Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/157

Rh are an honest man, O fakir,' he cried out to me; but he was in such a rage that he drew his knife, and would most certainly have cut the fellow's throat if I had not caught him by the arm and checked him, and brought him out of the place. 'Look here,' said I, opening my mat, and releasing my prisoner, 'here is another of them. Your fate is not different from mine, nor mine from other men's. Therefore do not kill, but let us both agree to make the best of a bad job, because, you see, if Rájá Rasálu in his palace, great and mighty as he is, has the same misfortune as we, and yet bears it patiently, who are we that we should complain?

When the washerman had ended, Rájá Rasálu, who had overheard every word, came forward and said, "I am Rájá Rasálu, the King of all this land. Ask me for land and you shall have it, or if you want money take it, but tell me how knew you people that such wickedness was being done in my house?" "And do you not know," answered the man, " that the women of this country are by nature witches and soothsayers? They know everything, and they have been talking of the doings at Ránithrod for days."

Then the King took them both to the castle and gave them money, and to the husband he said, "You are a white-bearded man, old and venerable. Your years entitle you to respect. Therefore come and see me often, and let us converse together." And he sent them away. He himself after this grew morose, and he ceased to visit the field so often, his life being weary, and his heart broken, thinking of his dead wife, of her black ingratitude and of her dismal fate. Frequently the old washerman visited him and brought him in news from without, and his parrot strove to console him. But his kingdom was neglected, his conquests forgotten, many of his followers deserted his service, and in his vast lonely fortress he lived like a recluse.

Meanwhile there were wise women at the town of Rájá Hodi who had guessed or divined the secret of Ránithrod. One day the Rájá's brothers were riding past the common well when the women were drawing water for their households, and they overheard one of them saying, "Men reckon their darling vices more than life." "What is that you say," cried one of them reining up. "I said," answered the speaker, "that a man who pursues some cherished object will sacrifice his life for it." "But what do your words really signify?" said he. She replied, "If the brothers of Rájá Hodi have any sense of their own, they have no need to ask."