A Rajah’s son once went to worship at a sacred stone; when there, he beheld a lovely young girl, so, falling on his face before the stone, he said: “If you will but give me this girl as my bride, I will give you my head as a sacrifice.”

His prayer was granted, and he married the girl.

For two months he was so happy that he never remembered his vow, but at the end of that time, a Brahmin came and reminded him of it. So, after bidding his wife a loving farewell, he went sadly away, and, cutting off his head, placed it near the stone as a sacrifice.

Now his father, Barbil, missing him, came there to search, and was horrified to find his son’s dead body with the head offered to the stone.

“What is my life worth to me now? I will also sacrifice myself,” said he, and forthwith he too cut off his own head and placed it beside that of his son.

The bride, finding neither father nor husband return, went forth in search of them; and, seeing what had happened, determined to add her own life to the sacrifice.

She was just about to destroy herself when a voice near by said: “Daughter, do not hurt yourself. The heads alone are off, but if you take them and place them beside the bodies, they will unite again.”

The delighted girl immediately did as she was directed, and the two heads were united to the bodies, so that she once again saw her husband and father alive.

But no sooner did they begin to speak than she found that she had made a terrible mistake, for, in her eagerness to restore the heads to their bodies again, she had not noticed that she had united her husband’s head to his father’s body, and Barbil’s head to her husband’s body.

While the two men quarrelled over this mistake, the poor girl, greatly distressed, appealed to the Gods to help her. They bade her cease weeping.

“The head is the principal thing,” said they; “do not mind the body: if you were the daughter of a poor man and married a Prince, Barbil, having taken the form of the Prince, is also of royal blood, so it matters not. Let him that has the head of your husband be your husband again, and he who has the head of the King be the King.”

Thus they settled the matter, and returned home.

Moral.—The head ruleth the body, and not the body the head!