Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/302

 294 of its blood spurting out, it fell on Naina Bai's face. The goatherd thought that if the prince were to awake and kiss Naina Bai's face, he would die from the poison in the snake's blood, so he wound some cotton round his ramrod, and tried to wipe the blood off her face with it. On this Naina Bai woke and roused the prince, and said, "This brother of yours was standing here in front of me, touching me with his hand; he has become false to you." The prince arose and was very angry, and accused him of being in love with Naina Bai. Then the goatherd told him the whole story of his dream, and showed him the snake lying dead, and, said he, "Now I have told you all, and I shall become a stone for a year. A son will be born to you, and if you kill him and sprinkle his blood over me I shall be restored; and if not, I shall remain a stone," Having said this he became a stone.

After this the prince and Naina Bai never ate any food till they had first sprinkled some on the stone. After a year a son was born to them, and they took him out and slew him, and sprinkled his blood over the stone, and the goatherd rose up alive, and all was well again.

Now choose which did the most, the prince or the goatherd?

XIV.

[The name Drīs, given to the hero of this story, is a shortened form of Idrīs, a prophet of the Muhammadans often identified with the Enoch of the Old Testament. The only resemblance here traceable is in the conclusion of the narrative, where it is related in what manner Dris left the earth. The legend of the exposure of the thirty-nine children is related also of Hazrat Ghaus, and localised on Mount Chihl-tan, near Quelta. See Masson's Travels in Balochistan, ii, 85.]

There was once a prophet named Drīs, and though he