were also made much of. Yet still the smell of human flesh bewildered the Rakkhashis. They passed it over, however, and the time went by in friendly entertainment. One day when their hosts had gone out in search of food, Lalkamal with his brother went to a well at the back of the house, dived under it, and brought up with him a casket containing two hornets, in one of which the lives of all the Rakkhashis were lodged. The other had in it the life of the Rakkhashi who was Lalkamal's mother. When each of the brothers took out a hornet, the giants, who had gone out, felt themselves uneasy and hastened home; and the Rakkhashis in the palace felt a very painful palpitation of their hearts. The legs of one of the hornets were torn off, and the Rakkhushes and Rakkhashis at the same time lost their limbs. Rolling on the ground, they approached the princes with mouths wide open to devour them; but on the head of the hornet being removed, they fell down lifeless. Lalkamal cut off the head of his grandmother, rolled it in a napkin, and called on the young Bangomas to carry him and his brother away. After three months they reached their father's kingdom, and wanted to deliver the head they brought to the messengers from their father's palace. But these were not to be found, for they too had died at the same time as their relations and friends. The head therefore was sent through a sepoy in the entourage of the brothers. On seeing it, Lalkamal's mother was so excited and enraged that she cast off her disguise, assumed her gigantic form, and cried out:—
"Thanda khang, gorom khang[1]
Mor moria haddi khang
Dau, dau chitar agun
Taholei booker jala jaung."
Thereupon she hurried out to where Neelkamal and
- ↑ The four lines mean:—"I will eat all things, warm or cold: I will eat bones which will make a cracking sound inside my mouth. There is something like the fire of a funeral pyre burning within my bosom; and if I can do what I wish, my heart-burn will cease."
