The Orient Pearls/The Hawk the King-Maker
THE HAWK THE KING-MAKER.
Once upon a time there was a pious King in Hindustan, beloved of his subjects, as much for his unstinted liberality to all and sundry as for his just and impartial rule.
He was very fond of holy men, and delighted in their company, and always showered his choicest gifts upon them.
One day a rascal, who pretended that he was a holy man, came to the King and thus said to him: "O Prince! I have lived a recluse in my cell all my life, only now and then stirring out into the great world to visit ancient shrines and places of pilgrimage by the sacred rivers. I feel supremely curious to know what a three days' change in my dull, joyless, ascetic life would feel like. So do thou, O Prince! let me rule over thy kingdom just for three days in thy place."
The King, who never denied aught to any holy men, agreed to this, and with his Queen and his two little sons left his State on a three days' holiday..
The "holy" man now took off his yellow garb, and, putting on his back the gorgeous dress of a Prince, sat on the throne with a golden crown on his head and a jewelled sceptre in his hand, and thus began his three days' reign.
When the stipulated three days' rule was over, the King returned with his family to claim his kingdom, but the so-called holy man, loath to part with the sceptre so soon, thus addressed himself to the King: "O generous Prince! I have tasted of the sweets of power, but my three days' rule has expired too soon. Do thou let me continue to reign for thee over thy kingdom just a little longer."
"A holy man," thought the King to himself, "knows the Scriptures, and this man appears to be one, so he may well be trusted to hold the sceptre for me, for his rule is bound to be just and righteous."
Thus musing, the King consented to part with the sceptre a little longer in favour of the new ruler, and so away he went again with his wife and children, out of his kingdom.
The King and his family travelled from place to place, not knowing where to go, and journeyed on and on until, overcome with hunger and thirst, they came at last to a jungle. Here the King gathered together a few wild fruits and sweet, juicy roots for his wife and children, and with these they somehow appeased their hunger and thirst.
Thus refreshed, the party again resumed their journey, until at nightfall they were obliged to seek shelter at a way-side inn.
Here there happened to be at the time several travellers, and among them a merchant. The latter had secretly trafficked in human flesh, and, as he gazed with wonder upon the charms of the Queen, he at once realized what a nice little fortune there lay in them, could he get hold of her and sell her to someone as a bride.
With this idea uppermost in his mind, he began to set his trap for the unwary Queen. He walked up to the King and introduced himself to him. "I am a merchant," said he, "and have come to do some business in the city which is just a mile from here. I have come on in advance to secure a house suitable for my wife, who is an invalid. She is coming to-morrow evening and may require a little nursing. Shall we go together to the city in the morning and hunt for a quiet, cosy little house such as I want?"
The King, who never lost a chance of doing a good turn to a fellow-man in distress, readily agreed to this, and next morning they set off for the city together, as arranged.
After some aimless wandering up and down the streets, they at last succeeded in finding a nice house in a quiet quarter such as the merchant desired. When everything was apparently settled and done with, they returned to the inn.
The merchant settled his with the innkeeper, and, after taking leave of the King, removed, or pretended to remove, to his house.
At dusk the merchant sent a palanquin, a sort of sedan chair borne by two men, with a maid-servant and a note to the King which ran thus: "Dear friend, just as I feared, my wife has arrived quite ill and terribly upset by the journey. May I presume upon our new acquaintance to ask you to be so kind as to send your wife to nurse mine just for the night? I am sending a palanquin and a maid servant to fetch her here."
The King, who always delighted in good deeds, did not suspect any treachery, so he allowed the Queen to be taken away in the palanquin, with the blinds drawn down, to attend, as he thought, on his friend's wife.
On the morrow the King, accompanied by the two little Princes, went to the house of the merchant, but to his great consternation found the shutters up and no living soul within. Now at length the bitter truth dawned upon him. The merchant had taken away his wife by false pretences. With tears streaming down his cheeks, he searched all over the city for the Queen, but alas! in vain.
Then, in the agony of his despair, leaving her rescue to Providence, he took each of his sons by the hand and went on his way, not caring whithersoever fate might lead them.
Before they had gone very far, however, a stream stopped their progress. The King, unable to get over to the other side burdened with the two Princes, left one on the bank (intending to return and take him across), while he lifted the other on his shoulders and so began to cross the stream. Hardly had he gone half way when a tiger, which had come apparently to drink water, snapped up with a growl the son who had been left behind, and made for the jungle; and as the King all too suddenly turned round to look behind, the boy on his shoulder was jerked into the water and drowned, or carried away by the current.
Thus for the King misfortunes came, not singly, but in battalions. Having lost all his dear and near ones, he journeyed on by himself, beating his breast and rending the air with lamentations like one possessed; and in this condition he came wandering into the territory of another Prince.
By a curious chain of accidents, the latter had just died, and his ministers, in accordance with the quaint old custom of choosing a successor by lot, took out a hawk and a golden crown, and the hawk was let loose just as the woe-stricken King was entering the city. After circling round and round over the heads of the crowds which had followed close on the heels of the ministers, as if to pick out the fittest one from among them, the hawk finally perched on the head of the newcomer.
At once the ministers gathered round him, put the crown on his head, and carried him triumphantly to the throne. Here he was installed King with full regal honours, and thus once more found himself in his element, and so opened a fresh chapter in his life. He began to rule over his new subjects, as might have been expected, with justice and impartiality, and peace and plenty smiled upon the land as they never had done before. The people were all pleased with his rule, but were distressed to see him always so gloomy and melancholy. The King, they knew, had no Queen, and that, they concluded, was the cause of his sadness. And so, to provide him with a companion, his ministers, without consulting him, inquired far and wide for a suitable bride, at the same time promising a handsome reward to him who found one such as they wanted.
Attracted by the bait of a reward, a man one evening brought a lady endowed with every good quality, and in every respect fit to be a Queen. The ministers, having approved of her as a suitable bride for the King, temporarily left her in a room in the palace, while they themselves prepared to interview the King with the object of inducing him to marry the lady of their choice. Just at this very moment a hunter and a fisherman brought two boys, apparently orphans, and as the King under Hindu law is the guardian of all waifs and strays, they made them over to his ministers. The latter, having asked the boys to wait just outside the room of the Queen-elect, went to the King to advise him to marry the lady they had chosen for him.
The boys, left to themselves in the dim twilight, began to while away their time by narrating the adventures each had gone through, and while they were thus talking, the lady in the room leant forward and listened to their stories, and then, suddenly flinging open the door, fell upon their necks and began to kiss them fervently. She was the kidnapped Queen, and the boys were her own two little Princes, miraculously rescued, one from a tiger's jaws and the other from a watery grave!
While the ministers were suggesting matrimony to the King, a messenger came running to the court and informed him of the strange meeting of the lady with her two lost sons.
The King, accompanied by the whole court, went to witness the scene, when, lo and behold! whom did he see but his own missing Queen, embracing her two dear sons who had been given up for dead:
"He saw once more his dark-eyed Queen
Among her children stand;
They clasped his neck, they kissed his cheeks,
They held him by the hand."
The wicked merchant was thus balked of his prey, and for his very life ran away as fast as his legs could carry him, while the hunter and the fisherman were sent away with handsome rewards.
Thus did virtue triumph in the end. Nay, more, the pretended holy man having ruled the State with harshness, his subjects rebelled and put him to death, and as the throne can never be without an occupant, the old ministers set out in quest of their former Prince, and, having found him, begged him to return to his kingdom. But as he could not be in two places at one and the same time, he cut the Gordian knot by making each son King of one State with a council of Elders, the Queen and himself retiring into private life in accordance with the immemorial custom amongst the ancients.