mother,' he said, 'that wretched-looking man who is beating the drum?'—'The same,' she answered.
The Prince said to his servants, 'Fetch that man here.' And the Rajah came towards them: so changed, that not even his own mother knew him;—no one recognised him but his wife! For eighteen years he had been among the nautch people; his hair was rough, his beard untrimmed, his face thin and worn, sunburnt and wrinkled; he wore a nose-ring, and heavy ear-rings such as the nautch people wear; and his dress was a rough common cumlee.[1] All traces of his former self seemed to have disappeared. They asked him if he did not remember he had been a Rajah once; and about his journey to Panch-Phul Ranee's country. But he said, No, he remembered nothing but how to beat the drum—Rub-a-dub! tat-tat! tom-tum! tom-tum! He thought he must have beaten it all his life.
Then the young Prince gave orders that all the nautch people should be put into jail, until it could be discovered what part they had taken in reducing his father to so pitiable a state. And sending for the wisest doctors in the kingdom, he said to them, 'Do your best, and restore the health of this Rajah, who has to all appearance lost both memory and reason; and discover, if possible, what has caused these misfortunes to befall him.' The doctors said, 'He has certainly had some potent charm given to him, which has destroyed both his memory and reason, but we will do our best to counteract its influence.'
And so they did. And their treatment succeeded so well, that, after a time, the Rajah entirely recovered his former senses. And they took such good care of him, that within a while he regained his health and strength also, and looked almost as well as ever.
He then found to his surprise that he, Panch-Phul Ranee, and their son, had all this time been living in his father's kingdom. His father was so delighted to see him again, that he was no longer unkind to him, but treated him as a dearly-beloved, long-lost son. His mother also was overjoyed at his return, and they said to him, 'Since you have been restored to us again, why should you wander any more? Your wife and son are here; do you also remain here, and live among us for the rest of your days.' But he replied, 'I have another wife—the Carpenter's daughter who first was kind to me in my adopted country. I also have
- ↑ A coarse woollen blanket.
