Page:Indian Fairy Tales (Stokes, 1879).djvu/69

Rh some ointment, and told him to rub the eyes with it when he put them into his mothers' heads, and that then they would see quite well; and he took the eyes and tied them up in a corner of his cloth. His grannie gave him the flowers, and he went back to Sonahrí Rání. She was lying on her bed with the stick at her feet, and when she saw him she laughed and said, "Oh, so you have come back again?" "Yes, I have," said Hírálál; "and I have got the flowers, and my seven mothers' eyes too." "Have you indeed?" said Sonahrí Rání. "Put this stick at my head." He did so, and she got up and gave him some food, and he told her to ask her father the Rakshas where his soul was. She promised she would, and she changed him into a little fly, and shut him up in a tiny box, and put the tiny box under her pillow. By and by home came the Rakshas, and began to sniff about, crying, "A man is here!" "Oh, no," said Sonahrí Rání; and she gave him some dinner, and when they were in bed she asked him, "Papa, where is your soul?" "I'll tell you another day," said the Rakshas. The next day, when he had gone out to find food, Sonahrí Rání took the little fly, Hírálál, and restored him to his human shape, and gave him some food and sent him on his way. When he reached the river, the water-snake took him over to the other side, and he journeyed on till he came to his father's kingdom. First he went to his mothers' hole and gave them their fourteen eyes, and he put them into their heads with the ointment which the Rakshas grannie had given him. Then he went to Mánikbásá Rájá's palace, and when the Rakshas-Rání saw him she was furious. "I am sure my father and my mother, my sisters and my brothers, do not love me one bit. I will never see their faces again. But I'll send him to them once more."

This is what she thought, but she took the flowers and said, "You must go a third time to the Rakshas country."