else, adopted as yours? If you do not tell me, I will kill myself.' And so saying, he drew his sword. She replied, 'Stay, stay, and I will tell you the whole truth: the day before you were born I had a little baby, but it died; and my servants took it to the bottom of the garden to bury it, and there they found a beautiful woman lying as dead, and beside her was a living infant. You were that child. They brought you to the palace, and I adopted you as my son, and they left my baby in your stead.'—'What became of my mother?' he asked. 'I cannot tell,' answered the Ranee; 'for, two days afterwards, when I sent to the same place, she and the baby had both disappeared, and I have never since heard of her.'
The young Prince, on hearing this, said, 'There is in the head Malee's house a beautiful lady whom the Malee's wife found in the jungle fourteen years ago;—that must be my mother. Let her be received here this very day with all honour; for that is the only reparation that can now be made to her.'
The Ranee consented, and the young Prince went down to the Malee's house himself, to fetch his mother to the palace.
With him he took a great retinue of people, and a beautiful palanquin for her to go in, covered with rich trappings; also costly things for her to wear, and many jewels,—and presents for the good Malee's wife.
When Panch-Phul Ranee had put on her son's gifts, and come out of the Malee's poor cottage to meet him, all the people said there had never been so royal-looking a queen. As gold and clear crystal are lovely, as mother-of-pearl is exquisitely fair and delicate-looking,—so beautiful, so fair, so delicate appeared PanchPhul Ranee.
Her son conducted her with much pomp and state to the palace, and did all in his power to honour her; and there she lived long very happily, and beloved by all.
One day the young Prince begged her to tell him again, from the beginning, the story of her life, and as much as she knew of his father's life; and so she did. And after that, he said to her, 'Be no longer sad, dear mother, regarding my father's fate; for I will send into all lands to gather tidings of him, and may be in the end we shall find him.' And he sent people out to hunt for the Rajah all over the kingdom, and in all neighbouring countries;—to the north, to the south, to the east, and to the west,—but they found him not.
