her dress also is very untidy. What can that black stuff on her face and hands be? it looks very unnatural.' And so thinking to himself, instead of drinking the water, he threw it in the Princess's face! The Princess started back with a little cry, whilst the water, trickling down her face, washed off the charcoal, and showed her delicate features and beautiful fair complexion. The Prince caught hold of her hand, and said, 'Now tell me true, who are you? where do you come from? Who are your father and mother? and why are you here alone by yourself in the jungle? Answer me, or I'll cut your head off.' And he made as though he would draw his sword. The Princess was so terrified she could hardly speak, but, as best she could, she told how she was the daughter of a Rajah, and had run away into the jungle because of her cruel stepmother, and finding the house, had lived there ever since; and having finished her story, she began to cry. Then the Prince said to her, (Pretty lady, forgive me for my roughness; do not fear; I will take you home with me, and you shall be my wife.' But the more he spoke to her the more frightened she got,—so frightened that she did not understand what he said, and could do nothing but cry. Now she had said nothing to the Prince about her sister, nor even told him that she had one, for she thought, 'This man says he will kill me; if he hears that I have a sister, they will kill her too.' So the Prince, who was really kind-hearted, and would never have thought of separating the two little sisters who had been together so long, knew nothing at all of the matter, and only seeing she was too much alarmed even to understand gentle words, said to his servants, 'Place this lady in one of the palkees, and let us set off home.' And they did so.
When the Princess found herself shut up in the palkee and being carried she knew not where, she thought how terrible it would be for her sister to return home and find her gone, and determined, if possible, to leave some sign to show her which way she had been taken. Round her neck were many strings of pearls. She untied them, and tearing her saree into little bits, tied one pearl in each piece of the saree, that it might be heavy enough to fall straight to the ground; and so she went on, dropping one pearl and then another, and another, and another, all the way she went along, until they reached the palace, where the Rajah and Ranee, the Prince's father and mother, lived. She threw the last remaining pearl down just as she reached the palace gate.
The old Rajah and Ranee were delighted to see the beautiful
