anything you want.\"\n\n\"Then you must give me your four daughters,\" said Nazim. \"Each of my\nfour brothers wants a wife, and you must give us, besides, a firebrand\nfrom your hearth.\"\n\n\"I knew the arrow was a true omen,\" cried the giant's wife, and then\nhis daughters came forward and gave Nazim his arrow, which they had\nkept very carefully. They were so pleased that they said good-bye to\ntheir father and mother, and taking as many clothes and jewels as they\ncould carry on their heads, they set out with Nazim.\n\nOn they went until they came to the needle-shaped hill where the\npink-flowering tree Kidsadita was, and there they married the Four\nBrothers and lived very happily together.\n\nNazim did not want to marry, and because he was better and wiser than\nthey, the Four Brothers made him their king. The giant's daughters made\ntheir jewels into a crown for him, but no jewel was as bright as the\nstar in his forehead, which outshone them all.\n\n\n\nTHE FISH PRINCE\n\n\n\nEAST INDIAN FAIRY TALES\n\n\nThe Fish Prince\n\n\n_A Prince is changed into a fish by his cruel mother. The enchantment\nis broken by the aid of a seven-headed cobra, and all ends well._\n\nONCE there were a king and queen who had two sons. The older of the two\nwas a very short and ugly man with only one eye, and that was in the\nmiddle of his forehead. His brother was tall and handsome and carried\nhimself like a prince.\n\nNaturally the king preferred his handsome son and wished to make him\nhis heir. \"My people will never obey a dwarf with only one eye,\" he\nsaid.\n\nThis made Deesa, the older son, very angry. \"The kingdom ought to be\nmine,\" he said, \"or if I cannot have it all it should be divided.\"\n\nHe said this to his wife, whose name was Matni, and as she was an\nenchantress she determined to get the whole of the kingdom for her\nhusband if possible. She thought it all over and then invited the\nyounger brother to a banquet in that part of the palace where she\nlived.\n\nThen she said to her husband, \"After supper you must sit with your\nbrother on the balcony overlooking the river. I will change him into a\nfish and then you can throw him into the water. In this way we shall\nhear no more of him.\"\n\nDeesa agreed to this, and after supper invited his brother to sit with\nhim on the balcony. Then Matni went up on the roof of the palace and\nthrew down some powder on the younger Prince's head. Just as soon as\nshe did this, the Prince was changed into a little fish, and his\nbrother picked him up and threw him into the river.\n\nAll this was done so suddenly that the Prince hardly knew what had\nhappened to him. Over and over he turned before he struck the water,\nbut when it had closed over him he found that he had been changed into\na fish and could swim very nicely underneath the water.\n\nHe seemed to know, too, that Matni had enchanted him, and he wanted to\nget out of her way; so he swam on and on until at the end of two days\nhe was outside of his father's kingdom.\n\nThen one day he was caught in a net by some fishermen and taken to the\npalace of the king of that country to be served up for dinner. He was\nnot very big, and one of the servants thought it would be much nicer to\nhave him in a bowl than to cook him.\n\nSo the servant begged for the little fish. \"I will take it to the\nQueen's room,\" she said. \"She has no children and is sometimes very\ndull. This little fish may amuse her.\"\n\nThe Queen was very much pleased with the pretty little fish and became\nvery fond of him. When he grew to be too large for the bowl, she had\nanother one prepared for him, and fed him boiled rice twice every day.\n\"He is such a dear,\" she said, \"that he shall be called Athon-Rajah,\nthe Fish Prince.\"\n\nAfter awhile the Fish Prince grew so big that the Queen had a tank made\nfor him through which the clear water of the river flowed in and out.\n\nThen one day the Queen feared that the Fish Prince was not comfortable\nin his tank and would prefer to be in the beautiful shining river which\nflowed past her windows. So she said to him one day, \"Are you quite\nhappy here, Athon-Rajah?\"\n\nAfter a moment's thought the Fish Prince replied, \"I am quite happy\nhere, dear Queen-mother, but if you could get me a nice little wife I\nshould be happier. It is really quite lonely here all by myself.\"\n\nNow the Queen looked upon the Fish Prince as her own son, and never\nimagined that any girl would have the least objection to marrying him.\nSo she said, \"If you want a wife I can easily find one for you.\"\n\n\"But would you not like to go and swim in the river?\" she went on.\n\n\"Certainly not,\" replied the Fish Prince. \"All I want is to have a nice\nlittle wife and live right here.\" The answer astonished the Queen, but\nthen she did not know that he was a fish only in appearance.\n\n\"All right,\" she said. \"I will find you a wife at once, and have a room\nbuilt in the tank for her.\" She had the room built at once, but it was\nnot an easy matter to find a wife for the Fish Prince!\n\nEverybody knew that Athon-Rajah was a pet of the Queen's, but for all\nthat, they said he was a monster of a fish, and that all he wanted of a\nwife was to devour her. But the Queen sent messengers far and wide,\namong the rich and the poor alike, but found no one who was willing to\ngive his daughter as a wife to the Fish Prince.\n\nEven the people who had eight or ten daughters were very polite about\nit, but said, \"We cannot give one of our children to your Fish Prince.\"\nThen the Queen offered a great bag of gold to any father who would send\nhis daughter to be the Fish Prince's wife, but nothing came of it for a\nlong time.\n\nAt last a fakir or beggar-man heard of the bag of gold and said to the\nmessenger, \"You may have my eldest daughter. She cannot be worse off\nthan where she is now, and the gold will make me rich.\"\n\n\"Tell me where she is?\" asked the Queen's messenger.\n\n\"She is down by the river, washing,\" said the man. \"She is my first\nwife's child, and her stepmother makes her do all the hard work, and\nwill not give her enough to eat.\"\n\n\"She gets more than she deserves,\" cried the stepmother angrily. \"Much\nmore than she deserves. You can take her and welcome. We shall be well\nrid of her, and if the Fish Prince wants to eat her, he can do so.\"\n\nSo the messenger gave the bag of gold to the fakir, and went down to\nthe river, where he found a very pretty girl washing clothes on the\nedge of the water. She cried very much when she heard what his errand\nwas, and begged him to let her say good-bye to an old friend before he\ntook her away.\n\n\"Tell me who is this friend,\" said the messenger. \"The Queen said we\nwere to lose no time.\" And the girl replied, \"It is a seven-headed\ncobra whom I have known ever since I was a little child.\"\n\nStill crying, the girl, whose name was Maya, ran along the bank, and\nthe cobra put his seven heads out of the hole where he lived.\n\n\"I know all about it,\" he said. \"Don't cry. Pick up those three pebbles\noutside my hole and put them in your dress. When you see the\nAthon-Rajah coming, throw the first at him. If it hits him he will sink\nto the bottom of the tank.\"\n\nThen the cobra went on. \"When he rises to the surface, hit him with the\nsecond, and the same thing will happen. Throw the third pebble at him,\nand he will change from a fish into a handsome young prince.\"\n\n\"Then he isn't really a fish?\" asked Maya.\n\n\"He is the son of a Rajah and is under an enchantment,\" replied the\ncobra. \"But you can break the enchantment in the way I have told you.\"\n\nSo Maya dried her tears and went away with the messenger to the palace,\nwhere they showed her a beautiful little room that had been prepared\nfor her inside the tank where the Fish Prince lived. Then the Queen\nkissed her and said, \"You are just the dear little wife I want for my\nAthon-Rajah.\"\n\nMaya would have been quite happy, for every one was very kind to her,\nif it had not been for the thought of the cold dark water, and her fear\nthat she might not be able to hit the Fish Prince with the pebbles. But\nshe let them put her into the little room, where she sat down and\nwaited for a long time, with the pebbles in her hand.\n\nThen there was a sound of rushing water and of waves dashing against\nthe door. She looked out and there was a huge fish swimming towards her\nwith his mouth wide open!\n\n\"I want to see my wife!\" cried the Fish Prince. \"Unfasten the door!\"\n\nTrembling from head to foot with fright, Maya opened the door and threw\nthe first pebble, which went right down his throat. He sunk like a\nstone, but in a minute or two came up to the surface again.\n\nThen Maya threw the second pebble, which hit the Fish Prince on the\nhead, and he sunk the second time.\n\nMaya was so nervous that she nearly missed hitting him with the third\npebble, for it only touched the tip of his fin. This time he did not\nsink, but changed into a handsome prince, who took her in his arms and\nkissed her tenderly.\n\n\"You have broken my enchantment!\" he cried. \"Now we can enjoy sunshine\nand happiness in the world above, and need not live in a tank any\nlonger.\"\n\nSo they were drawn up out of the water and taken to the palace, where\nno one could possibly live happier than Maya and the Fish Prince.\n\n\n\nTHE TALKING TURTLE\n\n\n\nEAST INDIAN FAIRY TALES\n\n\nThe Talking Turtle\n\n\n_Relates the unique and satisfactory end of a turtle who made mischief\namong the cranes, fishes, parrots and monkeys. The moral is obvious._\n\nA GREAT many years ago there was a king who talked too much. His name\nwas Badahur, and from his beautiful palace he ruled many millions of\npeople.\n\nThere was also a turtle who was even fonder of talking than the King,\nand he lived in a pond in the King's garden.\n\nBut for all the King was so great and so rich, his people did not\nrespect him because he talked and talked about everything under the\nsun. He had a sort of prime-minister whose name was Hazar, and he was\nexpected to say foolish things, of course, but the King seemed to want\nto say them all.\n\nWhen the King drove through the streets in his golden chariot with\nfootmen running before and behind, even the beggars by the roadside\nwould say, \"There goes one who cannot hold his tongue.\"\n\n\"Don't tell your secrets to Badahur,\" they would go on. \"He says more\nfoolish things in a day than Hazar will ever say in his life. He talks\nand talks, and no one else has a chance to speak where he is.\"\n\nAll this used to trouble Hazar, for he knew what the people thought of\ntheir king. He used to lie awake at night thinking how he could cure\nthe King of his talkativeness, but he could settle upon no plan, for\nthe more he thought the more difficult the matter seemed.\n\nBut the turtle was even worse than the King in the matter of talking.\nHe talked to the fishes, the parrots, the monkeys, and the birds all\nday long, until they were tired of the very sound of his voice.\n\nThe fishes, as they lay under the bank used to say to each other, \"He\nis a mischief-maker. He tells the cranes where our hiding-places are,\nand then they drag us out with their long bills and eat us.\"\n\nHe told Mirbah, the King-parrot, what the monkeys said about his tail,\nand that started such a quarrel between the parrots and the monkeys\nthat it never will be patched up.\n\n\"When the King takes the court away to the summer palace, let us hope\nthat some one will invite the turtle to make a long visit elsewhere,\"\nsaid the humming-birds. \"He is a horrid gossip, even worse than Hazar.\"\n\nBy and by the hot days came and the King and his court went to their\nbeautiful summer palace away up on the slopes of the mountains. No one\nasked the turtle to go anywhere and he was left in the pond.\n\nOne day Hazar, who had stayed in the city to finish up some business\nbefore joining the King, was walking in the garden near the pond and\nsaw two wild ducks alight on the ground near where the turtle was\nbasking in the sun.\n\nAs soon as the turtle saw the ducks he began to talk to them. \"Where\nare you going?\" he asked.\n\n\"There is a place called the Golden Cave up in the mountains where we\nused to live, and we are going back there,\" replied the wild ducks.\n\n\"I should think that would be a very nice place,\" said the turtle. \"Is\nthere a pond in the Golden Cave?\"\n\n\"No. But we have lakes and rivers, plenty of them, and they are very\nmuch better than such a pond as you have here. If you will come with us\nyou can see for yourself.\"\n\nSomething of this kind was just what the turtle wished, for he was\ntired of living in the pond in the King's garden. His tongue had made\nhim so many enemies that things were unpleasant for him there.\n\n\"But I do not see how I can go with you to the Golden Cave,\" he said to\nthe wild ducks. \"If I could fly it would be an easy thing to do.\"\n\n\"If you would like to go, we will take you,\" said the ducks. \"We will\ntake the two ends of a stick in our bills, and you can hold on to the\nmiddle by your mouth. Just don't let go of it, and you will be all\nright.\"\n\n\"Oh, that will be easy for me to do,\" replied the turtle.\n\n\"Indeed it won't,\" said Hazar to himself from behind the trees, where\nhe was watching the ducks and the turtle; \"you would have to hold your\ntongue, and that is something you could never do since you were born.\"\n\nHazar finished up the business he had on hand and then joined the King\nin his summer palace up in the hills and as soon as they found a stick\nwhich would bear the weight of the turtle, the ducks flew up into the\nair with the turtle between them.\n\nHow the fishes did laugh as they looked at the turtle hanging from the\nstick by his mouth. \"Don't come back again, Talking Turtle,\" they\ncalled after him. \"We can get along very well without you.\"\n\n\"I don't intend to come back! Keep your old pond to yourselves!\" was\nwhat the turtle wanted to say in reply, but he did not dare to, because\nif he opened his mouth to speak he would tumble right back into the\npond again.\n\nSo they flew on and on over the cities and villages and fields, and\nevery time they stopped, the ducks cautioned the turtle to hold his\ntongue or he would be killed.\n\nThen one day as they were flying over a field, a woman who was working\nthere called out, \"Two wild ducks are carrying a turtle along on a\nstick!\"\n\nThis made the turtle so angry that he wanted to say, \"You miserable\nwoman, what is it to you?\" but he controlled himself, although he bit\nthe stick half way through in his rage.\n\nAfter a while the ducks and the turtle came to the mountains and flew\ndirectly over King Badahur's summer palace. Some boys in the town below\nthrew sticks at the ducks and called out to them, \"Drop that fat old\nturtle. We'll make soup of him!\"\n\nThis made the turtle so angry that he could no longer keep silence. He\nstarted to say, \"Soup! You shall be made into soup yourselves,\nmiserable children,\" but as he opened his mouth to utter the first\nword, he let go of the stick and crashed down into the courtyard of the\npalace, where the King and a number of his courtiers were walking.\nHazar ran to pick him up, but he was quite dead!\n\n\"What do you think of this?\" asked the King of Hazar. \"Did the turtle\ndrop from the sky as a warning to us?\"\n\n\"He was being carried through the air by two wild ducks,\" replied\nHazar. \"With your Majesty's permission I will tell you what I know\nabout him.\" And then he told the King what he had heard and seen in the\npalace garden.\n\nAfter Hazar had finished his story, the King was silent for a long time\nand then he said, \"This disaster happened to the turtle because he\ncould not hold his tongue.\"\n\nHazar bowed and the King was silent again. \"It strikes me, Hazar,\" he\nsaid at last, \"that at times I talk too much.\"\n\nAll the courtiers looked at Hazar, expecting him to deny that the King\ncould talk too much, or to say that it was a pleasure to listen to\nanything the King had to say, but Hazar did nothing of the kind. He\nquietly said, as he looked the King straight in the face, \"Happy is the\nkingdom where the king knows his own faults!\"\n\n\"Happy is the king who has such a faithful counsellor as yourself,\nHazar,\" responded the King. \"To remind us of the fate of this turtle,\nwe will have a golden one set up in the palace.\"\n\nSo a golden turtle was made and set up in one of the great halls of the\npalace, and whenever the King saw it he was reminded of the fate of the\ntalkative turtle. He learned wisdom and discretion and how to keep\nsilent when it was necessary, and instead of despising him, his\nsubjects came to love and respect him.","title":"The Magic Bed: A Book of East Indian Fairy-Tales","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":10479}