Page:Indian Fairy Tales (Stokes, 1879).djvu/14

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Indian Fairy Tales.

of the Phúlmattí Rání." God had told the Rájá that he was God and not a Fakír, for he loved the Indrasan Rájá. "Very well," said the Indrasan Rájá. So they travelled on until they came to the Phúlmattí Rání's palace. When they arrived there they pitched a tent in her compound, and they used to walk about, and whenever they saw the Phúlmattí Rání they looked at her. One day they saw her having her hair combed, so God said to the Indrasan Rájá, "Get a horse and ride where the Phúlmattí Rání can see you, and if any one asks you who you are, say, 'Oh, it's only a poor Fakír, and I am his son. We have come to stay here a little while just to see the country. We will go away very soon.'" Well, he got a horse and rode about, and Phúlmattí Rání, who was having her hair combed in the verandah, said, "I am sure that must be some Rájá; only see how beautiful he is." And she sent one of her servants to ask him who he was. So the servant said to the Indrasan Rájá, "Who are you? why are you here? what do you want?" "Oh, it's only a poor Fakír, and I am his son. We have just come here for a little while to see the country. We will go away very soon." So the servants returned to the Phúlmattí Rání and told her what the Indrasan Rájá had said. The Phúlmattí Rání told her father about this. The next day, when the Phúlmattí Rání and her father were standing in the verandah, God took a pair of scales and weighed the Indrasan Rájá in them. His weight was only that of one flower! "Oh," said the Rájá, when he saw that, "here is the husband for the Phúlmattí Rání!" The next day, after the Phúlmattí Rání had had her bath, her father took her and weighed her, and he also weighed the Indrasan Rájá. And they were each the same weight. Each weighed one flower, although the Indrasan Rájá was fat and the Phúlmattí Rání thin. The next day they were married and there was a grand wedding. God said he was too poor-looking