that Seventee Bai was not the Rajah she pretended to be; and she most strictly forbade Parbuttee Bai's making a great friend of anybody, or admitting any one to her confidence—for, she said, 'Who knows, then, but some day you may unawares reveal that I am only Seventee Bai; and, though I love you as my very sister, if that were told by you, I would kill you with my own hands.'
Now the king's palace was on the side of the city nearest to the jungle, and one night the Ranee was awakened by loud and piercing shrieks coming from that direction; so she woke her husband, and said, 'I am so frightened by that terrible noise that I cannot sleep. Send some one to see what is the matter.' And the Rajah called all his attendants, and said, 'Go down towards the jungle and see what that noise is about.' But they were all afraid, for the night was very dark, and the noise very dreadful—and they said to him, 'We are afraid to go. We dare not do so by ourselves. Send for this young Rajah who is such a favourite of yours, and tell him to go. He is brave. You pay him more than you do us all. What is the good of your paying him so much unless he can be of use when he is wanted?' So they all went to Seventee Bai's house, and when she heard what was the matter, she jumped up, and said she would go down to the jungle to see what the noise was.
This noise had been made by a Rakshas, who was standing under a gallows on which a thief had been hanged the day before. He had been trying to reach the corpse with his cruel claws; but it was just too high for him, and he was howling with rage and disappointment. When, however, the Wuzeer's daughter reached the place, no Rakshas was to be seen; but, in his stead, a very old woman, in a wonderful glittering saree, sitting wringing her withered hands under the gallows-tree, and above—the corpse, swaying about in the night wind. 'Old woman,' said Seventee Bai, 'what is the matter?' 'Alas!' said the Rakshas (for it was he), 'my son hangs above on that gallows. He is dead, he is dead! and I am too bent with age to be able to reach the rope and cut his body down.' 'Poor old woman!' said Seventee Bai; 'get upon my shoulders, and you will then be tall enough to reach your son.' So the Rakshas mounted on Seventee Bai's shoulders, who held him steady by his glittering saree. Now, as she stood there, Seventee Bai began to think the old woman was a very long time cutting the rope round the dead man's neck; and just at that moment the moon shone out from behind a cloud, and Seventee
