Page:Indian Fairy Tales (Stokes, 1879).djvu/191

Rh live in this jungle?" they said to him. "Yes," answered the boy. Then the servants talked together. "See," they said, "this boy lives in the jungle, so he will surely be able to get us the milk. Let us tell him to get it, and give him the two thousand rupees."

So they came back to the boy, who asked them where they were going. "Our queen is very ill with pain in her eyes, and our king has sent us for some tigress's milk for her to bathe them with, that they may get well. He has given us two thousand rupees, for whichever of us to keep who gets the milk. But we do not know where or how to get it."

"Good," said the boy; "give me the two thousand rupees and I will get it for you. Come here for it in a week's time." The king's servants were very much pleased at not having to try and get it themselves, so they gave him the rupees and went home. The demon knew quite well when she asked for the milk that none of the king's servants would dare to go for it, but that his son would be brave enough to go. This is why she asked for it, for she meant the tigers to kill him.

The little prince now took his seven mothers out of the well, and they all went together to his father's country. There he got a small house for them, and good clothes and food. He got a servant, too, for them, to cook their dinner and take care of them. "Be very tender to them," he said to the servant, "for they cannot see." For himself he bought a little horse, and good clothes, and a gun, and a sword. Then he made his mothers many salaams, and told them he was going to get a tigress's milk. They all cried and begged him not to go.

But he set off and rode for three or four days through the jungles. Then he came to a large jungle which was in a great blaze, and two tiger-cubs were running about in the jungle trying to get out of the fire. He jumped off his horse, and took them in his hands; then he mounted his horse