Story 243 - The Affectionate Prince

IN a certain city there was a King; the King was married. If the Queen bore a Prince they rear the Prince; if she bore a Princess, at the very time when she was born, [even] should she be alive, they bury her. This order is a thing commanded by the King.

The King’s Queen formerly having given birth to a firstborn Prince, and having reared him and been satisfied with him, he continued to stay there. During the time while he was there the Queen bore yet a Princess.

Then the King told them to bury the Princess. The midwife having given her into the hand of a man told him to bury her. So the man in order to bury the Princess took her and went to the burial ground.

At that very time, as the elder Prince of the King, who had been for sport, was coming back, he saw that this man [after] putting this Princess into a bundle was going to the ground for new burials; and he asked the man,

“What is that you are going with, [after] making it into a bundle ?”

The man said,

“In this bundle is your younger sister, Sir.”

Then the Prince said,

“Ane ! Stop there for me to look at her a little.”

So the man stopped.

When this Prince went and looked, she was a Princess who was beautiful to the extent that through sorrow he could not look at her. Thereupon asking the man for the Princess, what does this Prince do ? Having given her to another woman, having given sufficient hire for it, he said,

“Having very thoroughly brought her up until she reaches maturity, not showing her to anyone, hand her over to me.”

The woman said. “It is good.”

Well then, the Princess in not much time had reached maturity. After that, this Prince, sewing suitable robes for the Princess, came, and causing the Princess to put them on went with her to the palace at which he stayed.

Then the King, having become angry at the Prince, contrived a stratagem to kill her, that is, he wrote to a great person of the city,

“My Princess is [here]. To kill the Princess make ready an eating (feast) at your house, and having put poison into the food for the Princess send a letter to all of us to come for the eating.”

So the great man having made it ready just like that, sent a letter to this King for all who are at the royal palace to come. Thereupon the King, having looked at the letter, prepared to go there.

This Prince perceived that it was a device which was adopted by the King for the purpose of killing the Princess. Having perceived it and told those parties to go before, at the time when they were going this Prince and his younger sister, both of them, mounted on a cart (carriage), and went along another path to the midst of a forest. As they were going on, leaving the forest wilderness behind, there was a city which a [wild] tusk elephant, having come, is making desolate. They went to the city. While they were going to the city it did not become light.

As this Prince and Princess were going, not knowing that there is a tusk elephant laying waste the city, the tusk elephant walked through the whole city, and having broken down the houses, while it was coming to go back to the midst of the forest this Prince and Princess met it in front.

Having met it, it chased the Prince and Princess along the road. As it was going chasing them this Prince drew his sword and struck it. Then the sword went and pierced the stomach of the elephant, and it died. After it died they stayed that day night at the city.

The King of the city having gone with the city tusk elephant to stay at night at certain other rock houses (caves), comes to this city only for hearing law-suits in the daytime. Having come and repaired the houses which that [wild] tusk elephant had broken, and heard law-suits, as it becomes night he goes to the rock house.

The King [had] notified by beat of tom-toms^[1]:

“To the person who [shall have] killed this tusk elephant I will give a portion from my kingdom and marry my Princess, and I will send him to stay at this city.”

Every one was unable.

On the morning on which this Prince killed the tusk elephant, men came in order to build [the damaged houses in] the city. When they looked about that day, they said that the tusk elephant is still staying there, sleeping; and the men having become afraid, ran away.

After that, a man came, and having slowly come near the tusk elephant, when he was looking at it perceived that was dead. Thereupon the man having come near, when he looked [saw that] some one had stabbed the tusk elephant.

There was a house near by. Having gone near it, when he looked he saw that a Prince and a Princess were sleeping. Having seen them, he spoke to the Prince and awoke him, and asked,

“How did you kill this tusk elephant ?”

Then the Prince said,

“I stabbed it with my sword and killed it.”

The man said,

“Ane ! By favour to me you must stay there a little,”

and having gone he said to the King,

“Last night a Prince and Princess came to our city; and having stabbed the tusk elephant with the sword and killed it, they are still staying [there], sleeping.”

Thereupon the King having come, when he looked they were there. The King having heard from the Prince about the matter, and having gone calling them to the palace, and given them food and drink, asked to marry his Princess to the Prince.

At that time the Prince said,

“Until the time when I marry and give my younger sister I will not marry”;

and they went away to yet a city.

When he was going, [persons] are robbing the city of this [other] King. Because of it, [the King] gave notice by beat of tom-toms,

“Can any one seize them ?”

Thereupon all said they could not.

This Prince having said,

“I will endeavour [to do] this,”

went away.

While going, he met with a young Leopard, a young Parrot, and a Kitten. Taking the three and placing them in a cart, while going on he saw in the midst of the forest a very large house like a prison.

Thereupon the Prince, not going to look at it during the daytime, waited until it became night; and having gone at daybreak, when he was looking about, the robbers having come [after] committing robbery he ascertained that they were making ready to sleep.

Having waited a little time after the men had gone to sleep, when he looked for an opening, because there was not one, being on the back of his horse he sprang on the wall. Having sprung on it, when he looked [he saw that after] putting down their armour on going to sleep, they were sleeping well. Thereupon the Prince cut them all down, beginning from one end. One of them having been wounded and got hid in the room, remained; all the other men died. The blood that came from them flowed to the depth of the Prince’s knee.

After that, having waited until it became light he cut a hole, and having put the dead bodies into the hole he thoroughly washed the houses and cleaned them. Because there were many silver and golden things there he stayed a little time.

While he was staying, one day, having told the Princess to remain [there], the Prince, taking a gun, went to hunt. At that time the Parrot, the Leopard, and the Cat went with the Prince.

The three and the Prince, or a person who would send him away, not being near, that robber who had been wounded that day, and having got hid remained after the Prince went away, came out into the light; and asking for cooked rice from the Princess and having eaten it, became associated with the Princess, and stayed a few days without the Prince’s knowing it, healing those wounds and the like.

Then that robber spoke to the Princess,

“Having killed your elder brother and we two having married, let us remain [here].”

Thereupon the Princess also being willing regarding it, asked the robber,

“How shall we kill elder brother ?”

Then the robber said,

“At the time when your elder brother comes, say that you have got fever, and remain lying down. Then he having come will be grieved. Then say, ‘Elder brother, the deity who protects us—who he is I do not know—said there is a pool in the midst of this forest. In the pool there is a lotus flower. Unless, plucking the lotus flower, you come and boil it, and I should drink the gravy, my fever will not be cured otherwise.’”

The Princess asked the robber,

“When he has gone to the pool what will happen ?”

The robber said,

“There is a Crocodile in the pool. No one can descend into the pool. Because the Celestial Nymphs (Apsarases) bathe [there], should another person go the Crocodile will swallow him.”

Then the Princess having become pleased, at the time when the Prince, having gone for hunting-sport, came back, she remained lying down groaning and groaning.

The Prince having come asked,

“What is it, younger sister ?”

The Princess said,

“Ane ! Elder brother, I have got fever.”

Thereupon the Prince through grief that the Princess had got fever does not eat the cooked rice. Then the Princess said all the words which the robber told her. So having said,

“I will bring the lotus flower,”

the Prince went.

Having gone and found the pool, when he looked there was a large lotus flower in the manner she said. The Prince, putting on the bathing cloth,^[2] and fastening his sword in his waist string, prepared to descend into the pool.

Thereupon, the three animals that went with the Prince said,

“Don’t descend,”

and began to say it again and again. Out of them the Parrot said,

“Elder brother, having gone flying, I will bring each pollen grain of the flower. Don’t you descend.”

The Prince said,

“ While thou art going and bringing each grain of pollen it will become night. On that account I will go, and cutting the flower from the outside will come back ”;

and he descended into the pool. As he descended, the Crocodile having come swallowed him. When it was swallowing him the sword fixed at the Prince’s waist pierced the Crocodile’s stomach, and the Crocodile and the Prince died.

Thereupon the three animals which remained on the bank, rolling over and over on the ground, breaking and breaking up the soil of the earth, began to cry out.

At that time the Celestial Nymphs came to the pool to bathe. Having come, and seen the lamentation of these animals, they told the Devatawa of the pool to come, and splitting open the stomach of the Crocodile he caused the Prince to be [re]-bom. Having come to life, the Prince, plucking the lotus flower, came to the bank.

Then the four, taking the lotus flower and having come back, and boiled and given it to that Princess, the false fever of the Princess was cured. Well then, by that they were unable to kill him.

So the robber asked the Princess,

“Now then, how to kill your elder brother ?”

Then the Princess said,

“Elder brother having come [after] walking, goes from this side near the screen to wash his face. You stay on the other side [of the screen] and cut him with your sword.”

So he remained that day in that way.

That day the Prince having come [after] walking did not go to the side to which he goes before; he went to the other side. At that time the man having been [there] tried to spring away. Then having cut down the man with the sword that was in the Prince’s hand, he asked the Princess,

“Whence this man ?”

The Princess remained silent.

Thereupon the Prince said,

“I shall not do anything to you; say the fact.”

The Princess told him the fact.

Then the Prince having said,

“Thou faithless one ! Go thou also,”

cut her down with the sword; and taking those things, went with the three animals to the city where he killed that tusk elephant.

Having gone there, and told the King the manner in which he killed the robbers, and all the dangers that had befallen him, the King, having been pleased, married the King’s Princess [to him]; and having given the kingdom also to that very Prince, he remained there.

The Prince having gone to his [father’s] city, said to the King,

“Father, having destroyed the word which you, Sir, said, by the acts that I performed, I was made to ascertain [the wisdom of] it.”

Having made obeisance to his father the King, and told him all the circumstances that had occurred, thereafter he came back with contentment to that city. Having come, he remained ruling over that city.

Western Province.

 

Notes:

In the Kolhan tales (Bompas) appended to Folklore of the Santal Parganas, p. 468, a girl and her brother, fearing their father wished to kill them, ran away and lived in the jungle. While the brother was hunting, a Raja met with the sister and wanted to marry her; thinking the youth would object the Raja persuaded the girl to try to get him killed. She pretended to be ill, and told him she could not recover unless he brought a flower which grew in a lake. When the boy was swimming to the flower a gigantic fish swallowed him ; but a Rakshasa friend drank the pool dry, caught the fish, and took out the boy alive. The Raja carried oS the girl, but was defeated by the youth and Rakshasa and some animal friends, gave the youth half his kingdom, and married him to his own daughter.

In the actions of the animals, expressive of their grief at the death of the Prince, there is a striking resemblance to those ascribed to the Werwolf in William of Palerne (E.E.T.S., ed. Skeat), on discovering that the child he was rearing was missing:

For reuliche (ruefully) gan he rore • and rente al his hide,

And fret (gnawed) oft of the erthe • and fel doun on swowe,

And made the most dool (sorrow) • that man mizt diuise.

The English translation of this twelfth-century Romance is said to date from about A.D. 1350.

In vol. i, p. 130, a dog shows its grief by rolling about and howling, and in vol. iii, p. 446, a man rolls on the ground in feigned sorrow.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Anda bera gaesuwaya, beat the proclamation tom-toms.

[2]:

Ambun̆da gahagana.