Bengal Fairy Tales/A Stick of Gold and a Stick of Silver
VII
A STICK OF GOLD AND A STICK OF SILVER
IN a certain country, the king's son, the prime minister's son, the chief merchant's son and the highest police officer's son were very intimate friends. They passed most of their time together in merry conversation and sport, without any pursuits befitting their position. Their fathers were very much dissatisfied with them, and resolved to treat them in such a way that they should, in disgust, be forced to do something that might retrieve their position in their respective families. So their mothers were instructed by their husbands one day to put ashes on their dinner plates instead of food, that being the highest indignity that could be offered. The prime minister's wife, and the wives of the merchant and the police superintendent, did as they were bidden, but the queen, unable to be so cruel to her son, served him with all the usual delicacies, putting only a pinch-full of ashes on the plate, thereby partially obeying her husband. The prince noticed the ashes, and asked his mother to account for them. She made some excuse, which, however, did not satisfy his curiosity. Having satisfied his hunger he went out and met his friends, whom he asked how they had fared that day; and they, with tears in their eyes, told him that only ashes had been given them for food. He informed them of what his mother had done; and keenly feeling the insult, the four young men left the kingdom to try their fortunes in the world without.
After many days they at length reached the borders of an extensive forest. Here were four roads, leading in four different directions, and each of them chose a road for himself, leaving marks whereby they might recognize the spot in future, agreeing to meet there again later. Each sped on his way and spent the whole day trying to find some human habitation. But their search was in vain, and in the evening they returned to the resting-place. The king's son said that from certain signs he suspected that a spell had been cast on them by Rakkhashis; and that they must be on their guard during the night. He also said that as the pangs of hunger were almost unbearable they must in the meantime go and try to secure some fruit from the forest. But no fruit was to be found. They were not, however, altogether disappointed. A deer's head was discovered by one of them, and with this they hastened back to their resort, eager to make a meal of it. To dress it up the prince's friends went to fetch fuel, fire, and water, leaving him asleep. The police superintendent's son, returning with the fuel, touched the deer's head with his sword to cut it; when lo! a Rakkhashi leapt out of it, ate up him and his horse and again entered into the deer's head. The merchant's son and the son of the minister came back, one after the other, and met their friend's fate. The minister's son, when about to be devoured, called out in anguish, "Prince, save me," and on this the latter awoke, and rushed to meet the enemy with drawn sword. But his winged horse, now in the Rakkhashi's clutches, called to him, saying, "O prince, run away, or there is no chance for you." The rocks and the trees standing near by repeated the cry, and he ran blindly forward, pursued, however, by the giantess, till at last, quite exhausted and breathless, he reached a mango tree, which he thus addressed:—"O blessed tree, do thou who hast been here since the golden age give me protection." Suddenly it was cleft; and the fugitive found refuge within it. The Rakkhashi prayed to the tree not to rob her of her prey, but the prayer was not heeded. She then transformed herself into a girl of great beauty, and remained seated at the foot of the tree, crying aloud as if some dire calamity had befallen her. The king of the place, who had been out on a hunting expedition, came to where she was; and ravished with her charms, took her home, and married her. But she had not forgotten her grudge against the prince who had escaped her jaws; and she devised a plan to destroy him. She pretended to be very ill, and laid herself down on a bed, under which she spread some dried flax plants. They crackled, and she said that the noise proceeded from her bones that were broken. Her husband was duped, and in great anxiety he called in the royal physician, whom she bribed to tell the king that the only remedy in this difficult and unheard-of case was that she might be made to inhale the smoke caused by burning the planks to be had from that particular mango tree at the foot of which she had been found. The king sent men to cut down the tree, and the prince, who was still within it, to save himself from impending peril asked it to change him into one of its fruit, and cast him into the adjacent tank, with instructions to a boal[1] fish in it to give him a place in its belly. His wishes were complied with.
The planks were in due time burnt in the Rakkhashi's room, but finding no blood marks on them, she knew that the subject of her malice had escaped her, and, by the exercise of her superhuman powers, learnt that he was in the shape of a mango, safe inside a boal fish in the tank near the destroyed mango tree. She communicated this to the physician who was in her pay, and induced him to get the permission of the king to fetch the fish, alleging that the inhalation of the smoke of the planks had done her no good. The permission was asked and granted, and the fish brought into the palace, but no mango was found on cutting it open, for the prince had persuaded his protector, the boal, to transform him into a snail. The king then became quite hopeless of the recovery of his beloved wife.
Meanwhile the prince, who had been changed into a snail, was lying in the tank. A girl came to bathe in the tank, and touching the snail with her foot she brought it out of the water and broke it, and out of it the prince issued forth, enchanting her with his ravishing personal charms. The girl took him home, where he remained as her friend.
The Rakkhashi quickly divined all this, and invented a fresh scheme to bring about his destruction. She told her husband that she might recover on touching certain things that were to be found in her father's kingdom, the things being Hasan Champa (Champa flowers), a particular spindle called Natan kati, and a raw melon twelve cubits long with its stone thirteen cubits in length. She also said that the only person who could fetch them was a prince, hiding himself in a house not far away. The king at once ordered his men to find out the prince, and bring him to the palace. They fulfilled their mission, and he was instantly bidden to start after the things, even though he gave out the antecedents of her who was then the queen. He began his journey only under compulsion.
Days and months passed away, and at last the prince reached a splendid mansion. He entered, but there was no one to be seen. Finding a grand staircase in one of the apartments, he ascended it and entered the first room that he came to. Here he was surprised to find a girl of rare beauty fast asleep. He tried to rouse her, but in vain. At length he saw two sticks lying by her, one of gold and the other of silver. He had heard before of the wonderful properties of such things, and taking up the stick of gold he touched the damsel with it, and she awoke, and asked him if he were a god, for who but a god could come into a house infested by Rakkhashis. The prince told her who he was, and on what mission he had come, and expressed a desire to learn more of her. On this, the girl related her history, saying that she was the daughter of a king, to whom the house she lived in had belonged. A body of Rakkhushes and Rakkhashis had invaded his kingdom and devoured him with his queen and all his subjects, his horses and his elephants. She was the only one spared. Some of the giants and giantesses were specially fond of her. But she was not allowed the least liberty. When they went out to secure food they left her as if dead by touching her with the silver stick, and on their return they revived her by the touch of the stick of gold.
While she was thus talking they heard the Rakkhushes and Rakkhashis returning, and bawling out:—
"Hung, maung, khaun!"
(We smell human flesh, and must eat it.)
The princess in a panic asked the prince to put her to sleep with the help of the silver stick, and to hide himself in the next room, which was used for worship, under the heap of flowers and Bael leaves that he would find there.
An old Rakkhashi came where the princess was lying, and rousing her with the gold stick, said—
"Grandchild, how is it that I smell a human being here?"
The princess replied:
"It may be it is I whom you smell, satisfy yourself by eating me up."
The Rakkhashi said, "Nonsense, thou, the apple of my eye, must not say so. Thou art my life; see what good things I have brought thee." Saying this, she gave the girl an ample meal, and retired for the night with the others to the sleeping chambers.
The next day dawned, and again they went out in a body, leaving the girl in a death-like sleep. The prince got out of his hiding place and roused her to consciousness. They then consulted togther as to the best means of escape from their terrible situation. The prince suggested that it would be best to worm out of the giantess, the girl's so-called grandmother, the secret of her existence and that of her people, since if that were known, it would be an easy task to get rid of them. The princess approved of the suggestion, and when in the night the Rakkhushes and Rakkhashis had sought their couches, and the despicable being who called her "grand-daughter" was shampooing as usual, she contrived to put a few drops of oil into her eyes, so that her tears fell on the Rakkhashi's feet.
At this she started, and asked the princess why she wept. The girl said, "O Grandmother, you all love me dearly; but if while you are away some accident cause your death, what will become of me?" At this the giantess laughed and said, "Foolish girl, drive away these gloomy thoughts. None of us will die, save at the hands of him alone who will, in one breath, reach the white column of crystal under yonder tank, take out the large snake hid in it, and placing the animal on his breast, despatch it with one stroke of his sword. But for every drop of the snake's blood that may fall to the ground, there will start into existence seven thousand beings like us." The princess seemed very much delighted at what she heard, and said, "Tell me also, dear grandmother, in what the life of that one of you who is now, in human shape, the queen in one of the kingdoms far off (here she must have mentioned the name of the kingdom) is contained, and where can one get Hassan Champa, the spindle named Natan kati, and the raw melon, twelve cubits in length, with its stone longer by one cubit." The Rakkhashi replied, "The things you have named are in the room which your father occupied, and the life of my daughter, the queen you have mentioned, is hid in the parrot there."
The next morning the princess, on being roused by the touch of the stick of gold, communicated to the prince the information she had obtained; and when the latter was going through the feats required for the extermination of the giants and giantesses, they hastened with shrieks towards the mansion, the girl's self-constituted grandmother being the foremost. She cried out, "Ainglo, mainglo, O grand-daughter, this is thy doing. I will devour thee before I die." But there was no time for her to take vengeance; the snake was put to the sword without a single drop of its blood falling to the ground, and the heads of the Rakkhushes and Rakkhashis fell at the same moment from off their bodies. The prince and the princess then left the place with the things that the former had come in search of, together with the parrot in which the life of the Rakkhashi in the palace was hid, and reached the kingdom whence the prince had been deputed. He saw the king, and told him that the things required for the queen's recovery had been obtained; that a Durbar should be held, before which certain circumstances connected with them should be told in order to increase their power as remedies, and that they should then be handed over to the patient in the presence of all assembled. The Durbar was called, and the queen came. But what was her terror when she found the things and the parrot? It was clear to her that her whole race had been destroyed, and that her own life was hanging by a thread; and, to make the most of her superhuman powers, she assumed her natural form, and as about to devour them all, when the prince brought the parrot out of its cage and put his hand on its neck to twist it. The Rakkhashi, finding herself completely at his mercy, implored him to spare her life. Whereupon he demanded that his friends with their horses should be restored to him, and she forthwith ejected them from her mouth quite uninjured. No mercy, however, was shown her. The parrot was killed, and with it the giantess.
The king, in gratitude to the prince for saving him and his subjects from the hands of the Rakkhashi, offered his deliverer the greater part of his treasures, but the offer was modestly refused. The four friends, without delay, returned to their own country, and were gladly received back by their parents and friends. The princess who had been rescued from the Rakkhushpuri (the house of the Rakkhushes) was with great éclat married to the prince, and their wedded life was one of joy and happiness.
- ↑ The Boal is a fish, large in size, with a head very much resembling that of the shark.