an impossibility that you are trying, the trial itself is absurd and foolish." Being thus addressed, the wood-cutter's wife stood aside, mortified and annoyed.
Shakti then pressed her breasts, and thirty-two times the milk flew out and touched the prince's lips. The king trembled on his throne, fearing that he should lose his son, who springing from his seat, threw himself into the close embrace of his real mother; and the musicians present played stirring notes in congratulation. The woman who had so long passed as his mother was looked upon by him with scorn, and she, in order to take her last hit at Shakti, required her to name the boy's father. On this demand, the lady became embarrassed, for on the night of her husband's last return to her, he had strictly enjoined her to keep the circumstances of Neel's birth a secret from every one but his neighbours. She cast anxious looks all round, whereupon a friend stepped in to help her. The swan, Manik, flew to the spot, and in the hearing of the king, nobles, and the mob assembled, related the history of Neel's birth, and of the garland of shells. Speechless with wonder, the king, with his attendants, ran into the prison and brought Shankha out, with apologies for having wronged him. Great honours were conferred on him, and the courtiers attended on him and did him honour. Shakti before this had been taken into the palace. She had not heard of her husband's imprisonment or release, nor of his arrival in the kingdom. So she was very disconsolate on his account. She would neither eat nor drink, but continued crying, until her son appeared before her with the joyful tidings that his father was under the same roof with her. Beside herself with delight, she urged the boy to take her to his father, and when the long-separated couple met, they fell upon each other's necks and shed hot tears of joy.
They extorted a full confession from the wood-cutter's wife, and expelled her and the wicked midwife, her accomplice, from the palace. The former returned to her house in the forest; but what became of the latter is not known. Shankha
