Page:Deccan Nursery Tales.djvu/148

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DECCAN NURSERY TALES

cucumber leaf, and on it she placed some curds and rice. Next she mixed with them some butter and a farthing's worth of betel-nut. Then she told her brother to pray, "O Goddess, Mother of All, if any one of our family is drowned in the tank please give him back to us." He did so and then threw the offering into the lake. Then they both turned to go home. But as she was turning homewards, she felt some one pull her by the legs. She looked down and saw that it was her missing son. When she saw him she dragged him with all her might to the bank, and then she and her brother walked home with him. When the king heard that she was coming, together with her missing son, he wondered greatly, and going to her he fell at her feet and said, "O my daughter, I offered your son to the water-goddesses; how has he come back again?" She said, "I worshipped the water-goddesses and made offerings to them. Then my son came out of the water, and I lifted him up and drew him to the shore." The king was overjoyed and showed the greatest favour to his daughter-in-law. And she and her little son lived happily ever afterwards.

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