Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/99

 Rh created a fairy palace in the forest, in which they dwelt, and bore him a son named Ságara, and, two or three years afterwards, a daughter named Samuddajá. The prince is then discovered by a hunter and informed of his father's death. The nobles come out from the city and insist on his returning to the kingdom. The serpent-lady says she cannot accompany him, because she is afraid that in her anger she may destroy some of his people, seeing that the serpent-people are very irritable and unable to restrain their poison. She says, "Though my duty and inclination are to follow my husband, yet, if I were to see anything to anger me, the person who caused my anger to arise would be reduced to ashes." Next morning she hands over the children to him, and begs him to take the greatest care of them, and be careful to let them have plenty of water to play in, as they are half serpent by nature. When he got to Benares he had some tanks made for the children to play in. One day, when the prince and princess were swimming in the pond, a fresh-water tortoise put its head up and looked at them, which so frightened the children that they fled to their father and told him there was a devil in the pond. The king had the pond dragged, and the tortoise was caught and brought before the king. His nobles advised that it should be put to death in various ways; but one of them, who was very much afraid of water, thought that it ought to be punished by being hurled into the river. On hearing this, the tortoise put his head out, and said: "My Lord King, I have done no harm, but I am nevertheless willing to undergo any punishment rather than that."

The king at once ordered him to be thrown into the whirlpool in the Jumna. Now, this whirlpool was the direct road to Serpent-land, and the tortoise fell close to a Naga, who was the son of Dhatarattha, the Nága king. He was immediately arrested, and, to save himself from punishment, cried out that he was an ambassador from the