Story 47 - The Golden Tree

AT a certain city there is a King, it is said; there are three Princes of that King. The King, while sleeping, saw in a dream that a Golden Tree sprang up, and on that Golden Tree a Silver Flower blossomed. A Silver Cock that was sitting on the Silver Flower crowed.

Afterwards the King caused the three Princes to be fetched. When the eldest Prince had been brought he asked him,

“Son, can you explain this dream which I have had ?”

The Prince asked,

“What appeared in the dream, Fathering ?”

The King said,

“A Golden Tree having been created, on it a Silver Flower blossomed, and a Silver Cock crowed while sitting upon the flower.”

The Prince said,

“Ane ! Father-King, I cannot interpret it; perhaps my two younger brothers will explain it.”

Then the King having caused the next Prince to be fetched, asked him,

“Son, can you explain this dream ?”

The Prince asked,

“Father-King, what appeared in the dream ?”

The King told him the manner in which the things appeared in the dream.

The Prince said,

“Father-King, I cannot explain it; perhaps younger brother will interpret it.”

Then the King having caused the youngest Prince to be brought asked him,

“Son, can you explain this dream ?”

The Prince asked,

“Father-King, what appeared in the dream ?”

The King told him the manner in which the things appeared in the dream.

Then the Prince said,

“O Lord, Your Majesty, I will interpret that dream, but I must first go in search of the explanation.”

After that, the three Princes obtained leave of absence for three years. Having got it, the three persons, cooking a bundle of rice, and taking from their father permission to depart, started to go in search of the interpretation. Having gone on and on, they came to a junction of three roads. Having arrived at it, and eaten the bundle of cooked rice, the eldest Prince said,

“I will go along this road; you go on those two roads,”

So the eldest Prince went along one road, the second Prince went along another road, and the youngest Prince went on the remaining road.

Having gone on and on, the youngest Prince arrived at the house of a widow woman. The woman said,

“Ane ! Son, what have you come here for ? We have not even firewood for cooking.”

The Prince asked,

“Why, mother, is that ?”

The widow woman said,

“There is a Yaka in the jungle in which is the firewood. The Yaka has now eaten all the people of this city ; few people are now in it.”

The Prince asked,

“How does that Yaka seize the men ?”

The widow woman said,

“When they go to the jungle and are cutting firewood, he comes saying ‘Hu,’ and eats them.”

Afterwards the Prince, taking his sword, went to the jungle, and chopped a piece of firewood. The Yaka came, saying “Hu.” Then the Prince chopped at the Yaka with that very sword, and the Yaka died there. After that, the Prince, taking a bundle of firewood, returned to the house of the widow woman.

The widow woman asked,

“Son, did you meet with the Yaka ?”

The Prince said,

“I met with him ; I killed the Yaka.”

Then having cooked with the firewood, she gave the Prince to eat.

On the morning of the following day the King went to the jungle, and chopped firewood. That day the Yaka did not come, saying “Hu.” Afterwards, through the Yaka’s not saying “Hu,” the King went to look for him, and saw that the Yaka was dead.

So the King returned to the city, and saying,

“I must find now, in a moment, the man who killed the Yaka,”

caused proclamation to be made by beat of tom-toms to that effect.

Having heard it, this widow woman, summoning the Prince, went to the palace, and told the King that he had killed the Yaka. After that the King asked at the hand of the Prince,

“How did you kill the Yaka ?”

The Prince said,

“I went to the jungle, and while I was chopping firewood the Yaka having come crying ‘Hu,’ sprang onto me. Then I speedily chopped at him and killed him.”

Having heard this, the Kinggave the Prince a district of that kingdom, and an elephant’s load of goods.

Afterwards the Prince gave all those things to the widow woman, and having gone away to another city, came to the house of a widow-mother.

Having arrived there, the Prince said to her,

“Ane ! Mother, you must give me a resting-place to-day.”

The widow-mother said,

“I can indeed give you a resting-place, but there is no place to sleep in. You cannot sleep in the veranda; a light falls there during the night, and any person who sees that light dies. Nobody can stop the light. In order to stop it, the King has made public proclamation by beat of tom-toms that to any person who stops it he will give an elephant’s load of goods, and a district of the kingdom.”

The Prince asked her,

“Mother, where does the light fall first ?”

The widow-mother said,

“In an open grass field in the middle of the city.”

The Prince then said,

“If so, go and tell the King to fix a raised platform at the place where the light falls, and having placed there a winnowing basket made of cow-dung, and a large pot of water, to come away. I will go there to-night and stop it.”

So the widow-mother went and told the King. After that, the King prepared the things in that very manner, and came away.

In the evening, the Prince, having eaten food, went onto the platform. Near midnight, while he was there the light fell there. When the Prince looked, the Naga King of the world of the Nagas, having come there, had ejected from his mouth the Cobra Stone, and having gone far away was eating food [as a cobra].

Then this Prince put the cow-dung winnowing basket on the stone, whereupon the Naga King came crying out to the water-pot, taking it for the person [who had done it]. The Prince then chopped at him with his sword, and the Naga King died. After that, taking the Cobra Stone, the Prince washed it with water from the pot, and put it away in the waist pocket of his cloth.

While he was there it became light. Then the King came to see if he had stopped the light. When he looked he saw that the cobra was lying in a heap.

The King asked at the hand of the Prince,

“Did you stop the light ?”

The Prince said,

“Look there ! The very one that made the light has been killed there.”

Afterwards the King gave the Prince an elephant’s load of goods, and a district of that kingdom.

Afterwards, the Prince having given to the widow woman all the things that had been given to him, went along the path on which the Naga King had come, to the world of the Nagas. When he got there, all the three Princesses of the Naga King whom he had killed were there, sitting in one spot.

The Princesses said to this Prince,

“What have you come for ? Should our father the King return now he will eat you.”

The Prince saying,

“Your father the King cannot come. I have come here after killing your father the King,”

showed them the Cobra Stone.

Then the Princesses asked,

“What have you come here for ?”

The Prince said,

“I have come on account of a soothsaying, in order to get it explained.”

The Princesses asked,

“What is the sooth ?”

The Prince said,

“At the time when our father the King was sleeping, a Golden Tree having sprung up, and a Silver Flower having blossomed on it, a Silver Cock which was sitting upon the flower crowed.”

The three Princesses said,

“We cannot explain it here. Let us go to your father the King.”

The Prince said “Ha,” and the three Princesses and the Prince set off to come to him.

They came to the junction of the three roads at which at first the three Princes separated.

Having arrived there they went along the road on which the eldest brother of the Prince had gone, and having met with him the Prince said,

“Let us go back, elder brother, these three Princesses will explain the dream”;

so they returned. Then they all went along the road on which the next brother had gone, and having found him the Prince said,

“Let us go back.”

Having summoned him to go with them, those three Princes and the three Princesses, six persons, having met together in this manner, came to the Princes’ city. Having arrived there, this youngest Prince caused their father the King to be called. So the King came to them.

Then these three Princesses who had come from the world of the Nagas said to this youngest Prince,

“Cause us three persons to stand at the thread”

(that is, to toe the line). So this Prince caused them to stand at the thread.

Then the three Princesses said,

“Cuf off our three heads at one stroke.”

So this youngest Prince cut off their three heads at one stroke. Thereupon the Golden Tree was created, and the Silver Flower having blossomed on it, the Silver Cock that was sitting on the top of the flower crowed.

Then this youngest Prince chopped down the Golden Tree with his sword, and the three Princesses came to life again. Having come to life, the three Princesses asked at the hand of the King, the father of the Princes,

“Was it thus in the dream that appeared to you ?”

The King said “Yes.” Then the three Princesses told him that they were the Golden Tree, and the Silver Flower, and the Silver Cock.

After that, the three Princesses, having been married to the three Princes, remained there.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

 

Note:

The Cobra King with the gem, a diamond, which he laid down while feeding, and swallowed afterwards, occurs in Old Deccan Days (Frere), p. 36. A girl, disguised as a Prince, hung in a tree a large iron trap fitted with knives underneath. Below it she scattered flowers and sweet scents “such as cobras love,” and when the Cobra came at night she dropped the trap on him, and killed him. When she went to wash the diamond in the lake, the water on being touched by it rolled aside, and revealed a path which led to the garden at the Cobra’s palace. In the garden she found a tree with a silver stem, golden leaves, and clusters of pearls as fruits. In the end, the Cobra’s daughter came away with her.

In Folk-Tales of Bengal (Day), p. 18, a Cobra rose out of a tank, with a brilliant gem on its hood, which shone “like a thousand diamonds,” and lit up everything around. The snake put it down and went in search of food, and swallowed the two horses of a Prince and his friend, the son of the Minister, who were belated, and sitting in a tree. While the snake was at some distance, the Minister’s son descended, covered the gem with horse dung, and climbed back. The snake rushed to the spot, but could not find the gem, and eventually died. Next morning they descended, washed the gem in water, and saw by its light a palace under the water, in which they found a Princess whom the Prince married.

In the Jataka story No. 253 (vol. ii, p. 197) we learn that the Naga King called Mani-Kantha,

“Jewel-throat,”

appears to have kept the gem in his throat.

He said—

Rich food and drink in plenty I can have
By means of this fine jewel which you crave.

In the story No. 543 (vol. vi, p. 94), the Naga gem is mentioned as “the jewel which grants all desires.” Naga youths are described as placing it on a hillock of sand, and “playing all night in the water by its radiance.”

One on the head of the Naga King is referred to on p. 97 as being one which,

“bright-red like a lady-bird, glows on his head a diadem.”

In the Panchatantra (Dubois), three jogis when killed while eating became three large copper pots filled with gold and valuable jewels.

In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 176— Tales of the Punjab (Steel), p. 166—a Princess was brought to life by cutting off, at one blow of the Sword, the heads of a pair of ducks.

In The Indian Antiquary, vol. i., p. 115, in a Bengal story by Mr. G. H. Damant, a King dreamt of a silver tree, with golden branches, diamond leaves, and pearl fruits; peacocks were playing in the branches and eating the fruits. The tree was a girl, imprisoned by Rakshasas. When a Prince cut her in two she became the tree ; when he dropped the knife she took her own shape again.