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184 couches, and the despicable being who called her "grand-daughter" was shampooing as usual, she contrived to put a few drops of oil into her eyes, so that her tears fell on the Rakkhashi's feet.

At this she started, and asked the princess why she wept. The girl said, "O Grandmother, you all love me dearly; but if while you are away some accident cause your death, what will become of me?" At this the giantess laughed and said, "Foolish girl, drive away these gloomy thoughts. None of us will die, save at the hands of him alone who will, in one breath, reach the white column of crystal under yonder tank, take out the large snake hid in it, and placing the animal on his breast, despatch it with one stroke of his sword. But for every drop of the snake's blood that may fall to the ground, there will start into existence seven thousand beings like us." The princess seemed very much delighted at what she heard, and said, "Tell me also, dear grandmother, in what the life of that one of you who is now, in human shape, the queen in one of the kingdoms far off (here she must have mentioned the name of the kingdom) is contained, and where can one get Hassan Champa, the spindle named Natan kati, and the raw melon, twelve cubits in length, with its stone longer by one cubit." The Rakkhashi replied, "The things you have named are in the room which your father occupied, and the life of my daughter, the queen you have mentioned, is hid in the parrot there."

The next morning the princess, on being roused by the touch of the stick of gold, communicated to the prince the information she had obtained; and when the latter was going through the feats required for the extermination of the giants and giantesses, they hastened with shrieks towards the mansion, the girl's self-constituted grandmother being the foremost. She cried out, "Ainglo, mainglo, O grand-daughter, this is thy doing. I will devour thee before I die." But there was no time for her to take vengeance; the snake was put to the sword without a single drop of its blood falling to