Deccan Nursery Tales eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 94 pages of information about Deccan Nursery Tales.

Deccan Nursery Tales eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 94 pages of information about Deccan Nursery Tales.
and, meeting a cowherd, the younger twin asked him what its name was.  The cowherd said, “The town is called Upang.”  “Who is the king?” asked the younger twin.  The cowherd replied, “He also is called Upang.”  The wanderer then asked whether there was any place where he and his wife could lodge.  The cowherd told him that in the town there was a temple of Parwati, and close to it was a rest-house where the wanderer and his wife could lodge.  The cowherd directed them to the rest-house.  And before lying down the younger twin worshipped Parwati in the temple and begged her pardon for his previous neglect.  Parwati felt sorry for him, and that night she appeared to him in a dream.  She told him to go to King Upang’s palace and to beg from him the lid of the sacred casket in which the accessories of worship were kept.  He should, thereafter, always pray to it, and in the end he would come by his heart’s desire.  The younger twin woke up, and the same morning he went to King Upang’s palace and begged from him the lid of the sacred casket in which were kept the accessories of worship.  The king at first refused, but when the younger twin told the king of his dream the king consented.  The Brahman took the lid home, worshipped it, and, just as the goddess had foretold, he came by his heart’s desire.  Property and happiness returned, and a year later his wife bore him a daughter.  As the years passed the little girl grew up.  One day she took the lid of the sacred casket and went with some playmates to play and bathe by the bank of a river.  Suddenly the corpse of a Brahman came floating by.  Seeing it, the little girl took the lid of the casket and for fun began to splash water on it.  Such was the power of the sacred lid, that the corpse instantly became alive again and became a Brahman, tall as a tree and beautiful as the sun.  The little girl fell in love with him on the spot and told him that he must become her husband.  “But,” said the Brahman, “how shall I manage it?” The little girl said, “Come home with me at dinner-time, take as usual water [21] in your hand, but do not sip it.  Then my daddy will ask you, ’Bhatji, Bhatji, why do you not sip the water in your hand?’ You must reply, ’I am ready to dine if you marry me to your daughter.  If you will not, I shall get up and go away.’  Then he will consent to our marriage.”  The Brahman agreed, and he went home with the little girl, and everything happened as she had planned.  To prevent the Brahman from getting up without any food, the little girl’s father agreed to their marriage.  When a favourable day came they were married, and when she was old enough the little girl went to her husband’s house.  As she went she carried off the lid of the sacred casket of King Upang.  But, because it had gone, her father lost all his wealth and fell once more into the greatest poverty.  His wife went to her daughter’s house and asked for it back, but she refused to give it up.  The wife was very angry and every day began to hate her
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Project Gutenberg
Deccan Nursery Tales from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.