An East Indian Story

by
Katherine Pyle

Katherine Pyle

There was once a king who had two sons. The elder was a very stingy Prince; he would neither give nor lend to any one. The younger, on the contrary, was a waster who could never say no to any one, and spent all he had without ever taking thought of the morrow.

In time the old King died, leaving everything he had to his sons without making any division between them.

The elder was very much dissatisfied with this arrangement. “Come,” said he to his brother, “let us divide between us what our father left. Then you can squander your share as you please, but I intend to save mine, for I have no idea of being brought to poverty.”

The younger brother readily agreed to this. They divided the inheritance between them, but somehow, in the division, the elder one seemed to get the best of everything. The younger did not quarrel over that, however.

After that they separated, and each one lived his own life as he wished. The elder saved and hoarded as was his nature, and grew richer every day, but the younger spent with a free hand, and denied neither himself nor his friends anything.

After a while the younger Prince had spent all he had, and then he journeyed to the palace where his elder brother lived to ask help of him.

The older Prince was but ill-pleased to see him. “So you have already wasted all your money,” said he. “I knew it would be so. This one time I will help you because you are the son of our father, but in return you must promise you will never come here again to trouble me.

The young Prince was obliged to agree to this, and the elder then gave him four pieces of golden money, no more, no less. With this the young Prince was obliged to be content, though it was little enough to live on. He went away from his brother’s palace, and he had not journeyed far when he met a man carrying a cat, and the cat was so thin and miserable looking that it was pitiful.

“Is your cat for sale?” asked the Prince.

“Yes, it is,” answered the man.

“And what is the price of it?”

“I can only sell it for gold, for it is a very fine cat.”

“Very well,” said the Prince, “I will buy it;” and he paid the man one of the pieces of money his brother had given him.

He went on a little farther and he met a man with a dog, and the dog was no less miserable looking than the cat. The Prince felt pity for it.

“Is your dog for sale?” he asked.

“Yes, I will sell it.”

“How much do you ask for it?”

“I will sell it for a piece of gold money.”

The Prince gave the man a second of his pieces of money and took the dog in exchange.

A little while after he saw a merchant with a parrot, and then a faker with a snake, and both of these creatures he also bought because he thought they looked as though they were illtreated, and now all his money was gone.

“My poor friends,” said the Prince, “I had meant to do you a good turn by buying you, but now I have no food for either myself or you. It seems you are worse off than ever.”

“Do not let that trouble you, dear Prince,” said the snake. “My father, who lives over in the jungle beyond the city, is the king and ruler over all the serpents. He is very rich and powerful. Let us go to him, and he will gladly reward you for saving me from the faker, for he was a very cruel man.”

This advice sounded good to the Prince. He at once set out into the jungle, and the snake directed him which way to go. The dog and cat followed close behind, and the parrot fluttered from branch to branch overhead.

After traveling for some time, the Prince and his companions came to a great heap of ruins, and here the snake bade them pause: “This is where my father lives,” said he. “Do you wait here while I go forward and prepare him for your visit. If you came upon him suddenly, he might strike you before I had time to tell him who you were, and you might die.”

“Very well,” said the Prince. “Do you go, and I and the others will wait here until you return.”

The snake at once slipped away among the ruins, and it was not long before he returned.

“My father will now see you,” he said. “He is very grateful to you for saving me from the faker, and will offer to reward you with all sorts of treasures, but you must refuse them. Ask him for the little old ring he wears, and take nothing else, for it is worth more than all the rest of his riches put together.”

The Prince promised to do as the snake bade him, and then followed it through the ruins until they came to the large gilded and painted chamber where the Serpent King lived. This Serpent King was of enormous size, and wore a golden crown upon his head.

After he had heard his son’s story he made the Prince welcome, and began to thank him for what he had done for his son. “You have saved him from a miserable life,” said he. “I am not ungrateful, and I intend to reward you. In my treasure chamber are riches beyond all dreaming. Take as much of them as you choose. I grudge you nothing, and there is nothing you can ask of me that I will not give you.”

“I thank you,” answered the Prince, “but I have no need of treasures, and it was from pity I bought your son, and not for a reward.”

“Nevertheless, I wish to show my gratitude,” said the Serpent King. “I beg of you to help yourself to my treasures, — gold or jewels, I care not how much you take.”

Again the Prince refused. “Indeed, I am in need of nothing.”

Then for the third time the Serpent King urged him to accept some reward.

“Very well,” said the Prince at last, “I see you will not be content unless I take something from you, so give me the little old ring you wear, as a token of friendship between us.”

When the Serpent King heard this he was furious, and hissed so loudly that the Prince trembled with fear. “Who has told you to ask for the Ring of Fortune?” he cried. “All the rest of my treasures are as nothing beside this, and if I had not promised you whatever you might ask for, you should never have it.”

However, the Serpent had given his word, and he was obliged to let the Prince have the ring.

The Prince slipped it on his finger, and then he hastened away from the ruins, for he was afraid of what the Serpent King might do to him.

No sooner was he safely out of the jungle than he said to the snake, “This is a very foolish thing you have made me do. I might have had enough treasure to make me rich for life, and now I have nothing but this little old ring that appears to be made of very common metal and quite worthless.”

“Do not judge so quickly,” replied the snake, “for that ring has very wonderful powers. It is able to give you whatever you may ask for. Now do as I tell you, and you will soon see the wisdom of your choice. Make a clean square place on the ground and plaster it over as one does in making a holy place. Lay the ring in the center of it and sprinkle it with sour milk. Then ask for anything you may wish, and it will be yours.”

“This is a very strange story,” said the Prince, “and I can hardly believe it.” Still he made a holy place as the snake directed him and laid the ring in the center of it and sprinkled it with sour milk. Then, as he was very hungry, he said, “I wish for all sorts of good things to eat and drink.”

At once a feast appeared before him. The food was of the most delicious kind, the dishes were of gold, and richly carved, and there were napkins of the finest linen fringed and embroidered with silver. The Prince could hardly express his wonder and admiration.

“You were indeed right,” said he to the snake. “Not the greatest king in all the world possesses a treasure as great as this ring.”

He then ate and drank to his heart’s content, sharing everything with his three companions.

After they had made an end of eating, the dishes disappeared, and the Prince put the ring upon his finger and he and his companions journeyed on again.

He had no wish to return to the city where his brother lived, so they traveled in an opposite direction, and after a while they came to a strange country bordering on the seashore and ruled over by a very great and powerful King.

This King had one beautiful daughter, and she was so lovely that there was not her like in all the world. Many princes and great rulers had sought her in marriage, but the King had declared that no one should have her but he who was able to build a golden palace in the sea in one night. Whoever could do this should not only receive the Princess in marriage, but one half of the kingdom as well; but whoever failed in the task should have his head cut off.

Many had tried, but none had succeeded, and the King had made a necklace of the heads of those who failed, and had hung it beside the castle gate as a warning to all rash adventurers.

But the young Prince was not at all frightened by the sight of these heads. He knocked boldly at the palace gates and asked to speak with the King. At once the guards brought him before their master, and the Prince said he had come to build the golden palace for the King, and that he wished to set about the matter that very night.

“Rash youth,” said the King, “have you not seen the necklace of heads that hangs beside the gateway? Do you value your life so little that you are willing to lose it for nothing?”

“I do not think I will lose it,” answered the Prince. “I make no doubt but that I will be able to build the palace, and to build it in one single night as you require.”

“Very well,” said the King. “If you are determined to make the attempt, I will not forbid you, but you will certainly lose your head, even as others have done before you.”

The King then commanded that the Prince should be taken to the seashore, and that a guard should be set around him, so that if he failed in the attempt, he should not be allowed to escape without paying the penalty.

The Prince, however, had no thought of escaping. He trusted in the power of the ring and had no doubt but that as soon as he wished it, the palace would appear. He bade his faithful animals keep watch and rouse him just before dawning, and then he spread his cloak on the ground and lay down and went quietly to sleep.

The guards who were set to watch him were amazed. “This young man must wish to die,” they said. “He has not even made the first attempt to build the castle, and takes no thought of how the hours of the night are slipping away.”

Just before dawning, the animals awakened the Prince. The dog barked in his ear, the cat scratched him gently, the parrot pulled him by the sleeve, and the snake twisted about his arm and pinched him.