Page:Indian Fairy Tales (Stokes, 1879).djvu/198

186 The demon had a splendid house full of beautiful things, and a great many servants. He took the little prince home with him, and told his servants to get water ready and gave the child a bath. They were also to cook a good dinner for him. Then the demon showed the boy all his gardens, and all his beautiful things, and took him through all the rooms of his house. One room he did not show to the prince. He told him he was never to go into it, though he might go everywhere else that he liked. In this room lived the demon's daughter, who was very beautiful, just like a fairy. She was ten years old. Every day before her father went out, he used to make the girl lie on her bed, and cover her with a sheet, and he placed a thick stick at her head, and another at her feet; then she died till he came home in the evening and changed the sticks, putting the one at her head at her feet, and the one at her feet at her head. This brought her to life again.

The next day, when the demon had gone out, the boy went to this room, and opened the door, for he wanted to see what was in it. He went in, and saw the beautiful girl lying on the bed. "How lovely she is!" he said; "but she is dead." Then he saw the sticks, and, to amuse himself, he put the one at her head at her feet, and the one at her feet at her head, just as the demon did every evening. The girl at once came to life, and opened her eyes and got up. "Who is this?" she said to herself, when she saw the king's son. "This is not my father." She asked him, "Who are you? Why do you come here? If my father sees you he will eat you." "No, he won't," said the prince, "for I am your aunt's son, and your father himself brought me to his house. But why is it that you are dead all day, and alive all night?" The girl had told him that her father brought her to life every evening, and made her dead every morning. "Such is my father's pleasure," she answered.