the Shetara Puja[1] was performed, after which the whole palace anxiously waited for the advent of the god Bidhátápúrush at midnight, to write the child's fortune on his forehead. The god came in due time, and when, after fulfilling his mission, he was leaving the room, he touched with his feet the gardener's wife, who had come with the flowers required for the Puja, and who after long waiting had fallen asleep at the door of the room. Suddenly aroused out of her sleep, she seized the feet of the god, and threatened to detain him until he told her what he had written on the child's forehead. After much altercation, the god was compelled to reveal the secret, the most important part of which was that the new-born prince was to live only for twelve days. The sad communication was next morning made known to the king, the queen, and all the inmates of the palace; and loud cries of lamentation filled the house. The king consulted astrologers, and they advised him to make an appeal to the gods for the prolongation of his son's life. The advice was followed; and the gods, moved by his prayers, sent, after a long consultation, one of themselves in the form of a Brahmin to tell him that they had reversed the decree of Bidhátápúrush, and that the prince would live a long life, provided he was at once married to a girl twelve years old. Delighted at this communication, the king, without delay, sent men to look for a princess of that age, for he would not marry his son to one of lower rank. But the messengers returned unsuccessful in their mission, and the parents of the child became ill with grief until one day the kotál, partly out of sympathy with his master and mistress, and partly to aggrandize himself and his family, sought their chamber, and with the greatest humility offered to the new-born babe the hand of his daughter, Malanchamala, who was of the prescribed age. The couple in their dire distress could not but accept the proposal. The kotál, however, on reaching home was roundly abused by his wife, whom he had not
- ↑ A Hindu ceremony performed on the sixth evening following a male child's birth, at which food is distributed.
