TonotesTHERE were once a RÁjÁ and a RÁnÍ who had an only daughter called the PhÚlmati RÁnÍ, or the Pink-rose Queen. She was so beautiful that if she went into a very dark room it was all lighted up by her beauty. On her head was the sun; on her hands, moons; and her face was covered with stars. She had hair that reached to the ground, and it was made of pure gold. Every day after she had had her bath, her father and mother used to weigh her in a pair of scales. She only weighed one flower. She ate very, very little food. This made her father most unhappy, and he said, “I cannot let my daughter marry any one who weighs more than one flower.” Now, God loved this girl dearly, so he went down under the ground to see if any of the fairy RÁjÁs was fit to be the PhÚlmati RÁnÍ’s husband, and he thought none of them good enough. So he went in the form of a FakÍr to see the great IndrÁsan RÁjÁ who ruled over all the other fairy RÁjÁs. This RÁjÁ was exceedingly beautiful. On his head was the sun; and on his hands, moons; and on his face, stars. God made him weigh very little. Then he said to the RÁjÁ, “Come up with me, and we will go to the palace So the IndrÁsan RÁjÁ stayed for a whole year. Then he told the RÁjÁ, the PhÚlmati RÁnÍ’s father, that he wished to go back to his own kingdom. “All right,” said the RÁjÁ, and he wanted to give him horses, and camels, and elephants. But the IndrÁsan RÁjÁ and the PhÚlmati RÁnÍ said they wanted nothing but a tent and a cooly. Well, they set out; but the IndrÁsan RÁjÁ forgot to put flowers on his ears, and after some days the IndrÁsan RÁjÁ was very, very tired, so he said, “We will sit down under these big trees and rest awhile. Our baggage will soon be here; it is only a little way behind.” So they sat down, and the RÁjÁ said he felt so tired he must sleep. “Very well,” said the RÁnÍ; “lay your head in my lap and sleep.” After a while a shoemaker’s wife came by to get some water from a tank which was close to the spot where the RÁjÁ and RÁnÍ were resting. Now, the shoemaker’s wife was very black and ugly, and she had only one eye, and she was exceedingly wicked. The RÁnÍ was very thirsty and she said to the woman, “Please give me some water, I am so thirsty.” “If you want any,” said the shoemaker’s wife, “come to the tank and get it yourself.” “But I cannot,” said the RÁnÍ, “for the RÁjÁ is sleeping in my lap.” At last the poor RÁnÍ got so very, very thirsty, she said she must have some water; so laying the RÁjÁ’s head very gently on the ground she went to the tank. Then They travelled on till they came to a little house. The shoemaker’s wife went with them. They went into the house and laid themselves down to sleep, and the RÁjÁ laid beside him the flowers he had found floating in the tank. The RÁnÍ’s life was in the flowers. As soon as the RÁjÁ and RÁnÍ were asleep, the shoemaker’s wife took the flowers, broke them into little bits, and burnt them. The RÁnÍ died immediately, for the second time. Then the poor RÁjÁ, feeling very lonely and unhappy, travelled on to his kingdom, and the shoemaker’s wife went after him. God brought the PhÚlmati RÁnÍ to life a second time, and led her to the IndrÁsan RÁjÁ’s gardener. One day as the IndrÁsan RÁjÁ was going out hunting, he passed by the gardener’s house, and saw a beautiful girl sitting in it. He thought she looked very like his wife, the PhÚlmati RÁnÍ. So he went home to his father and said, “Father, I should like to be married to the girl who lives in our gardener’s house.” “All right,” said the father; “you can be married at once.” So they were married the next day. One night the shoemaker’s wife took a ram, killed it, and put some of its blood on the PhÚlmati RÁnÍ’s mouth while the RÁnÍ slept. The next morning she went to the IndrÁsan RÁjÁ and said, “Whom have you married? You have One day when the IndrÁsan RÁjÁ was hunting by himself in the jungle he was very tired, and he saw the house in the tank. So he said, “I will go into that house to rest a little while, and to-morrow I will return home to my father.” So, tying his horse outside, he went into the house and lay down to sleep. By and by, the two little birds came and perched on the roof above his head. They began to talk, and the RÁjÁ listened. The little husband-dove said to his wife, “This is the man who cut his wife to pieces.” And then he told her how the IndrÁsan RÁjÁ had married the beautiful PhÚlmati RÁnÍ, who weighed only one flower, and how the shoemaker’s wife had drowned her; how God had brought her to life again; how the shoemaker’s wife had burned her; and last of all, how the RÁjÁ himself had cut her to pieces. “And cannot the RÁjÁ find her again?” said the little wife-dove. “Oh, yes, he can,” said her husband, “but he does not know how to do so.” “But do tell me how he can find her,” said the little wife-dove. “Well,” said her husband, “every night, at twelve o’clock, the RÁnÍ and her servants The RÁjÁ heard all these things, and at midnight the RÁnÍ and her servants came to bathe. The RÁjÁ lay very quiet, and after they all had taken off their dresses and gone into the tank, he jumped up and seized every one of the dresses,—he did not leave one of them,—and ran away as hard as he could. Then each of the servants, who were only fairies, screamed out, “Give me my dress! What are you doing? why do you take it away?” Then the RÁjÁ dropped one by one the yellow dresses and kept the red one. The fairy servants picked up the dresses, and forsook the PhÚlmati RÁnÍ and ran away. The RÁjÁ came back to her with her dress in his hand, and she said, “Oh, give me back my dress. If you keep it I shall die. Three times has God brought me to life, but he will bring me to life no more.” The RÁjÁ fell at her feet and begged her pardon, and they were reconciled. And he gave her back her dress. Then they went home, and IndrÁsan RÁjÁ had the shoemaker’s wife cut to pieces, and buried in the jungle. And they lived happily ever after. Told by DunknÍ at Simla, July 25th, 1876. Decorative tail-piece Decorative head-piece
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