Hindu Tales from the Sanskrit

[Dark Saint Alaick]

CHAPTER VII


Although the king said nothing to his wife about what the barber had
told him, he could not treat her exactly as he did before he heard it,
and she very soon began to wonder what she had done to vex him. The
first thing she noticed was that one of the ladies of the court always
followed her when she went into the forest. She did not like this;
because she so dearly loved to be alone with the wild creatures,
and they did not come to her when any one else was near. She told
the lady to go away, and she pretended to do so; but she only kept
a little further off. And though the queen could no longer see her,
she knew she was there, and so did the birds and the deer. This went
on for a little time; and then Kadali-Garbha asked her husband to
tell every one that she was not to be disturbed when she went to see
her friends in the forest.

"I am afraid," said the king, "that some harm will come to you. There
are wild beasts in the depths of the wood who might hurt you. And
what should I do if any harm came to my dear one?"

Kadali-Garbha was grieved when Dridha-Varman said this, for she knew
it was not true; and she looked at him so sadly that he felt ashamed
of having doubted her. All would perhaps have been well even now,
if he had told her of the story he had heard about her, because then
she could have proved that it was not true. But he did not do that;
he only said, "I cannot let you be alone so far from home. Why not
be content with the lovely gardens all round the palace? If you still
wish to go to the woods, I will send one of the game-keepers with you
instead of the lady who has been watching you. Then he can protect
you if any harmful creature should approach."

[Dark Saint Alaick]

"If my lord does not wish me to be alone in the forest," answered the
queen, "I will be content with the gardens. For no birds or animals
would come near me if one of their enemies were with me. But," she
added, as her eyes filled with tears, "will not my lord tell me why
he no longer trusts his wife, who loves him with all her heart?"

The king was very much touched by what Kadali-Garbha said, but still
could not make up his mind to tell her the truth. So he only embraced
her fondly, and said she was a good little wife to be so ready to
obey him. The queen went away very sadly, wondering to herself what
she could do to prove to her dear lord that she loved him as much as
ever. She took care never to go outside the palace gardens, but she
longed very much for her old freedom, and began to grow pale and thin.

The wicked woman who had tried to do her harm was very much
disappointed that she had only succeeded in making her unhappy; so
she went again to Asoka-Mala, and promised her more money if only she
would think of some plan to get the king to send his wife away. The
wise woman considered a long time, and then she said: "You must use
the barber again. He goes from house to house, and he must tell the
king that the beautiful woman, who used to roam about in the forest
collecting herbs, has been seen there again in the dead of the night,
when she could be sure no one would find out what she was doing."

Now it so happened that Kadali-Garbha was often unable to sleep because
of her grief that the king did not love her so much as he used to
do. One night she got so tired of lying awake that she got up very
quietly, so as not to disturb her husband, and putting on her sari,
she went out into the gardens, hoping that the fresh air might help
her to sleep. Presently the king too woke up, and finding that his
wife was no longer beside him, he became very uneasy, and was about to
go and seek her, when she came back. He asked her where she had been;
and she told him exactly what had happened, but she did not explain
why she could not sleep.

13. What mistake did the queen make in her treatment of the king?

14. Do you think it is more hurtful to yourself and to others to talk
too much or too little?

[Dark Saint Alaick]

CHAPTER VIII


When the barber was shaving the king the next morning, he told him he
had heard that people were saying the beautiful woman had been seen
again one night, gathering herbs and muttering to herself. "They talk,
my lord," said the man, "of your own name having been on her lips;
and those who love and honour you are anxious for your safety. Maybe
the woman is indeed a witch, who for some reason of her own will try
to poison you."

Now Dridha-Varman remembered that Kadali-Garbha had left him the
night before, "and perhaps," he thought, "at other times when I was
asleep." He could scarcely wait until the barber had finished shaving
him, so eager was he to find out the truth. He hurried to his wife's
private room, but she was not there; and her ladies told him she had
not been seen by them that day. This troubled him terribly, and he
roused the whole palace to seek her. Messengers were soon hurrying
to and fro, but not a trace of her could be found. Dridha-Varman
was now quite sure that the woman the barber had talked about was
Kadali-Garbha, the wife he had so loved and trusted. "Perhaps," he
thought, "she has left poison in my food, and has gone away so as
not to see me die." He would neither eat nor drink, and he ordered
all the ladies whose duty it was to wait on the queen to be locked
up till she was found. Amongst them was the wicked woman who had done
all the mischief because of her jealousy of the beautiful young queen,
and very much she wished she had never tried to harm her.

15. Where do you suppose the queen had gone?

16. What mistake did the king make when he heard the queen was missing?

[Dark Saint Alaick]

CHAPTER IX


In her trouble about the loss of the king's love Kadali-Garbha longed
for her father, for she felt sure he would be able to help her. So
she determined to go to him. With the aid of the wise woman who
had given her the packet of mustard seed, and who had been her best
friend at court, she disguised herself as a messenger, and, mounted
on a strong little pony, she sped along the path marked out by the
young shoots of mustard, reaching her old home in the forest before
the night fell. Great indeed was the joy of Mana Kanaka at the sight
of his beloved child, and very soon she had poured out all her sorrow
to him. The hermit was at first very much enraged with his son-in-law
for the way in which he had treated Kadali-Garbha, and declared that
he would use all the powers he had to punish him. "Never," he said,
"shall he see your dear face again; but I will go to him and call
down on him all manner of misfortunes. You know not, dear child,
I have never wished you to know, that I am a magician and can make
the very beasts of the field and the winds of heaven obey me. I know
full well who has made this mischief between you and your husband,
and I will see that punishment overtakes them."

"No, no, father," cried Kadali-Garbha; "I will not have any harm done
to my dear one, for I love him with all my heart. All I ask of you
is to prove to him that I am innocent of whatever fault he thinks I
have committed, and to make him love and trust me again."

It was hard work to persuade Mana Kanaka to promise not to harm the
king, but in the end he yielded. Together the father and daughter
rode back to the palace, and together they were brought before
Dridha-Varman, who, in spite of the anger he had felt against his
wife, was overjoyed to see her. When he looked at her clinging to Mana
Kanaka's arm, as she had done the first time they met, all his old
love returned, and he would have taken her in his arms and told her so
before the whole court, if she had not drawn back. It was Mana Kanaka
who was the first to speak. Drawing himself up to his full height,
and pointing to the king, he charged him with having broken his vow
to love and protect his wife. "You have listened to lying tongues,"
he said, "and I will tell you to whom those tongues belong, that
justice may be done to them."

[Dark Saint Alaick]

Once more Kadali-Garbha interfered. "No, father," she said; "let
their names be forgotten: only prove to my lord that I am his loving
faithful wife, and I will be content."

"I need no proof," cried Dridha-Varman; "but lest others should follow
their evil example, I will have vengeance on the slanderers. Name them,
and their doom shall be indeed a terrible one."

Then Mana Kanaka told the king the whole sad story; and when it was
ended the wicked woman who had first thought of injuring the queen,
and the barber who had helped her, were sent for to hear their doom,
which was---to be shut up for the rest of their lives in prison. This
was changed to two years only, because Kadali-Garbha was generous
enough to plead for them. As for the third person in the plot, the
old witch of the cave, not a word was said about her by anybody. Mana
Kanaka knew well enough what her share in the matter had been; but
magicians and witches are careful not to make enemies of each other,
and so he held his peace.

Dridha-Varman was so grateful to his father-in-law for bringing his
wife back to him, that he wanted him to stop at court, and said he
would give him a very high position there. But Mana Kanaka refused
every reward, declaring that he loved his little home in the forest
better than the grand rooms he might have had in the palace. "All I
wish for," he said, "is my dear child's happiness. I hope you will
never again listen to stories against your wife. If you do, you may
be very sure that I shall hear of it; and next time I know that you
have been unkind to her I will punish you as you deserve."

The king was obliged to let Mana Kanaka go, but after this he took
Kadali-Garbha to see her father in the forest very often. Later, when
the queen had some children of her own, their greatest treat was to
go to the little home, in the depths of the wood. They too learnt to
love animals, and had a great many pets, but none of those pets were
kept in cages.

17. What is the chief lesson to be learnt from this story?

18. Which of all the people in this tale do you like best?

19. What do you think is the greatest power in all the world?

20. If you had been Kadali-Garbha would you have forgiven those who
tried to do you harm?