At news of this the Ranee did not know what to do. She was so foolishly fond of Muchie-Rajah, however, that she resolved to get him a wife at any cost. Again she sent out messengers; but this time she gave them a great bag containing a lac of gold mohurs,[1] and said to them, 'Go into every land until you find a wife for my Muchie-Rajah, and to whoever will give you a child to be the Muchie-Ranee,[2] you shall give this bag of gold mohurs.' The messengers started on their search, but for some time they were unsuccessful: not even the beggars were to be tempted to sell their children, fearing the great fish would devour them. At last one day the messengers came to a village where there lived a Fakeer, who had lost his first wife and married again. His first wife had had one little daughter, and his second wife also had a daughter. As it happened, the Fakeer's second wife hated her little step-daughter, always gave her the hardest work to do, and the least food to eat, and tried by every means in her power to get her out of the way, in order that the child might not rival her own daughter. When she heard of the errand on which the messengers had come, she sent for them when the Fakeer was out, and said to them, 'Give me the bag of gold mohurs and you shall take my little daughter to marry the Muchie-Rajah' (for, she thought to herself, 'The great fish will certainly eat the girl, and she will thus trouble us no more'). Then, turning to her step-daughter, she said, 'Go down to the river and wash your saree, that you may be fit to go with these people, who will take you to the Ranee's court.' At these words the poor girl went down to the river very sorrowful, for she saw no hope of escape, as her father was from home. As she knelt by the river-side, washing her saree and crying bitterly, some of her tears fell into the hole of an old Seven-headed Cobra who lived in the river-bank. This Cobra was a very wise animal, and seeing the maiden he put his head out of his hole, and said to her, 'Little girl, why do you cry?'—'O sir,' she answered, 'I am very unhappy, for my father is from home, and my stepmother has sold me to the Ranee's people to be the wife of the Muchie-Rajah, that great fish, and I know he will eat me up.'—'Do not be afraid, my daughter,' said the Cobra, 'but take with you these three stones and tie them up in the corner of your saree.' And so saying he gave her three little round pebbles. 'The Muchie-Rajah, whose wife you are to be, is not really a fish, but a Rajah who has been enchanted. Your home will be a little room which the Ranee
