THE BÉL-PRINCESS

THE BÉL-PRINCESS

To notes I N a country lived a King who had seven sons. Six

of these sons married, but the seventh and youngest

son would not marry; and, moreover, he disliked

his six sisters-in-law, and could not bear to take food from

their hands. One day, they got very angry with him for

disliking them, and they said to him, taunting him, “We

think that you will marry a Bél-Princess.”

“A Bél-Princess,” said the young prince to himself.

“What is a Bél-Princess? and where is one to be found?

I will go and look for one.” But the next day he thought,

“How can I find a Bél-Princess? I don’t know where to

seek for her.”

At last one day he saddled and bridled one of his father’s

beautiful horses. Then he put on his grand clothes, took

his sword and gun, and said good-bye to his father and

mother, and set out on his search. They cried very much

at parting with him.

He rode from his father’s country for a long, long way.

At length, when he had journeyed for six months, he found

himself in a great jungle, through which he went for many

nights and days, until he at last came to where a fakír lay

sleeping. The young prince thought, “I will watch by this

fakír till he wakes. Perhaps he can help me.” So he stayed

with the fakír for one whole month; and all that time he took

care of him and watched by him, and kept his hut clean.

[ Pg 139] This fakír used to sleep for six whole months at a time, and

then he would remain awake for six months.

When the prince had watched over him for one month

the fakír woke, for his six months’ sleep had come to an end;

and when he saw what care the young prince had taken of

him, and how clean his hut was, he was very much pleased

with the King’s son, and said to him, “How have you

been able to reach this jungle, to which no man can come?

and who are you? and whence do you come?”

“I am a King’s son,” answered the prince. “My father’s

country is a six months’ journey away from this; and I am

come to look for a Bél-Princess. I hear there is a Bél-Princess,

and I want to find her. Can you tell me where

she is?”

“It is true that there is one,” answered the fakír, “and I

know where she is. She is in the fairies’ country, whither

no man can go.”

This made the young prince very sad. “What shall I

do?” he said. “I have left my father and mother, and

have travelled a long, long way to find the Bél-Princess.

And now you tell me I cannot go where she lives.”

“I will help you,” said the fakír, “and if you do exactly

what I tell you, you will find her. But, first, stay here with

me for a little while.”

So the King’s son stayed for another month with the fakír,

and took care of him, and did everything for him, as he did

for his own father.

At the end of the month, the fakír gave him his stick, and

said to him, “Now you must go to the fairies’ country. It

is one week’s journey distant from this jungle. When you

get there, you will see a number of demons and fairies who

live in it.” Then the fakír took a little earth from the

ground, and put it in the prince’s hand. “When you have

come to the fairies’ country, in order that they and the [ Pg 140] demons may not see you, you must blow all this earth away

from the palm of your hand, and then you will be invisible.

You must ride on till you come to a great plain in the

middle of their garden, and on this plain you will see a

large bél-tree and on it one big bél-fruit. In this fruit is the

Bél-Princess. You must throw my stick at it, and it will

fall; but you must take care to catch the fruit in your

shawl, and not let it fall to the ground. Then ride quickly

back to me, for as soon as the fruit falls you will cease to

be invisible, and the fairies and demons who guard the fruit

will all come running after you, and they will all call to you.

But take care, take care not to look behind you when they

call you. Ride straight on to me with the fruit, and do

not look behind you. If you do, you will become stone, and

your horse too, and they will take the bél-fruit back to its

tree.”

The prince promised to do all the fakír bade him. He

rode for a week, and then he came to the fairies’ country.

He blew the earth the fakír had given him away from

his palm all along his fingers, just as he had been told,

and then he became invisible. He rode through the great

garden to the plain. There he saw the bél-tree, and the

one fruit hanging all alone. He threw the fakír’s stick at

it, and caught it in a corner of his shawl as it fell, but

then he was no longer invisible. All the fairies and demons

could see him, and they came running after him as

he rode quickly away, and called to him. He looked

behind at them, and instantly he and his horse became

stone; and the bél-fruit went back to its tree and hung itself

up.

For one week the fakír sat in his jungle, waiting for the

King’s son. But the moment he was turned into stone, the

fakír knew of it, and he set off at once for the fairies’ country.

He walked all through it, but neither the fairies nor [ Pg 141] demons could touch him. He went straight to the great

plain, and there he saw the King’s son sitting on his horse,

and both he and the horse were stone.

This made the fakír very sad; and he said to God,

“What will the father and mother do, now that their son is

changed into a stone?” And he prayed to God and said,

“If it be God’s pleasure, may this King’s son be alive once

more.” Then he cut his little finger on the inside from the tip

to the palm, and smeared the prince’s forehead with the blood

that came from it. He rubbed some blood on the horse too,

all the time praying to God to give the prince his life again.

The King’s son and his horse were alive once more. The

fakír took the prince back to his jungle, and said to him,

“Listen. I told you not to look behind you, and you disobeyed

me and so were turned to stone. Had I not come

to save you, you would always have remained stone.”

The fakír kept the prince with him in the jungle for one

whole week. Then he gave him his stick and some earth

he picked up from the ground on which they were standing,

and said, “Now you must go to the fairies’ country again,

and throw my stick at the bél-fruit, and catch it in a corner

of your shawl as you did before. But mind, mind you do

not look behind you this time. If you do you will be

turned to stone, and you will for ever remain stone. Ride

straight back to me with the fruit, and take care never to

look behind you once till you get to me.”

So the King’s son went again to the fairies’ country, and

all happened as before, till he had caught the fruit in his

shawl. But then he rode straight back to the fakír without

looking behind him, although the fairies and demons ran

after him and called to him the whole way.

He rode so fast they could not catch him, and when he

came to the fakír, the fakír turned him into a fly and thus

hid him. Up came all the fairies and demons and said to [ Pg 142] the fakír, “There is a thief in your hut.” “A thief! Where

is the thief?” said the fakír. “Look everywhere for him, and

take him away if you can find him.” Then they searched

and searched everywhere, but could not find the prince; so

at last they went away.

When they had all gone, the fakír took the little fly and

turned it back into a King’s son. A few days afterwards

he said to the prince, “Now you have found what you

wanted; you have the Bél-Princess you came to seek. So

go back to your father and mother.” “Very well,” said the

prince. Then he got his horse all ready for the journey,

took the bél-fruit, and made many salaams to the fakír, who

said to him, “Now, listen. Take care not to open the fruit

on the road. Wait till you are in your father’s house with

your father and mother, and then open it. If you do not do

exactly as I tell you, evil will happen to you; so mind you

only open the fruit in your father’s house. Out of it will

come the Bél-Princess.”

The prince set out on his journey, and rode on and on

for six months till he came to his father’s country, and then

to his father’s garden. There he sat down to rest by a well

under a clump of great trees. He said to himself, “Now

that I am in my father’s country, and in my father’s garden,

I will sit and rest in this cool shade; and when I am rested

I will go up to the palace.” He bathed his face and his

hands in the well, and drank some of its water. Then he

thought, “Surely, now that I am in my father’s country and

in his garden, I need not wait till I get to his palace to open

my bél-fruit. What harm can happen if I do open it

here?”

So he broke it open, in spite of all the fakír had told him,

and out of it came such a beautiful girl. She was more

beautiful than any princess that ever was seen—so beautiful

that the King’s son fainted when he saw her. The princess [ Pg 143] fanned him, and poured water on his face, and presently

he recovered, and said to her, “Princess, I should like to

sleep for a little while, for I have travelled for six months,

and am very tired. After I have slept we will go together to

my father’s palace.” So he went to sleep, and the princess

sat by him.

Presently a woman came to the well for water, and she

said to herself, “See, here is the King’s youngest son. What

a lovely princess that is sitting by him! What fine clothes

and jewels she has on!” And the wicked woman determined

to kill the princess and to take her place. Then she

came up to the beautiful girl, and sat down beside her, and

talked to her. “Listen to me, princess,” she said at last.

“Let us change clothes with each other. Give me yours,

and I will give you mine.” The princess, thinking no harm,

did as the woman suggested. “And now,” said the woman,

“let me put on your beautiful jewels.” The princess gave

them to her, and then the wicked, wicked woman, said to

her, “Let us walk about this pretty garden, and look at the

flowers, and amuse ourselves.” By and by she said, “Princess,

let us go and look at ourselves in the well, and see what

we look like, you in my clothes, and I in yours.” The young

girl consented, and they went to the well. As they bent over

the side to look in, the wicked woman gave the princess a

push, and pushed her straight over the edge into the water.

Then she went and sat down by the sleeping prince, just

as the princess had done. When he awoke and saw this

ugly, wicked woman, instead of his Bél-Princess, he was

very much surprised, and said to himself, “A little while ago

I had a beautiful girl by me, and now there is such an ugly

woman. It is true she has on the clothes and jewels my

Bél-Princess wore; but she is so ugly, and there is something

wrong with one of her eyes. What has happened to

her?” Then he said to this wicked woman, whom he took [ Pg 144] for his Bél-Princess, “What is the matter with you? Has

anything happened to you? Why have you become so

ugly?” She answered, “Till now I have always lived in a

bél-fruit. It is the bad air of your country that has made

me ugly, and hurt one of my eyes.”

The prince was ashamed of her, and very, very sorry.

“How shall I take her to my father’s palace now?” he

thought. “My mother and all my brothers’ wives will see

her, and what will they say? However, never mind; I

must take her to my house, and marry her. I cannot think

what can have happened to her.” Then he got a palanquin,

and took her up to the palace.

His father and mother were very glad that their youngest

son had come back to them; but when they saw the wicked

woman, and heard she was his Bél-Princess, they, and every

one else in the palace, said, “Can she be a Bél-Princess?

She is not at all pretty, and she is not at all pleasant.” “She

was lovely when she came out of the fruit,” said the prince.

“No one ever saw such a beautiful girl before. I cannot

think what has happened to her. It must be the bad air

of this country that has made her so ugly.” Then he told

them all about his journey to the jungle where he had met

the fakír, and how, with the fakír’s help, he had found his

Bél-Princess, and how he had opened the fruit in his father’s

garden, and then fallen asleep.

The King made a great wedding-feast for his son, and

he and the wicked woman were married, and all the time

the King’s youngest son thought he was marrying the Bél-Princess.

Meanwhile, the beautiful girl had not been drowned in the

well, but had changed into a most lovely pink lotus-flower.

This flower was first seen by a man from the village who

came to the well for water. “What a lovely lotus-flower!”

said the man; “I must gather it.” But when he tried to [ Pg 145] reach it the flower floated away from him. Then he went

and told all the people in the village of the beautiful flower,

and then the palace servants heard of it. They all tried to

gather it, but could not, for the flower always went just out

of their reach. Then the King and his six elder sons heard

of it, and they came to the well; but the King tried in vain

to gather it, and his six sons too. The lotus-flower always

floated away from them.

Last of all, the youngest prince heard of the lotus, and he

grew very curious to see it, and said, “I will try if I cannot

gather this wonderful flower that no one can touch.” So he,

too, came to the well, and stooped, and stretched out his

hand, and the minute he did so the flower floated of itself

into his hand.

Then he was very happy and proud, and he took the

flower up to his wife and showed it to her. “Just see,” he

said, “every one in the village and the palace were talking

of this lotus-flower; and every one tried to gather it; and no

one could, for the flower would not let any one touch it.

My father tried, and my brothers all tried, and they, too, could

not gather it; but as soon as I stretched out my hand the

flower floated into it of itself.”

When his wicked wife saw the flower, she said nothing;

but her heart told her it was the beautiful girl she had pushed

into the well. The prince laid the flower on his pillow, and

was very glad and happy. As soon as he had gone out, his

wife seized the lotus-flower, tore it to bits, and threw them

far away into the garden.

In a few days a bél-tree was growing on the spot where

she had thrown the pieces of the lotus-flower. On it grew

one big bél-fruit, and it was so fine and large that every

one in the village and the palace tried to gather it; but no

one could touch it, for the fruit always went just out of

reach. The King and his six elder sons also tried, but they [ Pg 146] could not touch it. The youngest prince heard of this fruit,

so he said to his wife, “I will go and see if I can gather

this bél-fruit that no one can even touch.” The wicked

woman’s heart said to her, “In the bél-fruit is the Bél-Princess;”

but she said nothing.

The prince went to the bél-tree; the bél-fruit came into

his hand, and he broke it off the tree, and brought it home

to his wife. “See,” he said, “here is the bél-fruit; it let

me gather it at once.” And he was very proud and happy.

Then he laid the fruit on a table in his room.

When he had gone out the wicked wife came, and took

the fruit, and flung it away in the garden. In the night the

fruit burst in two, and in it lay a lovely, tiny girl baby. The

gardener, as he went round the garden early in the morning,

found the little baby; and he wondered who had thrown

away the beautiful fruit, and who the lovely baby girl could

be. She was so tiny and so pretty, and the gardener was

delighted when he saw her, for he had no children, and

thought God had sent him a little child at last.

He took her in his arms and carried her to his wife.

“See,” he said, “we have never had any children, and

now God has sent us this beautiful little girl.” His wife

looked at the child, and she was as delighted with her as her

husband was. “Yes,” she said, “God has sent us this child,

and she is certainly most beautiful. I am very happy. But I

have no milk for her; if only I had milk for her, I could nurse

her and she would live.” And the gardener’s wife was very sad

to think she had no milk in her breasts for the little child.

Then her husband said, “Let us ask God to send you milk

for her.” So they prayed to God and worshipped him. And

God was pleased with them both, and sent the gardener’s

wife a great deal of milk.

The little girl now lived in the gardener’s house, and he

and his wife took the greatest care of her, and were very [ Pg 147] happy to think they had now a child. She grew very fast,

and became lovelier every day. She was more beautiful

than any girl that had ever been seen, and all the people in

the King’s country used to say, “How lovely the gardener’s

daughter is! She is more beautiful than any princess.”

The King’s youngest son’s wicked wife heard of the child,

and her heart told her, “She is the Bél-Princess.” She said

nothing, but she often thought of how she could contrive to

have her killed.

One day, when the gardener’s daughter was seven years

old, she was out in her father’s garden, making a little garden

of her own near the house-door. While she was busy over

her flowers, the wicked woman’s cow strayed into the garden

and began eating the plants in it. The little girl would not

let it make its dinner off her father’s flowers and grass, but

pushed it out of the garden.

The wicked woman was told how the gardener’s daughter

had treated her cow; so she cried all day long, and pretended

to be ill. When her husband asked her what was the

matter, she answered, “I am sick because the gardener’s

daughter has ill-treated my cow. She beat it, and turned it

out of her father’s garden, and said many wicked things.

If you will have the girl killed, I shall live; but if you do

not kill her, I shall die.” The prince at once ordered his

servants to take the gardener’s daughter the next morning to

the jungle, and there kill her.

So the next morning early the servants went to the

gardener’s house to take away his daughter. He and his wife

cried bitterly, and begged the servants to leave the girl with

them. They offered them a great many rupees, saying,

“Take these rupees, and leave us our daughter.” “How

can we leave you your daughter,” said the servants, “when

the King’s youngest son has ordered us to take her to the

jungle and kill her, that his wife may get well?”

[ Pg 148] So they led the girl away; and as they went to the jungle,

they said to each other, “How beautiful this girl is!” They

found her so beautiful that they grew very sorrowful at the

thought of killing her.

They took the girl to a great plain, which was about ten

miles distant from the King’s country; but when they got

there they said they could not kill her. She was so beautiful

that they really could not kill her. She said to them,

“You were ordered to kill me, so kill me.” “No,” they

answered, “we cannot kill you, we cannot kill you.”

Then the girl took the knife in her own hand and cut out

her two eyes; and one eye became a parrot, and the other

a mainá . Then she cut out her heart and it became a great

tank. Her body became a splendid palace and garden—a

far grander palace than was the King’s palace; her arms and

legs became the pillars that supported the verandah roof;

and her head the dome on the top of the palace.

The prince’s servants looked on all the time these changes

were taking place, and they were so frightened by them, that

when they got home they would not tell the prince or any

one else what they had seen. No one lived in this wonderful

house. It stood empty in its garden by its tank, and

the parrot and mainá lived in the garden trees.

Some time afterwards the youngest prince went out hunting,

and towards evening he found himself on the great plain

where stood the wonderful palace. He rode up to it and

said to himself, “I never saw any house here before. I wonder

who lives here?” He went through the great gate into the

garden, and then he saw the large tank, and how beautiful

the garden was. He went all through the garden and was

delighted with it, and he saw that it was beautifully kept, and

was in perfect order. Then he went into the palace, and went

through all the rooms, and wondered more and more to

whom this beautiful house could belong. He was very much [ Pg 149] surprised, too, at finding no one in the palace, though the

rooms were all splendidly furnished, and very clean and neat.

“My father is a great king,” he said to himself, “and yet

he has not got a palace like this.” It was now deep night,

so the prince knew he could not go home till the next day.

“Never mind,” he said, “I will sleep in the verandah. I

am not afraid, though I shall be quite alone.”

So he lay down to sleep in the verandah, and while he

lay there, the parrot and mainá flew in, and they perched

near him, for they knew he was there, and they wanted him

to hear what they said to each other. Then they began

chattering together; and the parrot told the mainá how the

prince’s father was king of the neighbouring country, and

how he had seven sons, and how six of the sons had married

six princesses, “but this prince, who was the youngest son,

would not marry; and what is more, he did not like his

brother’s wives at all.” Then the birds stopped talking and

did not chatter any more that night. The prince was very

much surprised at the birds knowing who he was, and all

about his dislike to his brothers’ wives.

The next morning he rode home; and there he stayed all

day, and would not talk. His wife asked him, “What is the

matter with you? Why are you so silent?” “My head aches,”

he answered: “I am ill.” But towards evening he felt he

must go back to the empty palace on the great plain, so he

said to his wife, “I am going out to eat the air for a little

while.” Then he got on his horse and rode off to the palace.

As soon as he had laid himself down in the verandah, the

parrot and the mainá perched near him; and the parrot

told the mainá how the prince had heard of the Bél-Princess;

and all about his long journey in search of her, and

how he found the bél-fruit, and how he was turned to stone.

Then he stopped chattering, and the birds said nothing

more to each other that night.

[ Pg 150] In the morning the King’s son rode home, and was as

silent and grave as he had been before. He told his wife

his head ached when she asked him whether he was ill.

That night he again slept in the verandah of the strange

palace, and heard a little more of his story from the birds.

The next day he was still silent and grave, and his wife

was very uneasy. “I am sure the Bél-Princess is alive,” she

said to herself, “and that he goes every night to see her.”

Then she asked him, “Why do you go out every evening?

Why do you not stay at home?” “I am not well,” he

answered, “so I go to my mother’s house” (the prince had

a little house of his own in his father’s compound). “I will

not sleep at home again till I am well.”

That night he lay down to sleep again in the verandah of

the great empty palace, and heard the parrot tell the mainá all that happened to the prince up to the time that he fell

asleep in his father’s garden with the beautiful Bél-Princess

sitting beside him.

On the fifth night the prince lay down to sleep again in the

verandah of the palace on the great plain, and watched eagerly

for the little birds to begin their talk. This night the parrot

told how the wicked woman had come and taken the Bél-Princess’s

clothes, and thrown her down the well; how the

princess became a lotus-flower which the wicked wife broke

to bits; how the bits of the lotus-flower turned into a bél-fruit

which she threw away; how out of the fruit came a tiny

girl-baby that the gardener adopted; how the wicked woman

persuaded the prince to have this girl killed when she was

seven years old; how he and the mainá had once been this

girl’s eyes; how the tank was once her heart, and how her

body had changed into this palace and garden, while her

head became the dome on the top of the palace.

Then the mainá asked the parrot where the Bél-Princess

was. “Cannot she be found?” said the mainá . “Yes,” said [ Pg 151] the parrot, “she can be found; but the King’s youngest son

alone can find her, and he is so foolish! He believes that

his ugly, wicked wife is the beautiful Bél-Princess!” “And

where is the princess?” asked the mainá . “She is here,”

said the parrot. “If the prince would come one day and go

through all the rooms of this palace till he came to the centre

room, he would see a trap-door in the middle of that room.

If he lifted the trap-door he would see a staircase which

leads to an underground palace, and in this palace is the

Bél-princess.” “And can no one but the prince lift the

trap-door?” asked the mainá . “No one,” answered the

parrot. “It is God’s order that only the King’s youngest son

can lift the trap-door and find the Bél-Princess.”

The next day the young prince went through all the rooms

of the palace, instead of going home. When he came to

the centre room, he looked for the trap-door, and when he

had lifted it he saw the staircase. He went down it, and

found himself in the under-ground palace, which was far

more beautiful than the one above-ground. It was full of

servants; and in one room a grand dinner was standing

ready. In another room he saw a gold bed, all covered

with pearls and diamonds, and on the bed lay the Bél-Princess.

Day and night she prayed to God and read a holy book.

She did nothing else.

When the prince went into her room and she saw him,

she was very sad, not happy, for she thought, “He is so

foolish; he knows nothing of what has happened to me.”

Then she said to him, “Why did you come here? Go home

again to your father’s palace.”

The prince burst out crying. “See, princess,” he said,

“I knew nothing of your palace. I only found it by chance

five nights ago. I have slept here in the verandah for the

last five nights, and only last night did I learn what had [ Pg 152] happened to you, and how to find you.” “I know it is true,”

she said, “that you knew nothing of what happened to me.

But now that you have found me, what will you do?”

“I will go home to my father’s palace,” he answered,

“and make everything ready for you, and then I will come

and marry you and take you home.”

So it was all settled, and he ate some food, and returned

to his father. He told his father and mother all that had

happened to the Bél-Princess, and how her body had turned

into the beautiful garden and palace that stood on the big

plain; and of the little birds; and of the underground

palace in which she now lived. So his father said that he

and the prince’s mother, and his six brothers and their wives,

would all take him in great state to the palace and marry

him to the beautiful Bél-Princess; and that then they would

all return to their own palace, and all live together. “But

first the wicked woman must be killed,” said the King.

So he ordered his servants to take her to the jungle and

kill her, and throw her body away. So they took her away

at four o’clock in the afternoon and killed her.

One morning two or three days later, the prince and his

father and mother, and brothers and sisters-in-law, went

to the great palace on the wide plain; and there, in the

evening, the king’s youngest son was married to the Bél-Princess.

And when his father and mother and brothers,

and his brothers’ wives, saw her, they all said, “It is quite

true. She is indeed a Bél-Princess!”

After the wedding they all returned to the King’s palace,

and there they lived together. But the King and his sons

used often to go to the palace on the great plain to eat the

air; and they used to lend it sometimes to other rájás and

kings.

Told by Múniyá.

[ Pg 153]