Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

the crown. Still, he resolved to denounce
Gangazara as the king's murderer, so, hiding the crown under his
garments, he flew to the palace. He went before the prince and informed
him that the assassin was caught, and placed the crown before him.
    The prince took it into his hands, examined it, and at once gave half
the kingdom to Manikkasari, and then inquired about the murderer. "He
is bathing in the river, and is of such and such appearance," was the
reply. At once four armed soldiers flew to the river, and bound the
poor Brahman hand and foot, while he, sitting in meditation, was
without any knowledge of the fate that hung over him. They brought
Gangazara to the presence of the prince, who turned his face away from
the supposed murderer, and asked his soldiers to throw him into a
dungeon. In a minute, without knowing the cause, the poor Brahman found
himself in the dark dungeon.
    It was a dark cellar underground, built with strong stone walls, into
which any criminal guilty of a capital offence was ushered to breathe
his last there without food and drink. Such was the cellar into which
Gangazara was thrust. What were his thoughts when he reached that
place? "It is of no use to accuse either the goldsmith or the prince
now. We are all the children of fate. We must obey her commands. This
is but the first day of my father's prophecy. So far his statement is
true. But how am I going to pass ten years here? Perhaps without
anything to sustain life I may drag on my existence for a day or two.
But how pass ten years? That cannot be, and I must die. Before death
comes let me think of my faithful brute friends."
    So pondered Gangazara in the dark cell underground, and at that moment
thought of his three friends. The tiger-king, serpent-king, and rat-
king assembled at once with their armies at a garden near the dungeon,
and for a while did not know what to do. They held their council, and
decided to make an underground passage from the inside of a ruined well
to the dungeon. The rat raja issued an order at once to that effect to
his army. They, with their teeth, bored the ground a long way to the
walls of the prison. After reaching it they found that their teeth
could not work on the hard stones. The bandicoots were then specially
ordered for the business; they, with their hard teeth, made a small
slit in the wall for a rat to pass and re-pass without difficulty. Thus
a passage was effected.
    The rat raja entered first to condole with his protector on his
misfortune, and undertook to supply his protector with provisions.
"Whatever sweetmeats or bread are prepared in any house, one and all of
you must try to bring whatever you can to our benefactor. Whatever
clothes you find hanging in a house, cut down, dip the pieces in water,
and bring the wet bits to our benefactor. He will squeeze them and
gather water for drink! and the bread and sweetmeats shall form his
food." Having issued these orders, the king of the rats took leave of
Gangazara. They, in obedience to their king's order, continued to
supply him with provisions and water.
    The snake-king said: "I sincerely condole with you in your calamity;
the tiger-king also fully sympathises with you, and wants me to tell
you so, as he cannot drag his huge body here as we have done with our
small ones. The king of the rats has promised to do his best to provide
you with food. We would now do what we can for your release. From this
day we shall issue orders to our armies to oppress all the subjects of
this kingdom. The deaths by snake-bite and tigers shall increase a
hundredfold from this day, and day by day it shall continue to increase
till your release. Whenever you hear people near you, you had better
bawl out so as to be heard by them: 'The wretched prince imprisoned me
on the false charge of having killed his father, while it was a tiger
that killed him. From that day these calamities have broken out in his
dominions. If I were released I would save all by my powers of