Hindu Tales from the Sanskrit by S. M. Mitra

Author:S. M. Mitra
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: Tales -- India, Sanskrit literature -- Translations into English
Publisher: Standard Ebooks
Published: 2021-03-18T20:04:23+00:00

VI

Sringa-Bhuja loved Rupa-Sikha so much that he was ready to obey her in whatever she asked. So he at once went with her to the palace. On every side he saw signs of the strength and power of the ma­gi­cian. Each gate was guarded by tall sol­diers in shin­ing ar­mour, who sa­luted Rupa-Sikha but scowled fiercely at him. He knew full well that, if he had tried to pass alone, they would have pre­ven­ted him from do­ing so. At last the two came to the great hall, where the ma­gi­cian was walk­ing back­wards and for­wards, work­ing him­self in­to a rage at be­ing kept wait­ing. Dir­ectly he looked at the prince, he knew him for the man who had shot the jew­elled ar­row at him when he had taken the form of a crane, and he de­term­ined that he would be re­venged. He was too cun­ning to let Sringa-Bhuja guess that he knew him, and pre­ten­ded to be very glad to see him. He even went so far as to say that he had long wished to find a prince worthy to wed his young­est and fa­vour­ite daugh­ter. “You,” he ad­ded, “seem to me the very man, young, hand­some and—to judge from the rich­ness of your dress and jew­els—able to give my be­loved one all she needs.”

The prince could hardly be­lieve his ears, and Rupa-Sikha also was very much sur­prised. She guessed how­ever that her fath­er had some evil pur­pose in what he said, and looked earn­estly at Sringa-Bhuja in the hope of mak­ing him un­der­stand. But the prince was so over­joyed at the thought that she was to be his wife that he no­ticed noth­ing. So when Ag­ni-Sikha ad­ded, “I only make one con­di­tion: you must prom­ise that you will nev­er dis­obey my com­mands, but do whatever I tell you without a mo­ment’s hes­it­a­tion.” Sringa-Bhuja, without wait­ing to think, said at once, “Only give me your daugh­ter and I will serve you in any way you wish.”

“That’s settled then!” cried the ma­gi­cian, and he clapped his hands to­geth­er. In a mo­ment a num­ber of at­tend­ants ap­peared, and their mas­ter ordered them to lead the prince to the best apart­ments in the palace, to pre­pare a bath for him, and do everything he asked them.

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