Page:Bengal Fairy Tales.djvu/181

Rh held. On the appointed day many suitors for her hand assembled in the hall of the palace and awaited the arrival of the princess in great agitation. But she did not appear. Decked in her bridal ornaments in the zenana, she was talking with her gilded parrot. "Tell me, dear parrot," she said laughingly as she finished her toilet, "is there anything else that I need to adorn my person?" The parrot replied, "Put on golden anklets." The princess did so, and the anklets made a pleasant tinkling sound. She again asked the parrot the same question, to which the bird answered that she must put on a crown made of the feathers of peacocks. The girl complied with this also, and asked the parrot once more if everything was complete. The parrot said, "No, you must wear round your neck a garland of pearls that are to be found in the heads of elephants. They are called Gajamutty (elephant-pearls) and they will rhyme well with your name, Rupamoti (the pearl of beauty)." At this the princess said that as there were no such pearls in her father's treasury, and as she could not marry without them, the Sayambara could not take place. "I will wed him," she said, "who will bring me these pearls. But if any of the kings and princes here present presume to make the attempt, and fail, he will have to remain as my slave for life." The message reached the guests, and they went away in search of Gajamutty. Reaching the seashore, reputed to be the haunt of elephants with pearls in their heads, they found herds of elephants there, but they were not the ones they sought. The beasts were wild in the extreme, and rushing upon their disturbers rent some of them with their tusks, treading others under their feet. The few that survived the onset returned foiled to Rupamoti, and according to the original contract, remained to serve her as slaves.

Dropping the curtain on this scene, we pass again to