Jeweller's son climbed the tree, and pulled down the nest, and put the young eagles to death. When the old birds returned home and saw what was done, it grieved them very much, and they said, 'These cruel people have killed our children, let us punish them.' And seeing in the porch one of Coplinghee Ranee's beautiful bangles, which the Jeweller had just been cleaning, they swooped down and flew away with it.[1]
The Jeweller did not know what to do; he said to his wife, 'To buy such a bangle as that would cost more than all our fortune, and to make one like it would take many, many years; I dare not say I have lost it, or they would think I had stolen it, and put me to death. The only thing I can do is to delay returning the other as long as possible, and try somehow to get one like it.' So next day when the Ranee sent to inquire if her bangles were ready, he answered, 'They are not ready yet; they will be ready to-morrow.' And the next day, and the next, he said the same thing. At last the Ranee's messengers got very angry at the continued delays; then, seeing he could no longer make excuses, the Jeweller sent the one bangle by them to the palace, beautifully cleaned, with a message that the other also would shortly be ready, but all this time he was hunting for a bangle costly enough to take the Ranee as a substitute for the one the eagles had carried away. Such a bangle, however, he could not find.
When Koila reached the town, he spread out a sheet in the corner of a street near the market-place, and, placing Chandra's bangle upon it, sat down close by, waiting for customers. Now, he was very, very handsome. Although dressed so plainly, he looked like a Prince, and the bangle he had to sell flashed in the morning light like seven suns. Such a handsome youth, and such a beautiful bangle, the people had never seen before; and many passers-by, with chattees on their heads, for watching him let the chattees tumble down and break, they were so much astonished; and several men and women, who were looking out of the windows of their houses, leant too far forward, and fell into the street, so giddy did they become from wonder and amazement!
But no one could be found to buy the bangle, for they all said 'We cannot afford such jewels; this bangle is fit only for a Ranee to wear.' At last, when the day had nearly gone, who should come by but the Jeweller who had been employed to clean Coplinghee Ranee's bangles, and who was in search of one to replace
