III
SHEET AND BASANTA
THERE was once a king with two wives, one Suo, or the beloved; and the other Duo, or the despised. The former was very wicked, and heaped the greatest indignities on her rival. The elder queen was childless, while the younger had presented her husband with two sons, Sheet (Winter) and Basanta (Spring) by name. Though princes and heirs to the throne, the youths had to pass their days in great wretchedness on account of the secret ill-treatment they received from their stepmother.
One day the two queens went to bathe in the river flowing by the palace, and the elder queen said to the younger, "Oh, how dirty you are; come, let me wash your hair and put some oil on it." The object of this pretended friendship gladly submitted to the process; whereupon her rival adroitly put something on her head, by the magical virtue of which she was transformed into a parrot, and flew away. The elder queen came home and spread the rumour that the Duo queen had been drowned. The king believed it and was very sorry, the more so for the fact that his sons, whom he greatly loved, were left motherless.
The gilded parrot, into which the younger queen had been transformed, flew into another kingdom, and the daughter of the king of the place happened to see the bird, and asked her father to let her have it. Her request was complied with, and the parrot was brought into the palace in a cage of gold.
