Page:Indian Fairy Tales (Stokes, 1879).djvu/53



NCE upon a time there was a Rájá, called Jabhú Rájá, and he had a great many wives; at least he had seven wives, but he had no children. Although he had married seven wives, not one of them had given him a child. At this he was greatly vexed and said, "I have married seven wives and not one of them has given me a child." And he got very angry with God: he said, "Why does not God give me any children? I will go into the jungle and die by myself." The Ránís coaxed him to stay, but he wouldn't; he would go out into the jungle.

So he went out into the jungle very far, and God sent him an old fakír leaning on a stick. The Rájá met him, and the fakír said, "Why do you come into the jungle? If you go far into the jungle you will meet plenty of tigers, and they will eat you. Tell me what you want. Whatever you want I will give you." "No, I won't tell you," said the Rájá, But at last the Rájá told him, "I have seven wives, and none of them has given me any children, and so here I will die by myself." Then the fakír said, "Take this stick, and a little way off you will find a mango tree with some mangoes on it. Throw the stick at the mangoes with one hand, and catch them as they fall with the other, and when you have caught them all, take them home and give one to each of your seven wives." So the Rájá went and knocked the mangoes off the tree and caught them as the fakír had told him. Then he