IN

No. 4

The Glass Princess

N a certain country there are seven Princes, the sons of a King. When the seven persons had grown up, messengers were sent to find the places where there were seven Princesses to be taken in marriage by them. They obtained intelligence that there was a kingdom where they were to be met with.

After that, the seven portraits of the seven Princes having been painted, two or three ministers were summoned, and sent with the instructions, "Go to that kingdom, and observe if the seven Princesses are there. If they are there, take the portraits of the seven Princesses and come back with them."

The ministers having gone there and looked, found that seven Princesses were there. So they went to the King, the father of the Princesses. After they had come, the King having given quarters to the ministers, and having given them food and drink, asked, "Where are you going? Then the ministers said, "On account of news that you have seven Princesses, as there are seven Princes of the King of our country we have come, bringing the portraits of the seven Princes to show you, in order to marry the Princesses to those seven." The King and the Princesses having looked at the portraits were pleased with them.

Afterwards, a suitable occasion for the marriage having been appointed, the portraits of the Princesses were painted, and given into the hands of the ministers, and they were sent away with them.

The party having brought them, showed them to the

King and the seven Princes. The King and the seven Princes being pleased with those persons after they had shown the portraits, the King of that city, on the very day appointed as the date for setting out for the marriage, having decorated an elephant for the King and Queen, and both of them having mounted on it, and having decorated seven other elephants for the seven Princes, the party made ready to go.

Then the youngest Prince of all, having placed his sword on the back of the elephant, and made obeisance to his father, said, "I will not go. Should the Princess come after being married to the sword, let her come. If not, let her simply stop there." Having said this he did not go; he sent only the elephant, and the elephant and all the other persons went.

Having gone there the six Princes were married to the six Princesses. Then the King whose Princesses they were, asked, "Is there not a Prince for the youngest Princess?

When he asked this, the King whose son was the Prince replied, “There is my youngest Prince. He has not come. If she will come after being married to the sword placed on the back of this elephant, he said she is to come; if not, he said that she is to remain here."

The King whose Princess she was, was not satisfied with that. What of that? The youngest Princess was contented, and said, "Even a deaf man or a lame man would be good enough for me. Therefore I must be married." So having been married to the sword she came away with the others.

The Prince who did not go, but stayed at home, knew that there was a pool on the way, and that there was also a Cobra which had charge of that pool. The Prince was well aware that if the people who went to the marriage came there, and being thirsty drank the water, that Cobra would ask for a human offering. How was that? A deity came to the Prince in a dream and told him. Having learnt this, the Prince went, and at the time when they were coming hid himself near the pool, and remained there.

Then all the party having come there drank the water.

Having drunk it, when they were setting out to come away, a large Cobra which had been in a rock cave near by, came out, and said, "Because you drank water from my pool one person must remain here as an offering to me. If not, I shall not permit even one of you to go."

After that, the youngest Prince who had gone near and hidden himself came forward, and saying, "I will stay as the human offering; go you away," he started off all that marriage party, and sent them to their village. He said to the Princess who had come after being married to his sword, "Until whatever time it may be when I return, go and stay at the palace of mine which is there. There are servants at it. Set the party of them to work, and eat and drink in great contentment just as though I were there." After he had said this, the party returned to the city, and the youngest Prince went with the Cobra to the cave.

After they had gone there, the Cobra said to the Prince, "There is an ulcer on my forehead. You may go after curing the ulcer. Because of your curing it I shall not require a human offering."

The Prince said, "It is good," and continuing to eat the things for which it provided the expenses, stayed there. Twice a day he washed and washed the ulcer, while applying medicine to it, but it did not heal.

Afterwards the Cobra said, "There is a certain daughter of the King of a city, called the Glass Princess. The Princess takes any disguise she likes and goes through the sky, supported by her power of flying through the air. The Princess knows a medicine by which, if it should be applied by her own hand, my ulcer will become healed; otherwise it will not heal, and there will be no going to your village for you." The Prince replied, "It is good. I will go and bring the Glass Princess."

Having said this, he set off to go to the city where the Glass Princess lived. Having hurried along the road which led in that direction, there was a river to which he went. When he looked up the river he saw some rats coming floating in the water. Then what does he do? He seizes all those few rats, and goes and places them on the bank.

After he had put them there the rats said, "Anē! O Lord, if Your Majesty should require any assistance, be pleased to think of us; then we will come and stay with you, and assist you." The Prince said, "It is good," and went to the city in which the Glass Princess dwelt.

Having come there, being without a place to stay at he went to the spot where a widow-mother was stopping, and said, "Anē! Mother, give me a mat to sleep on."

The widow-mother said, "It is good, son. Remain here. I am alone here, therefore it will be good for me also."

Then the Prince said, "If so, mother, cook and give me a little rice. Having obtained some money to-morrow, I will bring it and give you it." The old woman having heard his words, cooked and gave him a little rice.

When she had given it and he had eaten, the Prince asked that old woman, "Mother, what are the new things that are happening at this city?"

The old woman replied, "What! Son, the new matters at this city are like those of other cities indeed; but there is one new affair at this city. If so, what is it? The daughter, called the Glass Princess, of the King of this city remains an [unwedded] Princess. The Princess, creating any disguise she wants, can go through the sky sustained by her power of flight through the air. Through the beauty of her figure she is a very celebrated person. Because of that, many royal Princes have come to ask to marry the Princess. Having come, they are asked, 'What have you come for?' When they have said, ' We have come to take this Princess in marriage,' the King puts on the hearth a very great cauldron of water, and having made it boil tells them to bathe in it without making the water lukewarm. There is a large iron tree in the open space in front of the palace. Having bathed in the water, he tells them to saw the iron tree in two. If they do not bathe in the water and cut it in two, he does not permit the Princes to go away; he beheads them there and then, and casts them out."

The Prince asked the old woman, "Mother, can no one go to the place where the Glass Princess is staying?"

The old woman said, "Anē! Son, even a bird which passes

along in the air above cannot go to the place where the Glass Princess is."

Then the Prince asked, "Mother, why do they say that the Princess is the Glass Princess? '

The old woman said, "O son, they call her the Glass Princess. The bed on which the Princess sleeps is a bed of glass throughout. Glass is fixed all round the bed in such a manner that even the wind cannot get to her.1 Because of that, they say that she is the Glass Princess."

The Prince asked, " Mother, at what time does the Princess eat rice at night?

The old woman said, "O son, at night water for bathing, and cooked rice, having gone there for the Princess, they are placed in the upper story where the Princess sleeps alone. When the Princess has been sleeping at night, at about eight she awakes, and after bathing in the water eats rice. Before that she does not get up."

Then the Prince, after listening to all these words, asked for a mat, and went off to sleep at the travellers' shed which was in front of the old woman's house. Having gone there, while he was lying down he thought, “Anē! O Gods, in any case you must grant me an opportunity of going to the place where that Princess is." Then while he was thinking, Anē! Will even those rats that I took up that day out of the river and placed on the bank, become of assistance to me in this matter?" he fell asleep.

After that, those rats, collecting thousands of rats besides, came there before the Prince awoke, and having come near the Prince while he was sleeping, waited until he awoke. When the Prince awoke and looked about, he saw that rats, thousands in number, had come and were there.

The rats asked the Prince: "O Lord, what assistance does Your Majesty want us to give?"

The Prince said, "I want you to excavate a tunnel, of a size so that a man can go along it erect, to the upper story' of the house in which the Glass Princess is staying, and to hand it over without completing it, leaving a very little

1 The narrator understood this to mean that large upright sheets of glass were fixed round the bed.