Panwpatti Rani

In a country a big fair was held, to which came a great many people
and Rajas from all the countries round. Among them was a Raja who
brought his daughter with him. Opposite their tent another tent was
pitched, in which lived a Raja's son. He was very beautiful; so was
the little Rani, the other Raja's daughter.

Now, the Raja's son and the Raja's daughter did not even know each
other's names, but they looked at each other a great deal, and each
thought the other very beautiful. "How lovely the Raja's daughter is!"
thought the prince. "How beautiful the Raja's son is!" thought the
princess.

They lived opposite each other for a whole month, and all that time
they never spoke to each other nor did they speak of each other to any
one. But they thought of each other a great deal.

When the month was over, the little Rani's father said he would go
back to his own country. The Raja's son sat in his tent and watched
the servants getting ready the little Rani's palanquin. As soon as the
princess herself was dressed and ready for the journey, she came out
of her tent, and took a rose in her hand. She first put the rose to
her teeth; then she stuck it behind her ear; and lastly, she laid it
at her feet. All this time the Raja's son sat in his tent and looked
at her. Then she got into her palanquin and was carried away.

The Raja's son was now very sad. "How lovely the princess is!" he
thought. "And I do not know her name, or her father's name, or the
name of her country. So how can I ever find her? I shall never see her
again." He was very sorrowful, and determined he would go home to his
country. When he got home he laid himself down on his bed, and night
and day he lay there. He would not eat, or drink, or bathe, or change
his clothes. This made his father and mother very unhappy. They went
to him often, and asked him, "What is the matter with you? Are you
ill?" "I want nothing," he would answer. "I don't want any doctor, or
any medicine." Not one word did he say to them, or to any one else,
about the lovely little Rani.

The son of the Raja's kotwal[6] was the prince's great friend. The two
had always gone to school together, and had there read in the same
book; they had always bathed, eaten, and played together. So when the
prince had been at home for two days, and yet had not been to school
or seen his friend, the kotwal's son grew very anxious. "Why does the
prince not come to school?" he said to himself. "He has been here for
two days, and yet I have not seen him. I will go and find out if
anything is the matter. Perhaps he is ill."

He went, therefore, to see the prince, who was lying very miserable on
his bed. "Why do you not come to school? Are you ill?" asked his
friend. "Oh, it is nothing," said the prince. "Tell me what is the
matter," said the kotwal's son; but the Raja's son would not answer.
"Have you told any one what is the matter with you?" said the kotwal's
son. "No," answered the prince. "Then tell me," said his friend; "tell
me the truth: what is it that troubles you?"

"Well," said the prince, "at the fair there was a Raja who had a most
beautiful daughter. They lived in a tent opposite mine, and I used to
see her every day. She is so beautiful! But I do not know her name, or
her father's name, or her country's name; so how can I ever find her?"
"I will take you to her," said his friend; "only get up and bathe, and
eat." "How can you take me to her?" said the prince. "You do not even
know where she is; so how can you take me to her?" "Did she never
speak to you?" said the kotwal's son. "Never," said the prince. "But
when she was going away, just before she got into her palanquin, she
took a rose in her hand; and first she put this rose to her teeth;
then she stuck it behind her ear; and then she laid it at her feet."
"Now I know all about her," said his friend. "When she put the rose to
her teeth, she meant to tell you her father's name was Raja Dant [Raja
Tooth]; when she put it behind her ear she meant you to know her
country's name was Karnatak [on the ear]; and when she laid the rose
at her feet, she meant that her name was Panwpatti [Foot-leaf]. Get
up; bathe and dress, eat and drink, and we will go and find her."

The prince got up directly, and told his father and mother he was
going for a few days to eat the air of another country. At first they
forbad his going; but then they reflected that he had been very ill,
and that perhaps the air of another country might make him well; so at
last they consented. The prince and his friend had two horses saddled
and bridled, and set off together.

At the end of a month they arrived in a country where they asked (as
they had asked in every other country through which they had ridden),
"What is the name of this country?" "Karnatak" [the Carnatic]. "What
is your Raja's name?" "Raja Dant." Then the two friends were glad.
They stopped at an old woman's house, and said to her, "Let us stay
with you for a few days. We are men from another country and do not
know where to go in this place." The old woman said, "You may stay
with me if you like. I live all alone, and there is plenty of room for
you."

After two or three days the kotwal's son said to the old woman, "Has
your Raja a daughter?" "Yes," she answered; "he has a daughter; her
name is Panwpatti Rani." "Can you go to see her?" asked the kotwal's
son. "Yes," she said, "I can go to see her. I was her nurse, and she
drank my milk. It is the Raja who gives me my house, and my food, and
clothes--everything that I have." "Then go and see her," said the
kotwal's son, "and tell her that the prince whom she called to her at
the fair has come."

The old woman went up to the palace, and saw the princess. After they
had talked together for some time, she said to the little Rani, "The
prince you called to you at the fair is come." "Good," she said; "tell
him to come to see me to-night at twelve o'clock. He is not to come in
through the door, but through the window." (This she said because she
did not want her father to know that the prince had come, until she
had made up her mind whether she would marry him.)

The old woman went home and told the kotwal's son what the Princess
Panwpatti said. That night the prince went to see her, and every night
for three or four nights he went to talk with her for an hour. Then
she told her mother she wished to be married, and her mother told her
father. Her father asked whom she wished to marry, and she said, "The
Raja's son who lives in my nurse's house." Her father said she might
marry him if she liked; so the wedding was held. The kotwal's son went
to the wedding, and then returned to the old woman's house; but the
prince lived in the Raja's palace.

Here he stayed for a month, and all that time he never saw his friend.
At last he began to fret for him, and was very unhappy. "What makes
you so sad?" said Panwpatti Rani. "I am sad because I have not seen
my friend for a whole month," answered her husband. "I must go and see
him." "Yes, go and see him," said his wife. The Raja's son went to the
old woman's house, and there he stayed a week, for he was so glad to
see the kotwal's son. Then he returned to his wife. Now she thought he
would only have been away a day, and was very angry at his having
stayed so long from her. "How could you leave me for a whole week?"
she said to him. "I had not seen my friend for a month," he answered.
Panwpatti Rani did not let her husband see how angry she was; but in
her heart she thought, "I am sure he loves his friend best."

The prince remained with her for a month. Then he said, "I must go and
see my friend." This made her very angry indeed. However, she said,
"Good; go and see your friend, and I will make you some delicious
sweetmeats to take him from me." She set to work, and made the most
tempting sweetmeats she could; only in each she put a strong poison.
Then she wrapped them in a beautiful handkerchief, and her husband
took them to the kotwal's son. "My Rani has made you these herself,"
he said to his friend, "and she sends you a great many salaams." The
Raja's son knew nothing of the poison.

The kotwal's son put the sweetmeats on one side, and said, "Let us
talk, and I will eat them by and by." So they sat and talked for a
long time. Then the kotwal's son said, "Your Rani herself made these
sweetmeats for me?" "Yes," said the Raja's son. His friend was very
wise, and he thought, "Panwpatti Rani does not like me. Of that I am
sure." So he took some of the sweetmeats, and broke them into bits and
threw them to the crows. The crows came flying down, and all the crows
who ate the sweetmeats died instantly. Then the kotwal's son threw a
sweetmeat to a dog that was passing. The dog devoured it and fell
dead. This put the Raja's son into great rage. "I will never see my
Rani again!" he exclaimed. "What a wicked woman she is to try and
poison my friend--my friend whom I love so dearly; but for whom I
should never have married her!" He would not go back to his wife, and
stayed in the old woman's house. The kotwal's son often told him he
ought to return to his wife, but the prince would not do so. "No," he
said, "she is a wicked woman. You never did her any evil or hurt; yet
she has tried to poison you. I will never see her again."

When a month had passed, the kotwal's son said to the prince, "You
really must go back to Panwpatti Rani; she is your wife, and you must
go to her, and take her away to your own country." Still the Raja's
son declared he would never see her again. "If you would like to see
something that will please you," said his friend, "go back to your
wife for one day; and to-night 'when she is asleep' you must take off
all her jewels, and tie them up in a handkerchief, and bring them to
me. But before you leave her you must wound her in the leg with this
trident." So saying, he gave him a small iron trident.

The prince went back to the palace. His wife was very angry with him,
though she did not show her anger. At night 'when she was fast asleep'
he took off all her jewels and tied them in a handkerchief, and he
gave her a thrust in the leg with his trident. Then he went quickly
back to his friend. The princess awoke and found herself badly hurt
and alone; and she saw that her jewels were all gone. In the morning
she told her father and mother that her jewels had been stolen; but
she said nothing about the wound in her leg. The king called his
servants, and told them a thief had come in the night and stolen his
daughter's jewels, and he sent them to look for the thief and seize
him.

That morning the kotwal's son got up and dressed himself like a yogi.
He made the prince put on common clothes such as every one wears, so
that he could not be recognized, and sent him to the bazar to sell his
wife's jewels. He told him, too, all he was to say. The pretended yogi
went to the river and sat down by it, and the Raja's son went through
the bazar and tried to sell the jewels. The Raja's servants seized him
immediately. "You thief!" they said to him, "what made you steal our
Raja's daughter's jewels?" "I know nothing about the jewels," said the
prince. "I am no thief; I did not steal them. The holy man, who is my
teacher, gave them to me to sell in the bazar for him. If you want to
know anything more about them, you must ask him." "Where is this holy
man?" said the servants. "He is sitting by the river," said the Raja's
son. "Let us go to him. I will show you where he is."

They all went down to the river, and there sat the yogi. "What is all
this?" said the servants to him. "Are you a yogi, and yet a thief? Why
did you steal the little Rani's jewels?" "Are those the little Rani's
jewels?" said the yogi. "I did not steal them; I did not know to whom
they belonged. Listen, and I will tell you. Last night at twelve
o'clock I was sitting by this river when a woman came down to it--a
woman I did not know. She took a dead body out of the river, and began
to eat it. This made me so angry, that I took all her jewels from her,
and she ran away. I ran after her and wounded her in the leg with my
trident. I don't know if she were your Raja's daughter, or who she
was; but whoever she may be, she has the mark of the trident's teeth
in her leg."

The servants took the jewels up to the palace, and told the Raja all
the yogi had said. The Raja asked his wife whether the Princess
Panwpatti had any hurt in her leg, and told her all the yogi's story.
The Rani went to see her daughter, and found her lying on her bed and
unable to get up from the pain she was in, and when she looked at her
leg she saw the wound. She returned to the Raja and said to him, "Our
daughter has the mark of the trident's teeth in her leg."

The Raja got very angry, and called his servants and said to them,
"Bring a palanquin, and take my daughter at once to the jungle, and
there leave her. She is a wicked woman, who goes to the river at night
to eat dead people. I will not have her in my house any more. Cast her
out in the jungle." The servants did as they were bid, and left
Panwpatti Rani, crying and sobbing in the jungle, partly from the pain
in her leg, and partly because she did not know where to go, and had
no food or water.

Meanwhile her husband and the kotwal's son heard of her being sent
into the jungle, so they returned to the old woman's house and put on
their own clothes. Then they went to the jungle to find her. She was
still crying, and her husband asked her why she cried. She told him,
and he said, "Why did you try to poison my friend? You were very
wicked to do so." "Yes," said the kotwal's son; "Why did you try to
kill me? I have never done you any wrong or hurt you. It was I who
told your husband what you meant by putting the rose to your teeth,
behind your ear, and at your feet. Without me he would never have
found you, never have married you." Then she knew at once who had
brought all this trouble to her, and she was very sorry she had tried
to kill her husband's friend.

They all three now went home to her husband's country; and his father
and mother were very glad indeed that their son had married a Raja's
daughter, and the Raja gave the kotwal's son a very grand present.

The young Raja and his wife lived with his father and mother, and were
always very happy together.