In a certain country a King was ruling; the King was without children. The King having performed many meritorious deeds, five children were born.

When they looked into the Naekata (or prognostics resulting from the positions of the planets) at the time when the children were born, those of four were good, but that of the fifth child was that on seeing him his father’s two eyes would become blind. The King told them to take the Prince and put him down in the forest. So having taken the Prince they put him in the forest.

After that, animals having come through the favour of the Prince’s guardian deity, gave him milk, and reared him.

After much time had passed, the Prince’s father, the King, went to have the jungle driven (for shooting); and having gone, while they were driving the jungle that Prince came, and bounded round the King’s enclosure. Then, the King having seen him his eyes became blind, and he went away without his eyes seeing anything. The people who went with the King, lifting him up, carried him to the palace.

Having arrived there, various medical treatments were applied; he was not cured. After that, he caused sooth-sayers to be brought, and after he had asked them regarding it, they said, “By applying medical treatment you will not meet with a cure. In the midst of the Forest of the Gods there is a flower called Kule-baka. Having brought that flower, and burnt it on your eyes, your eyes will see.”

Afterwards the King asked the people, “Who is able to bring this flower?” All the people said they could not do it. Then the four eldest Princes of the King, having said, “Let us go,” asked permission of the King; the King told them to go. So the four persons having started, went.

As they were going, the four persons went to a city. A courtesan stayed in that city; her name was Diribari-Laka.1 She gambled (i.e. kept a gambling house). These four persons went to her house, and having gone there prepared to gamble. Then the woman said, “Should you lose by this game, I shall make you four persons prisoners (that is, slaves).” The four persons having said, “It is good,” gambled, and all four having lost remained there as prisoners.

The Prince who was in the forest, having got to know all these matters, also set off to seek the flower, and on his way arrived at the city at which the Princes who were made prisoners were staying. This one, having gone to the King of the city, was appointed to do messenger’s work there. While he was living thus, this one obtained news that the courtesan was gambling, and thereupon this Prince asked the King for leave of absence. Having obtained it, he went to the house of an old woman near the courtesan’s house.

Having gone there, this Prince having fallen down near the feet of that old woman and made obeisance, weeping and weeping, these words are what he said, “Mother, are you in the enjoyment of health? Do not you let your face be even visible (to) scrofulous offspring. When lightning has struck you (may it) take your progeny.”2 Having spoken and spoken with these honours he remained weeping. The woman’s child, not of small age, was there, and having said similar things to the child also, and while weeping having paid respect, the woman made that Prince rise, and asked him, “Where were you for such a long period?”

“I was with a King,” the Prince said. “Mother, whose is that house?” he asked.

The woman said, “Why, son? Do not say anything about it. That house is the house of a courtesan. There is a gambling game of that woman’s, and by it many persons, having lost, remain as prisoners.”

The Prince asked, “Mother, how does one win by that game?”

Then the woman said, “A bent lamp having been lighted, is placed at the gambling place. Below the lamp a cat is sitting. While the woman is gambling the cat raises its head; then victory falls to the woman. When another person is playing the cat lowers its head; then defeat falls to that man. If you are to win, having extinguished the bent lamp, and driven away the cat, and brought and placed there another lamp, if you should then play you can win.”

After that, the Prince went to gamble. Having gone there, when he was ready to gamble she said, “Should you lose in gambling, you will be condemned to imprisonment; should you win you marry me.”

The Prince said, “It is good,” and gambled. When he was losing, he extinguished the lamp, and having beaten and driven away the cat, he told the woman to bring another lamp. After that, the woman brought a lamp. Having brought and placed the lamp there, they gambled. The woman having lost all, the Prince won. Afterwards, that woman married this Prince.

During the time while he was living there, as this Prince was starting to go and bring the Kule-baka flower, the woman said, “Don’t go.”

The Prince said, “I did not come for this gambling; I came for the Kule-baka flower. I must indeed go, after having set off for this purpose,” he said. So the Prince went to bring the flower. Before this, he had allowed the imprisoned men to go, and said to the four Princes, “Stop until I return.”

Having thus gone, he entered into the midst of a forest. While he was there, human-flesh-eating serpents and forest animals that were in the midst of the forest sprang to devour this Prince, but he made supplication to his deity, so they were unable to do it, and went away.

Then the Yaka who was guarding the Kule-baka garden, having seen the Prince, and having arisen and come near the Prince, asked, “Have you, a man born in the world of men, come into my presence to be a prey to me?”

The Prince said, “My father the King for a fault said he must behead me. On account of it, having made my way into the midst of the forest, I have come to you for you to eat indeed. If you are going to eat me, eat me; if you are going to keep me, keep me alive.”

After that, the Yaka asked, “What do you eat?”

The Prince said, “We eat wheat flour, ghi, sugar, and camels’ flesh.3 These indeed we eat.”

All these requisites having been brought by the Yaka, after he had given them to the Prince, the Prince made the food, and gave to the Yaka also.

The Yaka having eaten the food, sprang up into the air, and said to the Prince, “I never ate a meal like this. I will do anything you tell me.”

Then the Prince said to the Yaka, “Where is the path to go to the Kule-baka garden?”

The Yaka sprang up into the air, and fell on the ground, and beating his head, said, “If you had said so before this, by this time I should have eaten you. What can I do now that I have promised to help you?” Having said, “Go away from here,” he told him about the path.

Then the Prince went along it. There, also, a Yaksani4 (female Yaka) was guarding it, and the Prince came to her. The Yaksani asked the Prince, “Where are you going?”

The Prince said, “Having delayed in the midst of a forest, as I was returning I was unable to find the country with my village. Now I have met with you here.”

As he appeared good to the Yaksani she caused him to stay there, and married her daughter to him. The name of the girl to whom the Prince was married was Maha-Muda.5

During the time while he was there the Prince remained angry.

The girl asked, “What are you angry for?”

The Prince said, “I must go to look at the Kule-baka garden.”

Then the girl spoke about this matter to her mother. So that woman having fetched rats, caused a tunnel to be made by them to the Kule-baka garden. Along that tunnel the Prince went to the flower garden, and having gone there, and plucked the flowers, came back again.

Having returned there, calling Maha-Muda he came to the house of Diribari-Laka. Having arrived there, he burnt on the lower part of the back the four Princes who had remained as prisoners. The Prince who went for the Kule-baka flowers having burnt in this way the four Princes, who stayed as slaves at the house of Diribari-Laka, these four persons were freed from imprisonment.

Then the Prince, Maha-Muda, and Diribari-Laka, taking the flowers, came to the Prince’s native country. Having arrived there, he burnt the Kule-baka flowers on the two eyes of his father the King, and the two eyes of the King became well.

After that, the King having asked the Prince regarding these matters, learnt that he was the King’s Prince, [and he and his two wives continued to live there with him].

North-western Province.