Page:Indian Fairy Tales (Stokes, 1879).djvu/178

 166 work. At the end of other two weeks the princess had pulled out all the needles from the king's body, except those in his eyes.

Then the king's daughter said to her servant-girl, "For three weeks I have not bathed. Get a bath ready for me, and while I am bathing sit by the king, but do not take the needles out of his eyes. I will pull them out myself." The servant-girl promised not to pull out the needles. Then she got the bath ready; but when the king's daughter had gone to bathe, she sat down on the bed, and pulled the needles out of the king's eyes.

As soon as she had done so, he opened his eyes, and sat up. He thanked God for bringing him to life again. Then he looked about, and saw the servant-girl, and said to her, "Who has made me well and pulled all the needles out of my body?" "I have," she answered. Then he thanked her and said she should be his wife.

When the princess came from her bath, she found the king alive, and sitting on his bed talking to her servant. When she saw this she was very sad, but she said nothing. The king said to the servant maid, "Who is this girl?" She answered, "She is one of my servants." And from that moment the princess became a servant-girl, and her servant-girl married the king. Every day the king said, "Can this lovely girl be really a servant? She is far more beautiful than my wife.

One day the king thought, "I will go to another country to eat the air." So he called the pretended princess, his wife, and told her he was going to eat the air in another country. "What would you like me to bring you when I come back?" She answered, "I should like beautiful sárís and clothes, and gold and silver jewels." Then the king said, "Call the servant-girl and ask her what she would like me to bring her." The real princess came, and the king said to her.