Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/98

 BHURIDATTA.

N, i, p. 278, there is an extract regarding the Cherokees’ belief relative to the connection between serpents and precious stones, and, at page 209 of the same issue, there is a passage on Dracs in the Rhone, that are so similar to incidents in the Bhuridatta Játaka of the Buddhist literature, that I venture to think that a sketch of that legend, as taken from the Burmo-Pali version, would be of interest to the readers of , and, without further preface, proceed to give it.

Once upon a time, there reigned in Benares a king who was afraid that his eldest son was becoming too powerful, so he ordered him to leave the country until the time should come for him to ascend the throne. The prince accordingly went into the forest on the banks of the Jumna, and lived there in a hut as an ascetic. Just at that time a Nágí (serpent-lady), who had lost her husband, came wandering in search of another, and, seeing the empty hut, wondered whether the owner was a real hermit or an ordinary man; and, in order to find it out, covered the couch with flowers and fairy scents, and went away. In the cool of the evening the prince returned from the forest, where he had been searching for fruits and roots. He wondered who had been decorating his bed with flowers, and then went to sleep on it; a hermit would have first thrown them all away. Next day the serpent-lady came back, and, seeing he had slept on the flowers, knew he was not a real hermit, and redecorated the bed. As she was going away, however, the prince, who had been on the watch, came up and asked her who she was. She told him, and, as she was very beautiful, he married her, She