Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/431

Rh impossible till she felt sure that her husband, whom she deeply loved, was dead—it wanted only a few more months to complete the two years, and if the merchant had not returned before that time she would marry him.

On the last day of the two years the Governor sent word that he awaited her. So the merchant's wife dressed herself in all her finery and jewels. Just as she was about to leave her house her husband came back from his wanderings. He was much astonished to see his wife dressed as if for her bridal, as an Indian wife in the absence of her husband wears plain white clothes without any embroidery, and takes off all her ornaments till her lord and master returns. But she related to him all that had happened during his absence and said she was on the point of leaving the house to be married to the Governor when he returned.

The merchant was very much annoyed when he heard this, for he thought: "If I refuse to let my wife go the Governor will doubtless kill me so that he may marry her, and if on the other hand I send her to him I shall lose my dear wife." He was much perplexed and asked his wife what she would advise him to do. Now the merchant's wife was a clever woman and she told her husband not to trouble, that she would arrange everything satisfactorily.

The woman took four eggs, one, she blackened with ink, the second she dyed yellow, the third she coloured green and the fourth was left white as it was when laid. Putting the eggs into a cloth she went with them to the Governor's palace. When she came into his presence she gave him the eggs and told him to break them separately. This the Governor did, and the same substances, yellow and white, came out of each.

The Governor asked her the meaning of what she had done, and she said, "Oh! Sir, be not angry with me, my husband has come back to-day from his travels and wishes me to return to him. I want therefore to show you that women are like the eggs which you have just broken. They appear different to the eye, one is fair, another dark, but in reality they are the same. My husband is dear to me and I to him, therefore will you marry another woman and not separate us."