Story 208 - The Gem-set Ring

IN a certain country there are a King and a Queen, it is said; there are seven Princes of these two persons. Out of the seven, the youngest' Prince from the day on which he was born is lying down; only those six perform service, go on journeys after journeys (gaman sagaman).

Well then, at the time when this Prince is living thus, the King said at the hand of the Queen,

“Should this Prince remain there is no advantage to us; I must behead him.”

The Queen said,

“There is no need to behead him. Drive away the Prince whom we do not want to a quarter he likes.”

The King said,

“It is good.”

The Queen having come near the Prince, said,

“Son, he must behead you, says the King. Because of it go to a place you like, to seek a livelihood.”

Then the Prince said,

“For me to go for trading give me (dilan) a thousand masuran, and a packet of cooked rice.”

After that, the Queen gave him a packet of cooked rice and a thousand masuran.

The Prince having taken the packet of cooked rice and the thousand masuran, arrived (eli-baessa) at a travellers’ shed. At the time when he is sitting in the travellers’ shed a man came, bringing a Cobra.

Then the Prince asked,

“For how much will you sell the Cobra ?”

The man said,

“It is a thousand masuran.”

Afterwards the Prince said,

“There are a thousand masuran of mine. Here (inda), take them.”

Having given the thousand masuran he got the Cobra.

Taking it, and having unfastened the packet of cooked rice, the Cobra and the Prince ate, and the Prince, taking the Cobra, came back to the Prince’s city.

Then the Queen asked,

“Son, what is the merchandise you have brought ?”

The Prince said,

“Mother, having given those thousand masuran that I took, I brought a Cobra.”

Afterwards the Queen said,

“Appa ! Son, should that one remain it will bite us. Take it to a forest, and having conducted it a short distance come back.”

The Prince having taken it and put it in a rock house (cave) in the forest, shut the door, and came back.

At the time when he was there the Queen said,

“Son, should the King come to know that you are [here] he will behead you. Because of it go to any place you like.”

Afterwards the Prince said,

“Give me a thousand masuran, and a packet of cooked rice.”

The Queen gave them.

After that, the Prince taking them and having gone, while he was in that travellers’ shed a man taking a Parrot came to the travellers’ shed.

The Prince asked,

“Will you sell that Parrot ?”

The man said he would sell it. The Prince asked,

“For how much ?”

The man said,

“It is a thousand masuran.”

The Prince gave the thousand masuran and got the Parrot. The Prince and the Parrot having eaten the packet of cooked rice, the two came to. the Prince’s city.

The Queen asked,

“Son, what is the merchandise you have brought to-day ?”

The Prince says,

“Mother, having given those thousand masuran that I took I have brought a Parrot.”

Afterwards the Queen said,

“We don’t want the Parrot. Take it and put it in the forest, and come back.”

The Prince having taken the Parrot and put the Parrot also in the rock house in which is the Cobra, shut the door, and came back.

While he was there the Queen said,

“Son, should the King see that you are [here] he will behead you. Because of it go to any place you like.”

The Prince said,

“Mother, give me a thousand masuran, and a packet of cooked rice.”

The Queen gave him a packet of cooked rice and a thousand masuran. Afterwards, the Prince having taken them, while he was at that travellers’ shed again a man is taking a Cat Which eats by stealth, in order to put it into the river.

This Prince asked,

“Will you sell that ?”

The man said he would sell it. The Prince asked,

“For how much ?”

The man [said],

“I will sell it for a thousand masuran.”

Afterwards the Prince gave the thousand masuran that were in his hand, and taking the Cat, and the Prince and the Cat having eaten the packet of cooked rice, the two came to the Prince’s city.

Then the Queen asked,

“Son, on this journey what have you brought ?”

The Prince says,

“Mother, having given the thousand masuran that I took I brought a Cat.”

Then the Queen said,

“Don’t thou come again. Go to any place thou wantest.”

The Prince said,

“Mother, give me a thousand masuran, and a packet of cooked rice.”

After that, the Queen gave him a packet of cooked rice and a thousand masuran. The Prince, taking them and taking also the Cat, came to the rock house; and the whole four having eaten the packet of cooked rice started to go away.

Having gone away, and having gone near a large Na tree,^[1] while they were there the Cobra said,

“You stay^[2] here until I come back [after] seeking the Naga King.”

The Cobra having gone, and having returned near the large Na tree [after] seeking [and bringing] the Naga King, the Cobra said to the Naga King,

“This Prince has been of very great assistance to me. Because of it you must set me free [by giving a suitable ransom].”

Afterwards the Naga King gave the Prince a gem-set ring (peraes-munda), and said,

“With this ring you can create anything you want.”^[3]

The Naga King, taking that Cobra, went away.

As this Prince and the Parrot and the Cat were going away the Prince thought,

“Let a palace and a Princess be created here for me.”

Putting the gem-set ring on his hand he thought it. Then a palace and a Princess were created.

At the time when they were there, the Princess and Prince went to the sea to bathe. Having gone there, while bathing a lock of hair (isakeya raelak) from the head of the Princess fell into the sea. Having gone it became fastened in the net of net fishermen. They, taking it, gave it to the King. The King being unable to guess whether it was a hair or a golden thread, sent out the notification tom-toms. A widow stopped the tom-toms.

Having stopped them the woman went near the King and said,

“This is not a golden thread (kenda), it is indeed hair of the head (isakeya gahamayi).”

After that the King said,

“Can you find the Princess who owns this hair ?”

The woman having said, “I can,” came to the very city where the Princess is. When she came there, there was not any work place there.

She asked at the hand of the Princess,

“How, daughter (pute), do you eat ?”

Then the Princess says,

“We eat by the power of the gem-set ring.”

Afterwards, the woman that day night having stayed there, after the Prince went to sleep taking the gem-set ring and taking also the Princess [by means of it], gave them to the King.

The Prince having awoke, when he looked there were no Princess and no gem-set ring. The Parrot indeed knows the place where they are. He cannot summon the Princess and come [with her], he cannot get the gem-set ring.

Owing to it he told the Cat to be [lying as though] sleeping at the com-stack threshing-floor (kola-kamate):—

“While you are there the rats will put their paws into your mouth. Do not seize them. When the King has put his paws in it seize him; do not let him go.”

After that, the Cat having gone [there], while he was [lying as though] sleeping at the com-stack threshing-floor, the rats put their paws in his mouth. He did not seize them.

The Rat King having come, and said,

“One with cooking pot’s mouth (appalla-kata), are you asleep ?”

put his paw there. Then the Cat seized him. [He explained to the Rat King that he wanted a rat to assist him, as the condition on which he would release him.]

The Rat King said,

“Seize thou any rat thou wantest.”

Having said,

“Take this rat chief,”

he gave him. Afterwards the Cat let go [the Rat King].

The Parrot, calling that rat [who had been appointed to assist him], went to the palace in which was the Princess. After the rat had cut [his way into] seven boxes, there was a gem-set ring [in the last one].

Taking it, when he gave it to the Parrot, the Parrot said,

“This ring is not ours (apata nae).”

Afterwards the Parrot and the rat having come near the Prince, [the rat] said,

“I cut into seven boxes; there was one ring. When I gave it to the Parrot youngster (gira-pota-kayata) the Parrot said, ‘It is not ours,’”

he said.

Then the Prince said,

“Are there not other boxes ?”

The rat said,

“There is one more.”

The Prince said,

“If so, cut thou [a hole in] it.”

The Parrot and the rat having gone [there], the rat cut into that box. Then the gem-set ring was there. [The rat took it to the Parrot, who handed it over to the Prince. By means of it he recovered the Princess.]

Taking the ring, and having brought back the Princess, they all remained at the palace.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

 

Notes:

In The Jataka, No. 73 (vol. i, p. 178), a snake, a parrot, and a rat assisted a Brahmana who had saved their lives.

In The Story of Madana Kama Raja (Natesha Sastri), p. 20, a Prince whose uncle had usurped the throne received a hundred pagodas from his mother in order that he might trade. He first bought a kitten for the money, and subsequently, when she gave him another hundred, a snake; with these he went about begging for twelve years. The snake took him to visit its father, Adishesha, the Snake King, who in return for it gave him his ring which supplied everything wanted while it was worn. By means of the ring the Prince got a palace and kingdom and a capital; he married a Princess also. While she was bathing in the sea one of the hairs from her head came off and was cast on the shore. The King of Cochin found it, ascertained that it was twenty yards long, and promised rewards for the discovery of its owner. An old woman who was received into the Prince’s palace learnt about the powers of the magic ring, and borrowing it to cure a headache returned to Cochin; by its power the Princess was brought there. She demanded a delay of eight days before marrying the King, in order to fast and make a religious donation to the poor. On the seventh day the Prince and his cat joined those who were fed. When rats came to eat the remnants the cat seized the largest one, who proved to be the Rat King, and offered him his liberty in return for the magic ring. His subjects found it in a box, and brought it to the cat, who gave it to the Prince. By means of it he recovered the Princess and his kingdom, and caused the Cochin kingdom to be destroyed and its King to become insane.

In Folklore of the Santal Parganas (collected by Rev. Dr. Bodding), p. 24, a youth set afloat in a leaf some hairs that came out while he was bathing. Two Princesses who were bathing lower down got the packet, found that the hairs were twelve cubits long, and the younger one refused food until their owner was discovered. A parrot met with him in the forest, and a crow enticed him to come by flying ofi with his flute. He married the Princess and became a Raja. See p. 75 S., and Campbell’s Santal Folk Tales, pp. 16 and 113.

In a variant, p. 88, a youth bought a cat, an otter, a rat, and a snake that were about to be killed. The snake took him to its parents, from whom he received a magic ring which provided everything required if it were placed in a quart of milk. After he got married his wife stole the ring, and eloped with a former lover. The youth was imprisoned on a charge of murdering her, but the animals recovered the ring after the rat made the Prince’s wife sneeze it up by tickling her nose with his tail. By means of it he brought up the absconders and was released. On p. 129 there is an account of the four animals and the ring given by the snake, by the aid of which a palace was made.

On p. 228 fi., a boy who had a caterpillar’s shape took ofl the skin when bathing in his own form. He set two hairs afloat in a leaf which a Princess bathing lower down the river recovered. She found that the hairs were twelve fathoms long, and refused to eat until their owner was brought. When he came she married him, saw him remove his skin covering at night, burnt it, and he remained in his own form afterwards.

In the Kolhan tales (Bompas) appended to the same volume, p. 458, a man whose hair reached to his knees, while bathing set a hair afloat inside a split fruit. A Princess who found it determined to marry the owner, her father sent men who fetched him, and they were united. There is a similar story on p. 460.

In Indian Fairy Tales (Thornhill), p. 67, a merchant’s son who had saved the brother of the Snake King received from the latter a copper ring which converted into gold everything on which it was rubbed. By means of it he turned a palace into gold and married a Princess, whose hair touched the ring and became golden. A single hair fell into a stream, and was found by a Prince a thousand leagues lower down. A woman who was a magician went in search of the owner in a magic ebony boat smeared with the blood and fat of a tiger, which sailed upstream as she sang. She was engaged by the Princess, induced her to enter the boat to see the fishes, and carried her off. Before saving the snake, her husband had obtained a sea parrot and a white cat which divers brought up out of the sea, and he had left these at home on going away. When these two came in search of him and heard of the loss of the Princess they looked for her, the parrot carrying a letter tied on its leg. They delivered the letter and got a reply from her, the cat stole the ring from the old woman, and they returned and informed the Prince, who took an army and rescued his wife.

In Tales of the Punjab (Mrs. F. A. Steel), p. 185, a Prince bought a cat, a dog, a parrot, and a snake, which he reared. The snake -took him to its father, who in return for it gave him a ring which granted everything wished for. By means of it he obtained a Princess in marriage, after making a palace of gold in the sea; he also made her golden. One day she set afloat in a leaf cup two hairs which came out as she was washing. In another country a fisherman found them and gave them to the King, who sent a wise woman in search of their owner in a golden boat. She met with the Princess, stayed at the palace, learnt about the ring, induced the Princess to enter the boat, and took her away. The Princess refused to look at the King’s son for six months. The parrot gave her husband the news, went in search of her with the cat, and learnt that the wise woman kept the ring in her mouth. The cat seized the longest-tailed rat that came to eat rice which the Princess scattered; it thrust its tail up the nose of the sleeping woman, and the sneeze she gave caused the ring to fly out of her mouth. The parrot took it to its master, who recovered the Princess by its aid. The ring was only effective when placed in the centre of a clean square place purified by being smeared with cow-dung, and there sprinkled with butter-milk.^[4]

In Folk-Tales of Bengal (L. Behari Day), p. 86, a Brahmana’s son married a Princess whom he rescued from Rakshasas. She tied to a floating shell a hair that came off while she bathed; it was found by her husband’s half-brother, who ascertained that it was seven cubits long. The Queen-Mother sent her servant, a Rakshasi, in search of the owner, in a magic boat which flew along the water wherever required when she uttered a spell and thrice snapped her fingers. She went to the palace, one day persuaded the Princess to enter the boat, and carried her away in it. The Princess said she had vowed not to look at a strange man’s face for six months, her husband found her, was recognised by the King, and all ended happily; but the Rakshasi was buried alive, surrounded by thorns.

A golden-haired Princess is often described in folk-tales. See No. 240 in this volume, and Indian Fairy Tales (M. Stokes), pp. 62 and 98. In one of the Santal variants a grateful snake made a man’s hair like gold by breathing on it (op. cit., p. 75).

In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 20, a merchant’s son bought a dog, cat, and snake that were likely to be killed. By means of a ring which the snake’s father gave him he got a mansion and a wife with golden hair. She set afloat some hairs inside a reed; a Prince found them lower down the river, and his father sent his aunt, an ogress, to bring their possessor. She flew to the place in the form of a bee, became an old hag, was received as the girl’s aunt, borrowed the ring, flew off with it, and by its means the Princess was brought away. She demanded a month’s delay before marrying, the cat and dog found her, and secured the ring (which the ogress kept in her stomach) by seizing the Rat King’s eldest son and getting it as his ransom, a rat having made the ogress cough it up by inserting its tail in her throat while she slept. They returned with it, and the Prince recovered his wife by it.

At p. 132, a crow carried off the comb of a Princess whom a Prince had rescued from a Rakshasa and married, and it was discovered at a palace, inside a fish that had swallowed it when it was dropped in the sea. A woman sent to find the owner poisoned the Prince; the King carried off the widow, but she refused to marry him for six months. The Prince’s two friends, a Brahmana and a Carpenter, found her, and by means of a magic horse of sandal wood which the latter made, that flew where required, they returned with her. By a touch the Brahmana restored to life the Prince’s corpse which his wife had enclosed in a box.

In Sagas from the Far East, p. 108, in a Kalmuk story, a Khan carried off a youth's wife who dropped in a stream, while bathing, a gem-set ring, which the Khan got. Her husband was killed and buried by his emissaries. When his life-index tree withered, his five comrades found and revived him, and made a flying bird by means of which he regained his wife.

At p. 222, in a Kalmuk story, a maidservant gave a Khan some wonderful hairs which clung to her water jar, and which a wife whom the Snake King gave to a man had lost when bathing. The Khan’s men captured her; after a year she made her husband dance, dressed in feathers, before her and the Khan. When the Khan to please her exchanged dresses with him, she ordered the Khan to be driven out, the dogs overtook and killed him, and her husband became King. Compare the ending of No. 18, vol. i.

At p. 135, in a Kalmuk tale, a Brahmana’s son bought and set free a mouse, a young ape and a young bear; when he was afterwards enclosed in a chest and thrown into the river the animals rescued him. He found a talisman as large as a pigeon’s egg, made by its aid a city, palace, etc., exchanged the talisman for a caravan-load of goods, and all vanished. The animals recovered it, the palace was reconstructed, and he got a divine wife.

In Korean Tales (Dr. Allen), p. 43, a man lost an amber talisman that a supernatural caller gave him. His dog and cat found it, and regained it by the aid of the rat-chief, who made a mouse creep into the soap-stone box in which it was hidden, after the rats gnawed a hole through the side.

In Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. iii, p. 258, a King sent a youth for a Naga girl whose hairs, one hundred feet long, were found in a swallow’s nest. By means of a cap of invisibility and shoes for walking on water, which he stole from two persons who were quarrelling about them, the youth fetched her; but seeing that the King was ugly she threw at him a cake of gold she had brought, the blow killed him, and the youth became King and married her.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Nan̆ga russayak, Iron wood tree.

[2]:

Um̆bala hitilla,

[3]:

The magical power lay in the Naga gem that was set in the ring. See notes, vol. i, p. 269, regarding the stone.

[4]:

Compare the story of Prince Lionheart in Tales of the Punjab, p. 42 ff.