Princess their son had brought home; and when they heard her story they said, 'Ah, poor thing! what a sad story; but now she has come to live with us, we will do all we can to make her happy.' And they married her to their son with great pomp and ceremony, and gave her rich dresses and jewels, and were very kind to her. But the Princess remained sad and unhappy, for she was always thinking about her sister, and yet she could not summon courage to beg the Prince or his father to send and fetch her to the palace.
Meantime the youngest Princess, who had been out with her flocks and herds when the Prince took her sister away, had returned home. When she came back she found the door wide open, and no one standing there. She thought it very odd, for her sister always came every night to the door, to meet her on her return. She went upstairs; her sister was not there; the whole house was empty and deserted. There she must stay all alone, for the evening had closed in, and it was impossible to go outside and seek her with any hope of success. So all the night long she waited, crying, 'Some one has been here, and they have stolen her away: they have stolen my darling away. O sister! sister!' Next morning, very early, going out to continue the search, she found one of the pearls belonging to her sister's necklace tied up in a small piece of saree; a little further on lay another, and yet another, all along the road the Prince had gone. Then the Princess understood that her sister had left this clue to guide her on her way, and she at once set off to find her again. Very, very far she went—a six months' journey through the jungle—for she could not travel fast, the many days' walking tired her so much, and sometimes it took her two or three days to find the next piece of saree with the pearl. At last she came near a large town, to which it was evident her sister had been taken. Now this young Princess was very beautiful indeed—as beautiful as she was wise,—and when she got near the town she thought to herself, 'If people see me they may steal me away as they did my sister, and then I shall never find her again. I will therefore disguise myself.' As she was thus thinking she saw by the side of the road the skeleton of a poor old beggar-woman, who had evidently died from want and poverty. The body was shrivelled up, and nothing of it remained but the skin and bones, The Princess took the skin and washed it, and drew it on over her own lovely face and neck, as one draws a glove on one's hand. Then she took a long stick and began hobbling along, leaning on it, towards the town.
