The God Sakra having ascertained this, came in the appearance of a man, and asked at the hand of the Prince whether if he created a Princess out of his own very body, and gave her to him, he would be willing to take her in marriage. The Prince said, "It is good."

Afterwards the God Sakra created a Princess from the Prince's body, and gave her to him.

When the Prince and Princess, having got married, had been living together for a very long time, the Princess associated with a Nāgayā.1 When they had been thus for a long time, the Princess and the Nāgayā spoke together as to how to kill the Princess's Prince. Then the Nāgayā said, "Ask at the hand of the Prince where the Prince's death is. After you have got to know the place where his death is, I will bite 2 him there."

After that, the Princess asked at the hand of the Prince, "Where is your death?" The Prince did not tell her. Every day the Princess was asking it. On a certain day the Prince said, "To-day my death is in my thumb."

Then the Princess told the Nāgayā, "He said that his Ideath is in his thumb."

So the Nāgaya went [in his snake form, as a cobra], and stopped on the path on which the Prince was going for his bath, in order to bite him.

1 A supernatural being who could take at will either a human form or the shape of a cobra (nayā or nāga).

• Dohţa karanawā = ย

Dashta k., to give a poisonous bite.

Afterwards, the Prince's people went first; the Prince went in the middle. Then the people who went first saw the Nāgaya, and killed it.

Afterwards, the people and the Prince having returned from bathing, the Prince told at the hand of the Princess, As we were going to bathe to-day a cobra was on the path; my people killed it." The Princess, clasping her hands with grief, asked, "Where was it?" The Prince told her of the place where the cobra was staying, and she knew that it was the Nāgayā.

Afterwards the Princess having given gold to the goldsmith, and having got a waist-chain made, told him to make a case for it. The goldsmith made it, and gave it. Then the Princess went to the place where the cobra was, and cut off its hood; and placing the cobra in 'the case of the golden waist-chain, the Princess put it round her waist.

Having it there, when they had eaten and drunk in the evening, and lighted the lamp in the house, both of them went into the house.

Then the Princess said to the Prince, "I will ask you a riddle. Should you be unable to explain it, I will kill you. Should you explain it, you shall kill me."

The Prince said "Hā," and both of them swore it.. The Princess saying,

The Naga belt

(Is) the golden waist-chain.
Explain (it), friend.

Nāga patiya

Ran hawaḍiya.
Tōra, sakiya.

told the Prince to solve it. For fifteen pāēyas (six hours), without extinguishing the lamp, he tried and tried to explain it. He could not. So she was to kill the Prince next day.

A Dēvatāwā (godling) who drank the smoke of the lamp of that house, was there looking on [invisibly] until the lamp was extinguished. After the lamp was put out, having drunk a little smoke, he took a little that was only slightly burnt with him for his wife. The Devatāwā and Dēvatāwī lived in an Ironwood tree on the roadside.

This Prince's elder sister, and the man to whom she was given in marriage, having set off to come to the Prince's

city, stayed that night at the resting-place under the Ironwood tree.

Then that Dēvatāwā having brought a little of the underburnt smoke of the lamp, after he had given it to the Dēvatāwī she quarrelled with him until fifteen pāēyas (six hours) had gone, saying, "Where have you been?"

The Dēvatāwā said, “Do not quarrel. In such and such a city, such and such a Prince's Princess having associated with a Nāgaya, the Prince's people killed the Nāgaya. Having cut off the Nāgaya's hood, and laid aside her golden waist-chain, putting it round her waist in order to kill the Prince, because of her anger at the killing of the Nāgaya, the Princess told a riddle to the Prince. Having sworn that should the Prince be unable to solve it she is to kill the Prince should he solve it he is to kill the Princess, the Princess said,

The Naga belt

Is the golden waist-chain.
Explain it, friend.

After Up to

From the evening, without extinguishing the lamp, he tried to solve it. The Prince could not explain it. fifteen pāēyas had gone by, he put out the light. the very time when he extinguished the lamp, so long I remained there. She said that she will kill the Prince to-morrow."

Hearing it, there stayed below the Ironwood tree the Prince's elder sister, and the man to whom she was given. After having heard it, as it became light, when they were coming along to the Prince's house, they saw from afar that they were going to behead the Prince. The elder sister said from afar, "A! Don't behead him. I will solve that riddle."

Having come near, the Prince's elder sister explained the riddle in the manner stated by the Dēvatāwā. So the Prince was saved, and they beheaded the Princess. North-western Province.

In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 227, a Fakir split a King, and made a wife for him from half his body, but warned him that she would be unfaithful. She fell in love with one of his wazirs, but they were detected, and she was killed.

No. 20

The Prince who did not go to School

N a certain country there is a King, it is said, and there

to school, and as they are going from the palace the two go along together. After they have walked a little way, the younger brother goes along the path to the school, and having arrived at the school, learns his letters and returns home. The elder brother, after playing and playing in the water of the river, puts the school aside, it is said; and having come round that way and joined the younger brother, again comes to the palace with him.

After many days had gone by in that manner, the King one day told the two Princes, " To-day I must look at your lessons."

The younger brother said, "Father-King, I indeed go to the school, and having said my lessons return. Elder brother and I having met here, and set off together, after we have gone part of the way, where elder brother goes I do not know. Having gone somewhere or other, when I have left the school and am returning, elder brother meets me on the road, and we two come again to the palace. I can say my lessons; elder brother indeed cannot."

After that, the King looked into the lessons of the two Princes. When he looked, the younger Prince's lessons were good. When he asked the elder Prince, he knew nothing. So the King settled to behead the elder Prince.

The King had, besides, a Prince older than that Prince. He said to that elder Prince, "Behead this one."

Then the Prince having taken a sword to the chena

jungle, and killed a "Blood-sucker" lizard (Calotes sp.), returned after rubbing the blood on the sword, and showed it to the King. "Behold! Father-King, I cut younger brother," he said. Afterwards their mother having cooked a bundle of rice, and given it, and also a sword, to the Prince who was ordered to be beheaded, said, "Go to any place. you like."

As the Prince was going away taking the bundle of cooked rice and the sword, he met with a man. The man having uprooted Palmira trees and Coconut trees, was taking them away and tying a fence. Having seen this, the Prince said to that man, Come thou and go with me."

The man having said " Hā," as the two persons were going along together, another man was cutting the earthen ridges in a rice field. The blade of the man's digging hoe was as large as a liyadda (one of the squares into which the rice field was divided). Having seen that, the Prince said to that man who was cutting the ridge in the field," Come thou and go with me."

The man having said " Hā," and laid down his digging hoe at that very place, came away with those two persons. As the three were going along together, they saw yet a man ploughing. Having seen that the man ploughed a liyadda at one ploughing (furrow), the Prince said, "Come thou and go with me." The man said "Hā," and laying down his plough at that very place, went with the three persons. The three persons whom the Prince had met with on the way were three giants.

The four persons having gone on and on, went near the house of a Rakshasī at a city. Sitting down there, the Prince said to one of the giants, "There! Go to that house and bring thou cooking pots and fire." So that giant went to the house of the Rakshasi.

As he arrived there, the Rakshasi was pouring water over (i.e. bathing) a child. The giant went near the Rākshasī, and said, "Anē! Give me fire and cooking pots." The Rākshasī told him the way to the house in which she ate human flesh, and said, "There! They are in that house; take them." After that, at the time when the

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