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When he heard this, the prince went there, and, seeing the sesame-seeds in a heap, despondently began to plough the land and sow them, but while he was beginning, he saw the land ploughed and all the seeds sown in due course by the might of his lady-love's magic power, and he was much astonished.
So he went to Agniśikha, and told him that this task was accomplished; then that treacherous Rákshasa again said to him— " I do not want the seeds sown, go and pile them up again in a heap." When he heard that, he again went and told Rúpaśikhá. She sent him to that field, and created innumerable ants,*[1] and by her magic power made them gather together the sesame-seeds. When Śringabhuja saw that, he went and told Agniśikha that the seeds had been piled up again in a heap.
Then the cunning but stupid Agniśikha said to him— " Only two yojanas from this place, in a southerly direction, there is an empty temple of Śiva in a wood. In it lives my dear brother Dhúmaśikha— go there at once, and say this in front of the temple, ' Dhúmaśikha, I am sent by Agniśikha as a messenger to invite you and your retinue: come quickly, for tomorrow the ceremony of Rúpaśikhá's marriage is to take place.' Having said this, come back here to-day with speed, and to-morrow marry my daughter Rúpaśikha." When Śringabhuja was thus addressed by the rascal, he said— " So be it"— and went and recounted the whole to Rúpaśikha. The good girl gave him some earth, some water, some thorns, and some fire, and her own fleet horse, and said to him— " Mount this horse and go to that temple, and quickly repeat that invitation to Dhúmaśikha as it was told to you, and then you must at once return on this horse at full gallop, and you must often turn your head and look round; and if you see Dhúmaśikha coming after you, you must throw this earth behind you in his way; if in spite of that, Dhúmaśikha pursues you, you must in the same manner fling the water behind you in his path; if in spite of that he comes on, you must in like manner throw these thorns in his way. If in spite of
- ↑ * Compare the way in which Psycho separated the seeds in the Golden Ass of Apuleius, Lib. VI. cap X, and the tasks in Grimm's Märchen, Nos. 62, 186, and 193. A similar incident is found in a Danish Tale, Swend's Exploits, p. 353 of Thorpe's Yule-Tide Stories. Before the king will allow Swend to marry the princess, he gives him a task exactly resembling the one in our text. He is told to separate seven barrels of wheat and seven barrels of rye, which are lying in one heap. The ants do it for him, because he had on a former occasion crumbled his bread for them. See also the story of the beautiful Cardia, Gonzenbach's Sicilianische Märchen, p. 188. The hero has first to eat a cellar full of beans; this he accomplishes by means of the king of the ravens, his brother-in-law. He next disposes of a multitude of corpses by means of another brother-in-law, the king of the wild boasts; he then stuffs a large number of mattresses with feathers by the help of a third brother-in-law, the king of the birds. See also Miss Stokes's Indian Fairy Tales, Tale XXII, and the note at the end of this chapter.
