Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/95

 Collectanea. 83

him, and the child cried, and she hushed him by singing to him as before. Instantly Puli Raja rose from his seat and took hold of the lady's hand and asked her how she came to be there, and she told him how her cousin had plotted against her life, and how the snake had befriended her.

Then the twelve-headed snake ^ came up, and the Princess said to him, " Your son-in-law is come, father ! " So the Tiger Prince asked his leave to take his wife home. " That cannot be," said the snake; " my wife will soon be delivered, and it is my daughter, your wife, who must name the young ones. Afterwards I will gladly send her to you." So by-and-by the snake's wife gave birth to a lot of little snakes, and on a fortunate day the Princess named them, and the biggest she called by one fine name, the next by another, and so on ; but the smallest she called Chinna Nagannah, " he is that is short by a head."

When the little snake heard his name he was angry, for he thought the Princess mocked him, and he muttered to himself, " When my brother-in-law the Tiger Prince takes her home by- and-by, I will bite her." So he hid in a melon, and came back with them to the palace. And when they got there the Tiger Prince hastened to his father to arrange for the execution of the false Princess. Then the snake said to himself, " My sister will go to the bath, and then I will bite her." And when she had bathed, he said to himself, " I will let her eat, and wash her hands, then I will bite her." But when she had eaten and washed, he said, " Let her suckle her child first, and then I will bite her."

Meanwhile the Tiger Prince returned home and began to play at chess with the Princess. By-and-by he said, " I have won," and she said, " No ! I have won ; I swear it by the head of our child Chinna Nagannah ! " So the snake knew she had meant no scorn to him when she gave him the same name as that of her own son. So he came out of the melon and confessed his designs ; and the Princess was rejoiced at his escape and feasted him royally, and he returned to the under-world.

So the Tiger Prince and the Princess lived happily ever after ; and by-and-by the old King yielded his throne to his son, and the reign of Puli Raja was long, happy, and prosperous.

' Some of the Indian gods are represented by a snake with many hoods, but the epithet above is probably an Oriental exaggeration only.

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