Page:Indian Fairy Tales (Stokes, 1879).djvu/200

188 he did not know the boy had been to the fakír. When the demon returned that evening, the king's son said, "To-morrow I will go home, as my mother is very ill. Will you give me the rice?" "Good," said the demon, "you shall have it to-morrow." Next morning he gave the rice, and went off to the jungle.

Then the boy took his paper boat down to the sea, launched it, and got into it; and of itself the boat went straight over the sea to the opposite shore. The eaglet flew above his head; but he left his horse on land. When he got to the other side, he saw the great tree, with the nest and the mainá. He climbed the tree, and took down the nest, and the demon, who was far away, knew it at once, and said to himself, "Some one has come to catch and kill me." He set out at once for the tree. The prince saw him coming, so he wrapped the mainá up in his handkerchief, that no blood should fall to the ground. Then he broke off one of its legs, and one of the demon's legs fell off. Still the demon came on. Then he broke off the other leg, but the demon walked on his hands. The boy saw him coming nearer and nearer, so he wrung the bird's head off, and the demon fell dead.

The prince jumped into his paper boat, and of itself the boat went straight back to the other shore, to the demon's country. Then he went up to the demon's house, and made his daughter alive.

She was frightened, and said to him, "Oh, take care. If my father comes back, and finds us together, he will eat us both." "He will not come back," said the prince. "I have killed him."

Then he dressed her in boy's clothes, that no one might know she was a girl, and he found a horse, and had it made ready for her. Her father had collected a quantity of rupees. Some of these the prince gave to the servants as a