The questions and answers remind one of those asked and given by Mahosadha and Amara, the girl whom he married, in the Jataka story No. 546 (vol. vi, p. 182), and one remark is the same,--that regarding the river water.

Heroines are sometimes described as emitting a brilliant light, as in No. 145, vol. ii. In Indian Fairy Tales (M. Stokes), p. 158, there is a Princess who "comes and sits on her roof, and she shines so that she lights up all the country and our houses, and we can see to do our work as if it were day."

In the Katha Sarit Sagara (Tawney), vol. ii, p. 133, a heavenly maiden illuminated a wood, though it was night. In the same volume, p. 145, a girl "gleamed as if she were the light of the sun."

In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., pp. 484 ff., the son of a Wazir asked a farmer whom he accompanied a number of cryptic questions which were understood by the farmer’s daughter, whom he afterwards married. They have a general resemblance to those in the Sinhalese story, but differ from them. In one he asked if a field of ripe corn was eaten or not, meaning that if the owner were in debt it was as good as eaten already.

In Folklore of the Santal Parganas (Rev. Dr. Bodding) there are several instances of enigmatical replies of this kind. See pp. 269, 349, 368. In a Kolhan tale appended to the vol. by Mr. Bompas, p. 462, a Princess who was in a Bel fruit had such brilliancy that the youth who split it open fell dead when he saw her.

In Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), a brilliant Prince is described in vol. i, p. 301, and a heroine in vol. ii, p. 17. In vol. iii, p. 172, a Prince’s face shone like the moon among the stars. Buddha is usually described as possessing great brilliancy.

In No. 237 below, there is a Prince whose brilliance dazzled a Princess so much that she swooned.

NO. 205

THE BOY WHO WENT TO LEARN THE SCIENCES

In a certain country a boy was sent by his two parents near a teacher for learning the arts and sciences. Then the boy, [after] learning for a long time the sixty-four mechanical arts, [98] came back to his home.

The boy’s parents asked the boy, "Did you learn all the sciences?" The boy told his parents that he learnt the whole of the sciences. At that time his father asked, "Did you learn the subtlety (mayama) of women?" Thereupon the boy said he did not. Having said, "[After] learning that very science come back," he was sent away again by his two parents.

The boy having set off from there, at the time when he was going along, in the King’s garden were the King and Queen. The King was walking and walking in the garden. The Queen, sewing and sewing a shawl, [99] was [sitting] in the shade under a tree. Having seen that this very boy is going, the Queen, calling the boy, asked, "Where are you going?"

Thereupon the boy says, "When I came home [after] learning the arts and sciences, and the sixty-four mechanical arts, my parents asked, 'Did you learn the arts?' I said, 'Yes.' Then they asked, 'Did you learn the subtlety of women?' When I myself said I did not, because they said, '[After] learning that very science come back,' I am going away to learn that very science," he said to the Queen.

Thereupon that very Queen said, "I will teach you the subtlety," and calling the boy near, placed the boy’s head on the Queen’s thigh, and having told him to lie [still], and taken the shawl that the Queen was sewing and sewing, and covered the boy [with it], the Queen remained sewing and sewing. At that time the King was not there.

After that, the King came there. Then the Queen, having called the King [and said], "I wish to tell you a story," told the King to listen to the story. The King was pleased regarding it.

The Queen, leaving the thigh on which was the head of the above-mentioned boy, having placed the head of the King on the other thigh, and told him to lie [there], told the story. The story indeed was:--"Like we are here, a King and Queen of the fore-going time, like we came here went for garden-sport, it is said. At that time the King went to walk in the garden, it is said. While that very Queen was staying [there] sewing a shawl, a boy came there. Then the Queen asked the boy, 'Where are you going?' Thereupon the boy says, 'Because my parents said I am to learn the subtlety of women, I am going away to learn that very subtlety,' he said. Then the Queen having said, 'I will teach you,' called the boy, and having placed his head on her thigh, and told him to lie [still], sewed the shawl. At that time the King came, like you now have come here. Then, having told the King to place his head on the other thigh and having told him this story, with the shawl that covered the boy she covered the King." [As she said this, she covered the King with the shawl.] Thereupon the boy quickly jumped up and went away.

When his parents afterwards asked the boy, "Did you learn the subtlety of women?" he said that he had learnt it.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

In The Jataka, No. 61 (vol. i, p. 148), there is an account of a Brahmana youth who, on completing the usual education, was asked by his mother if he had learnt the Dolour Texts, and on his replying in the negative was sent back to learn them. There were no such texts, but his mother intended him to learn the wickedness of women. This he did, but not in the manner related in the Sinhalese story.

NO. 206

THE PRINCE AND THE ASCETICS

In a certain country there is a Prince, it is said. After the Prince became big, for the purpose of marrying him they began to visit all cities to seek an unpolluted Princess. Because they did not meet with one according to the Prince’s thought, he began to look at many sooth books.

While looking, from a book he got to know one circumstance. The matter indeed [was this]:--There was [written] in the book that when the Prince remains no long time inside the hollow of a large tree, a Princess will be born from the Prince’s very blood. Thereupon having considered it, according to the manner in which it was mentioned he stayed inside the tree. When he was there not much time he met with a Princess, also, in that before-mentioned manner. The Prince thereupon took the Princess in marriage.

After he took her in marriage, having constructed a palace in the midst of that forest both of them stayed in it. While they are [there], the Prince having come every day [after] shooting animals, skinned them, and taking the skins and having fixed them on the wall, asks the Princess, "What animals' skins are these?" He asks the names from the Princess. Then the Princess says, "I don’t know."

On the day after that, after the Prince went for hunting a Vaedda came near the palace. The Princess having seen the Vaedda called him. Then the Vaedda went to the palace.