Page:Tales of the Punjab.pdf/122

100 So the son of seven mothers set Off, and soon came to the ﬁeld where, guarded by eighteen millions of demons, the million-fold rice grew.He walked on bravely, looking neither to the right nor left, till he reached the centre and plucked the tallest car; but as he turned homewards a thousand sweet voices rose behind him, crying in tenderest accents, 'Pluck me too! oh, please pluck me too!'He looked back, and lo! there was nothing left of him but a little heap of ashes!

Now as time passed by and the lad did not return, the old hag grew uneasy, remembering the message 'his blood shall be as your blood'; so she set off to see what had happened.

Soon she came to the heap of ashes, and knowing by her arts what it was, she took a little water, and kneading the ashes into a paste, formed it into the likeness of a man; then, putting a drop of blood from her little ﬁnger into its mouth, she blew on it, and instantly the son of seven mothers started up as well as ever.

'Don't you disobey orders again!' grumbled the old hag, 'or next time I'll leave you alone.Now be Off, before I repent of my kindness!'

So the son of seven mothers returned joyfully to the seven Queens, who; by the aid of the million-fold rice, soon became the richest people in the kingdom.Then they celebrated their son's marriage to the clever Princess with all imaginable pomp; but the bride was so clever, she would not rest until she had made known her husband to his father, and punished the wicked white witch.So she made her husband build a palace exactly like the one in which the seven