Page:Old Deccan Days.djvu/236

192 Every day as the baby grew, these bangles grew, and round them were little bells, which tinkled when any one came near. Chandra's parents were very happy and proud, and sent for all the wise men in the kingdom to tell her fortune. But the most learned of the Brahmans, when he saw her, said, 'This child must be sent out of the country at once, for if she stays in it she will destroy all the land with fire, and burn it utterly.'

The Rajah, at hearing these words, was very angry, and said to the Brahman, 'I will cut off your head, for you tell lies and not the truth.' The Brahman answered, 'Cut off my head if you will, but it is the truth I speak, and no lie. If you do not believe me, let a little wool be fetched, and put it upon the child, that you may know my words are true.'

So they fetched some wool and laid it upon the baby, and no sooner had they done so, than it all blazed up and burned till not a bit was left, and it scorched the hands of the attendants.

Then the Brahman said, 'As this fire has burned the wool, so will this Princess one day, if she comes here, burn this whole land.' And they were all very much frightened, and the Rajah said to the Ranee, 'This being so, the child must be sent out of the country instantly.' The poor Ranee thereat was very sad, and she did all in her power to save her little baby, but the Rajah would not hear of it, and commanded that the Princess should be placed in a large box, and taken to the borders of his land, where a great river rolled down to the sea, and there thrown into the stream, that it might carry her far, far away, each minute further from her native land. Then the Ranee caused a beautiful golden box to be made, and put her little baby in it, with many tears (since all her efforts to save it were of no avail), and it was taken away and thrown into the river.

The box floated on, and on, and on, until at last it reached the country where the Sowkar and the Sowkar's wife lived. Now it chanced that, just as the box was floating by, the Sowkar, who had gone down to the river to wash his face, caught sight of it, and seeing a fisherman, not far off, prepared to throw his net into the water, he cried, 'Run, Fisherman, run, run, do not stop to fish, but cast your net over that glittering box and bring it here to me.'

'I will not, unless you promise me that the box shall be mine,' said the Fisherman. 'Very well,' answered the Sowkar; 'the box shall be yours, and whatever it contains shall belong to me.'