ing to sleep there for the night; and with his hands under his head, stared up into the leafy branches of the tree above him. Great was his astonishment to see high up among the boughs an immense number of crows, and above them all a most lovely young girl, who was feeding them with berries and wild fruits. Quick as thought he climbed the tree, and bringing her carefully and gently down, seated her on the grass beside him, saying, 'Tell me, pretty lady, who you are, and how you come to be living in this dreary place.' In reply she told him all her adventures, except that she did not say the hundred crows were her hundred brothers. Then the Rajah said, 'Do not cry any more, fair Princess; you shall come home with me and be my Ranee, and my father and mother shall be yours.' At this she smiled and dried her eyes, but quickly added, 'You will let me take these crows with me, will you not? for I love them dearly, and I cannot go away unless they may come too.' 'To be sure,' he answered. 'You may bring all the animals in the jungle with you, if you like, so you will only come.'
So he took her home to his father's house, and the old Rajah and Ranee wondered much at this jungle Lady, when they saw her rare beauty, her modest gentle ways, and her queenly grace. Then the young Rajah told them how she was a persecuted Princess, and asked their leave to marry her; and because her loving goodness had won all hearts, they gave their consent as joyfully as if she had been daughter of the greatest of Rajahs, and brought with her a splendid dower; and they called her Draupadí Bai.[1]
Draupadí had some beautiful trees planted in front of her palace, in which the crows, her brothers, used to live, and she daily with her own hands boiled a quantity of rice, which she would scatter for them to eat as they flew down to her call. Now some time after this, Draupadí Bai had a son, who was called Ramchundra. He was a very good boy, and his mother Draupadí Bai used to take him to school every morning, and go and fetch him home in the evening. But one day, when Ramchundra was about fourteen years old, it happened that Draupadí Bai did not go to fetch him home from school as she was wont; and on his return, he found her sitting under the trees in front of her
- ↑ Doubtless after the beautiful Princess Draupadí, daughter of the Rajah of Panchala, and a famous character in the great Hindu Epic, the 'Mahá Bhárata.'
