Folk-tales of Kashmir/The Seven-Legged Beast
A certain king, who took especial pride in his troops and spent an enormous amount of money on them, wished to know thoroughly how strong and able they were. Accordingly he ordered the general in command to assemble the men in battle array on a large maidan without the city. On the day of review His Majesty, attended by his wazirs and diwans, visited the place, and while they were watching the manoeuvres, a beast having seven legs[1] suddenly appeared and prowled around near them. On noticing it the king was much astonished and wished to kill it; but the beast got away. The king rode after it as hard as his swift horse could carry him, and when he had thus pursued it for about two miles, the beast stopped, shook itself, and changing into a great and terrible jinn, turned round on His Majesty, slew him, and ate him.
The wazirs caused earnest search to be made for the king for eight days, and then, no tidings of him having been received, they fetched his son and proclaimed him king in his father's stead.
One day the young king was seized with an irrepressible desire to know the cause of his father's death. He forced the wazirs to tell him, and when he had heard everything he commanded another grand review of the whole army to be held m the same place where the review in his father's time had been held. On the appointed day he and all the court attended to watch the proceedings. They had not been present very long before the seven-legged beast came again, and growling fiercely at them, walked away. When the chief wazír saw this he laughed aloud.
"What is the matter?" asked the king.
"I laughed," replied the íwazír, "because this is none other than the beast that allured your late father from our midst."
"Is it so? Then I must slay it, for I shall not have any peace till this enemy is killed." Saying this, the king whipped his horse and rushed after it. The beast led him on and on for some distance, as it did his father, and then stopping, shook itself, resumed its original shape, and prepared to spring. In his distress the king called earnestly on the great God to save him; and God sent an angel to direct him how to fight with the jinn.
"This is a most powerful jinn," said the angel. "Should a drop of his blood fall to the ground, while life is in him, another jinn will be quickly formed therefrom, and spring up and slay you.[2] But fear not. Take this double-headed arrow and pierce the two eyes of the monster, so that he fall down and die." Then the angel departed.
Thus strengthened, the king dashed forward. He fought with the jinn for forty minutes. At last he plunged the double-headed arrow into both of his eyes, and thus slew him. When he saw that his enemy was dead the king drew his sword and cut off his head, and fixing it on his arrow, took it with him to the palace, where he placed it in one of the twelve thousand rooms of that building; and gave his mother the keys, bidding her not to open the doors thereof.
But as he did not tell his mother what he had so carefully locked up in the room, she supposed that it was some special treasure, and being very inquisitive, one morning went to the room and unlocked the door. Nothing, however, was to be seen, for the king had thrown the head into a corner; but a laugh was heard, and then a voice, saying, "Your son is a jinn. Beware of him. He is a jinn. Some time he will kill you, as he killed me, your husband. Get him out of the palace, if you wish to live."
"Whence comes this voice? What say you?" asked the king's mother.
"Pretend to be unwell, and beg your son to get the milk of a tigress.[3] Bid him to go himself and try to get this," said the head.
The next morning, with a sad and heavy heart, the king might have been seen wending his steps in the direction of a certain jungle, wherein tigers and other wild beasts were known to roam. He soon saw a tigress, with her two cubs basking in the sunshine. He climbed a tree and aimed at one of the teats of the beast. This teat chanced to be one in which she had suffered much pain for several days, owing to the presence of a nasty abscess near the place. The king's arrow broke the abscess, and the pain was at once relieved. Grateful for this relief, the tigress looked up and entreated the king to descend and ask whatever he would like her to get for him. His Majesty told her that he wanted nothing but a little of her milk for his sick mother, who had taken a strange fancy for it. The tigress readily filled the cup that the king had brought with him, and also gave him a tuft of her fur, saying, "Whenever you are in any difficulty show this to the sun, and I will at once come to your aid."[4] Taking the milk and the bit of fur, the king returned to his palace.
When his mother received the milk of the tigress she felt quite sure that her son was a jinn, and determined more than before to have him killed. She went to the room where the head was, and informed the speaker of everything, and heard again a voice saying, "Be assured thereby that this man is a jinn. None but a jinn could obtain milk from a tigress. Have him killed as soon as possible."
"But how can I get rid of him?" she asked.
The voice replied, "When your son visits you and inquires after your health, tell him that you still feel very weak and sick. The tigress's milk did not do you any good. But you have heard of a princess who lives alone in a castle on a certain high hill. If she could come and touch you, you would become well. Your son will go to this terrible castle, and be certainly killed on the way."
In the evening the king went to see his mother. "Are you better?" he asked.
"No," she said. "The tigress' milk has not benefited me in the least. But I saw in a dream a princess who lives in a certain castle, and heard that if she would come and touch me all would be well. Until she comes I shall never get strong."
"Be comforted, mother. I will fetch this woman for you, or forfeit my kingdom."
Early the following morning the king started on his perilous journey. He had not forgotten the bit of charmed fur. As soon as the sun appeared he showed the fur to it, and immediately the tigress and her two cubs came running towards him.
"What is the matter?" asked the tigress.
"I have to go and fetch the princess who resides in yonder castle."
"Fetch her! You cannot do it. Several people have tried, for the princess is very beautiful; but nobody ever succeeded in getting near her."
"I will try, though I lose my life in the attempt." Saying this the king left.
The tigress could not bear to have her benefactor thus leave her. So she ran after him with her two cubs, and begged him to ride on her.[5] They soon reached the castle.
"In this place," said the tigress, "there are three big doors, through which it is necessary to pass before a person can get to the princess. Near the first door is an immense block of iron, which must be broken by a wooden axe, or the door will not open. At the second door is an imitation cow, surrounded by real jinns. If any person can milk the cow, he will pass through; if not, he will be devoured by the jinns. By the third door sits the princess herself. If she is pleased with you, she will receive you; but if not, she will accomplish your death."
On hearing these words the king became very frightened, and begged the tigress[6] to help him.
"Very well," she said. "By a charm which I possess I will enter the block of iron, and when you strike with the wooden axe, I will cause it to divide into two pieces; and then the doorkeeper will think that you cleft the iron, and allow you to enter through the first door."
"And I," said one of the young tigers, "will cause the statue of the cow to give milk, and will keep the jinns who stand round it from hindering you in milking. Thus will you be able to pass through the second door."
"And I," said the other young tiger, "will put a charm into the eyes of the princess, so that when she looks on you she may think you to be bright and beautiful as the sun, and be so fascinated with the sight, that she will open the third door and do anything else you may ask her."
Faithfully they all three performed their promises. The king safely reached the princess, and she, overcome by his beauty and immense power, professed her great affection for him, and entreated him to make her his wife.
Then the tigress and her two cubs returned to their lair. In a few days the king took the princess home with him to his palace. "Mother," he said, "I have brought the princess. Oh! what a fearful place it was, and how difficult and dangerous the way to it! I should have perished on the way if a tigress and her two little cubs had not helped me. Praise be to God that I am here safe and well!" Some other conversation leading up to it, he told her also about the head of the jinn—how it had first appeared to him as a seven-legged beast, and led him away to a certain place where it changed itself back into its real character, a great and terrible jinn, and prepared to jump on him; and how he would have been slain and eaten up, as his father had been, if God had not sent His angel and helped him.
His mother was much surprised to hear this. "My son," she said, "I have been deceived. On the evening of the day when you borrowed the keys of the palace from me I went round several of the rooms, till I came to the one in which I heard the sound of laughing. On my inquiring the reason of this a voice said, 'Take heed lest your son, who is a jinn, slay you. I am the head of your husband. He killed me. Get rid of him, or he will kill you also.' My son, I believed the voice, and at its advice I sent you to fetch me the milk of a tigress, hoping you would be slain in the attempt. And I begged you to go and call the princess, knowing that the way to her abode was full of terrible dangers. But God has been with you, and He, who sent the angel to direct you, has also caused the tigress and young tigers to be your helpers. Praise he to His name!" Then she embraced her son, and wept bitterly.
Within a short time of these things the king married the princess, and spent the rest of his life in peace and prosperity.[7]
- ↑ Satah-zung haiwan.
- ↑ Cf. Folk-Tales of Bengal, pp. 85, 253; Indian Fairy Tales, p. 187; also a note on the "revivifying and healing powers of blood," in Wide-Awake Stories, p. 418.
- ↑ Cf. Indian Fairy Tales, p. 178; Indian Antiquary, Part cxc. p. 367; Bilochi Stories, p. 27; and the story of the "Ogress-Queen" in this collection.
- ↑ A favourite device for summoning the absent. Notice that these things have generally to be shown to the sun or to the fire. Cf. Wide-Awake Stories, pp. 32, 271; Legends of the Punjab, vol. i. pp. 42, 43; Indian Notes and Queries, vol. iv. p. 49; and Folk-Lore Journal, vol. ii. 104, re charms placed in the fire; Russian tale of "Naznaiko" in Afanasief's collection (vii. No. 10): also tale of "Good King Hátam" in this collection. Vide also "Survey of Incidents in Modern Indian Folk- Tales" in Wide-Awake Stories, pp. 413, 414. There are some interesting notes on Hair and its wonderful properties in Indian Fairy Tales, pp. 268-270.
- ↑ Cf. The Orientalist, vol. i. p. 27; Indian Evangelical Review, vol. xiii. p.232; also tale of the "Wicked Queens" in this collection.
- ↑ Apparently a very grateful beast. Cf. Indian Fairy Tales, pp. 65, 156, 180; Wide-Awake Stories, p. 6; Madanakamárájankadai (The Dravidian Nights), Tenth Story; The Orientalist, pp.181, 182, 250; also the Pancha-tantra (Appendix to Book I. Story 2).
- ↑ Cf. article, "The Forbidden Chamber," in Folk-Lore Journal, vol. iii. pp. 193-242, for other stories presenting this prohibition; also en passant, vol. v. p. 66 of the same journal.