THE CHARMED RING | Jaadu ki anggothi | hindi Kahanian

THE CHARMED RING

A merchant started his son in life with three hundred rupees, and bade
him go to another country and try his luck in trade. The son took the
money and departed. He had not gone far before he came across some
herdsmen quarrelling over a dog, that some of them wished to kill.
"Please do not kill the dog," pleaded the young and tender-hearted
fellow; "I will give you one hundred rupees for it." Then and there, of
course, the bargain was concluded, and the foolish fellow took the dog,
and continued his journey. He next met with some people fighting about
a cat. Some of them wanted to kill it, but others not. "Oh! please do
not kill it," said he; "I will give you one hundred rupees for it." Of
course they at once gave him the cat and took the money. He went on
till he reached a village, where some folk were quarrelling over a
snake that had just been caught. Some of them wished to kill it, but
others did not. "Please do not kill the snake," said he; "I will give
you one hundred rupees." Of course the people agreed, and were highly
delighted.

What a fool the fellow was! What would he do now that all his money was
gone? What could he do except return to his father? Accordingly he went
home.

"You fool! You scamp!" exclaimed his father when he had heard how his
son had wasted all the money that had been given to him. "Go and live
in the stables and repent of your folly. You shall never again enter my
house."

So the young man went and lived in the stables. His bed was the grass
spread for the cattle, and his companions were the dog, the cat, and
the snake, which he had purchased so dearly. These creatures got very
fond of him, and would follow him about during the day, and sleep by
him at night; the cat used to sleep at his feet, the dog at his head,
and the snake over his body, with its head hanging on one side and its
tail on the other.

One day the snake in course of conversation said to its master, "I am
the son of Raja Indrasha. One day, when I had come out of the ground to
drink the air, some people seized me, and would have slain me had you
not most opportunely arrived to my rescue. I do not know how I shall
ever be able to repay you for your great kindness to me. Would that you
knew my father! How glad he would be to see his son's preserver!"

"Where does he live? I should like to see him, if possible," said the
young man.

"Well said!" continued the snake. "Do you see yonder mountain? At the
bottom of that mountain there is a sacred spring. If you will come with
me and dive into that spring, we shall both reach my father's country.
Oh! how glad he will be to see you! He will wish to reward you, too.
But how can he do that? However, you may be pleased to accept something
at his hand. If he asks you what you would like, you would, perhaps, do
well to reply, 'The ring on your right hand, and the famous pot and
spoon which you possess.' With these in your possession, you would
never need anything, for the ring is such that a man has only to speak
to it, and immediately a beautiful furnished mansion will be provided
for him, while the pot and the spoon will supply him with all manner of
the rarest and most delicious foods."

Attended by his three companions the man walked to the well and
prepared to jump in, according to the snake's directions. "O master!"
exclaimed the cat and dog, when they saw what he was going to do. "What
shall we do? Where shall we go?"

"Wait for me here," he replied. "I am not going far. I shall not be
long away." On saying this, he dived into the water and was lost to
sight.

"Now what shall we do?" said the dog to the cat. "We must remain here,"
replied the cat, "as our master ordered. Do not be anxious about food.
I will go to the people's houses and get plenty of food for both of
us." And so the cat did, and they both lived very comfortably till
their master came again and joined them.

The young man and the snake reached their destination in safety; and
information of their arrival was sent to the Raja. His highness
commanded his son and the stranger to appear before him. But the snake
refused, saying that it could not go to its father till it was released
from this stranger, who had saved it from a most terrible death, and
whose slave it therefore was. Then the Raja went and embraced his son,
and saluting the stranger welcomed him to his dominions. The young man
stayed there a few days, during which he received the Raja's right-hand
ring, and the pot and spoon, in recognition of His Highness's gratitude
to him for having delivered his son. He then returned. On reaching the
top of the spring he found his friends, the dog and the cat, waiting
for him. They told one another all they had experienced since they had
last seen each other, and were all very glad. Afterwards they walked
together to the river side, where it was decided to try the powers of
the charmed ring and pot and spoon.

The merchant's son spoke to the ring, and immediately a beautiful house
and a lovely princess with golden hair appeared. He spoke to the pot
and spoon, also, and the most delicious dishes of food were provided
for them. So he married the princess, and they lived very happily for
several years, until one morning the princess, while arranging her
toilet, put the loose hairs into a hollow bit of reed and threw them
into the river that flowed along under the window. The reed floated on
the water for many miles, and was at last picked up by the prince of
that country, who curiously opened it and saw the golden hair. On
finding it the prince rushed off to the palace, locked himself up in
his room, and would not leave it. He had fallen desperately in love
with the woman whose hair he had picked up, and refused to eat, or
drink, or sleep, or move, till she was brought to him. The king, his
father, was in great distress about the matter, and did not know what
to do. He feared lest his son should die and leave him without an heir.
At last he determined to seek the counsel of his aunt, who was an
ogress. The old woman consented to help him, and bade him not to be
anxious, as she felt certain that she would succeed in getting the
beautiful woman for his son's wife.

She assumed the shape of a bee and went along buzzing, and buzzing, and
buzzing. Her keen sense of smell soon brought her to the beautiful
princess, to whom she appeared as an old hag, holding in one hand a
stick by way of support. She introduced herself to the beautiful
princess and said, "I am your aunt, whom you have never seen before,
because I left the country just after your birth." She also embraced
and kissed the princess by way of adding force to her words. The
beautiful princess was thoroughly deceived. She returned the ogress's
embrace, and invited her to come and stay in the house as long as she
could, and treated her with such honour and attention, that the ogress
thought to herself, "I shall soon accomplish my errand." When she had
been in the house three days, she began to talk of the charmed ring,
and advised her to keep it instead of her husband, because the latter
was constantly out shooting and on other such-like expeditions, and
might lose it. Accordingly the beautiful princess asked her husband for
the ring, and he readily gave it to her.

The ogress waited another day before she asked to see the precious
thing. Doubting nothing, the beautiful princess complied, when the
ogress seized the ring, and reassuming the form of a bee flew away with
it to the palace, where the prince was lying nearly on the point of
death. "Rise up. Be glad. Mourn no more," she said to him. "The woman
for whom you yearn will appear at your summons. See, here is the charm,
whereby you may bring her before you." The prince was almost mad with
joy when he heard these words, and was so desirous of seeing the
beautiful princess, that he immediately spoke to the ring, and the
house with its fair occupant descended in the midst of the palace
garden. He at once entered the building, and telling the beautiful
princess of his intense love, entreated her to be his wife. Seeing no
escape from the difficulty, she consented on the condition that he
would wait one month for her.

Meanwhile the merchant's son had returned from hunting and was terribly
distressed not to find his house and wife. There was the place only,
just as he knew it before he had tried the charmed ring which Raja
Indrasha had given him. He sat down and determined to put an end to
himself. Presently the cat and dog came up. They had gone away and
hidden themselves, when they saw the house and everything disappear. "O
master!" they said, "stay your hand. Your trial is great, but it can be
remedied. Give us one month, and we will go and try to recover your
wife and house."

"Go," said he, "and may the great God aid your efforts. Bring back my
wife, and I shall live."

So the cat and dog started off at a run, and did not stop till they
reached the place whither their mistress and the house had been taken.
"We may have some difficulty here," said the cat. "Look, the king has
taken our master's wife and house for himself. You stay here. I will go
to the house and try to see her." So the dog sat down, and the cat
climbed up to the window of the room, wherein the beautiful princess
was sitting, and entered. The princess recognised the cat, and informed
it of all that had happened to her since she had left them.

"But is there no way of escape from the hands of these people?" she
asked.

"Yes," replied the cat, "if you can tell me where the charmed ring is."

"The ring is in the stomach of the ogress," she said.

"All right," said the cat, "I will recover it. If we once get it,
everything is ours." Then the cat descended the wall of the house, and
went and laid down by a rat's hole and pretended she was dead. Now at
that time a great wedding chanced to be going on among the rat
community of that place, and all the rats of the neighbourhood were
assembled in that one particular mine by which the cat had lain down.
The eldest son of the king of the rats was about to be married. The cat
got to know of this, and at once conceived the idea of seizing the
bridegroom and making him render the necessary help. Consequently, when
the procession poured forth from the hole squealing and jumping in
honour of the occasion, it immediately spotted the bridegroom and
pounced down on him. "Oh! let me go, let me go," cried the terrified
rat. "Oh! let him go," squealed all the company. "It is his wedding
day."

"No, no," replied the cat. "Not unless you do some thing for me.
Listen. The ogress, who lives in that house with the prince and his
wife, has swallowed a ring, which I very much want. If you will procure
it for me, I will allow the rat to depart unharmed. If you do not, then
your prince dies under my feet."

"Very well, we agree," said they all. "Nay, if we do not get the ring
for you, devour us all."

This was rather a bold offer. However, they accomplished the thing. At
midnight, when the ogress was sound asleep, one of the rats went to her
bedside, climbed up on her face, and inserted its tail into her throat;
whereupon the ogress coughed violently, and the ring came out and
rolled on to the floor. The rat immediately seized the precious thing
and ran off with it to its king, who was very glad, and went at once to
the cat and released its son.

As soon as the cat received the ring, she started back with the dog to
go and tell their master the good tidings. All seemed safe now. They
had only to give the ring to him, and he would speak to it, and the
house and beautiful princess would again be with them, and everything
would go on as happily as before. "How glad master will be!" they
thought, and ran as fast as their legs could carry them. Now, on the
way they had to cross a stream. The dog swam, and the cat sat on its
back. Now the dog was jealous of the cat, so he asked for the ring, and
threatened to throw the cat into the water if it did not give it up;
whereupon the cat gave up the ring. Sorry moment, for the dog at once
dropped it, and a fish swallowed it.

"Oh! what shall I do? what shall I do?" said the dog.

"What is done is done," replied the cat. "We must try to recover it,
and if we do not succeed we had better drown ourselves in this stream.
I have a plan. You go and kill a small lamb, and bring it here to me."

"All right," said the dog, and at once ran off. He soon came back with
a dead lamb, and gave it to the cat. The cat got inside the lamb and
lay down, telling the dog to go away a little distance and keep quiet.
Not long after this a nadhar, a bird whose look can break the bones of
a fish, came and hovered over the lamb, and eventually pounced down on
it to carry it away. On this the cat came out and jumped on to the
bird, and threatened to kill it if it did not recover the lost ring.
This was most readily promised by the nadhar, who immediately flew off
to the king of the fishes, and ordered it to make inquiries and to
restore the ring. The king of the fishes did so, and the ring was found
and carried back to the cat.

"Come along now; I have got the ring," said the cat to the dog.

"No, I will not," said the dog, "unless you let me have the ring. I can
carry it as well as you. Let me have it or I will kill you." So the cat
was obliged to give up the ring. The careless dog very soon dropped it
again. This time it was picked up and carried off by a kite.

"See, see, there it goes--away to that big tree," the cat exclaimed.

"Oh! oh! what have I done?" cried the dog.

"You foolish thing, I knew it would be so," said the cat. "But stop
your barking, or you will frighten away the bird to some place where we
shall not be able to trace it."

The cat waited till it was quite dark, and then climbed the tree,
killed the kite, and recovered the ring. "Come along," it said to the
dog when it reached the ground. "We must make haste now. We have been
delayed. Our master will die from grief and suspense. Come on."

The dog, now thoroughly ashamed of itself, begged the cat's pardon for
all the trouble it had given. It was afraid to ask for the ring the
third time, so they both reached their sorrowing master in safety and
gave him the precious charm. In a moment his sorrow was turned into
joy. He spoke to the ring, and his beautiful wife and house reappeared,
and he and everybody were as happy as ever they could be.