Page:Indian Fairy Tales (Stokes, 1879).djvu/205

 XXV.

THE FAN PRINCE.

N a country there lived a king who had a wife and seven daughters. One day he called all his daughters to him, and said to them, "My children, who gives you food? and by whose permission do you eat it?" Six of them answered, "Father, you give us food; and by your permission we eat it." But the seventh and youngest said, "Father, God gives me my food; and by my own permission I eat it." This answer made her father and mother very angry with their youngest daughter. They said, "We will not let our youngest child stay with us any longer." And her father called some servants and said to them, "Get a palanquin ready, and put my youngest daughter into it; then carry her away to the jungle, and there leave her."

The servants got the palanquin ready, put the youngest princess into it, and carried her into the jungle. There they put the palanquin down and said to her, "We are going to drink some water." "Go home now," said the girl, "as my father ordered you to do." They left her, therefore, in the jungle alone, and went back to the king's palace.

The girl prayed to God and worshipped him; then she went to sleep for a little while in her palanquin. When she awoke, it was evening, and she found in her palanquin a jar of water and some food on a plate which God had sent her while she slept. She knew that God had sent her this nice dinner, and thanked him and worshipped him. Then