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TABULATION OF FOLK-TALES.
TABULATION OF FOLK-TALES.
Generic name of story.—(Not to be filled up.)
Specific name.—Punchkin.
Dramatis personæ—Rajah and seven daughters, youngest named Balna. Widow and daughter of Prudhan (prime minister). Seven sons of neighbouring rajah. Punchkin (disguised as a fakeer). Malee (a gardener) and his wife. A parrot, genii, serpent, eagles with young.
Thread of story.—A rajah had seven motherless daughters, who cooked his food in turns. The Prudhan's widow and daughter begged of them in vain, when the widow threw mud into the food, and, summoned by the rajah, so charmed him by fair words that he married her. She treated the seven daughters cruelly, but they fed themselves with ripe pomeloes which grew on their mother's grave, whither Prudhan's daughter traced them to learn on what they lived. Her mother then feigned headache, and told rajah it could be cured only by pulling up the pomelo tree. The princesses wept at its loss, whereupon a tank near the tomb yielded them a cream-like cake, and this too was found out by Prudhan's daughter. The mother then had the tomb pulled down and thrown into the tank. She again feigned illness, and said her life could be saved only through the blood of the seven daughters being sprinkled upon her. They were taken by the rajah to a jungle, and he stole away while they slept, shooting a deer, whose blood he put palace, he would not let Punchkin have it unless he promised to release the prisoner and bring back the enchanted to life. When this was done he pulled the parrot to pieces, and, as the wings and legs were torn off, Punchkin's arms and legs dropped off, while, as the prince wrung the bird's neck, Punchkin's head twisted round, and he died.
