Page:Tales of the Punjab.pdf/203

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THE SNAKE-WOMAN AND KING ALI MARDAN 181

when he saw the King he knew at once all was not right, so he said, ‘O King, you have been gracious unto me, and I in my turn desire to do you a kind action ; so tell me truly,—have you always had that white scared face and those stony eyes?’

The King hung his head.

‘Tell me truly,' continued the holy Jogi, ‘have you any strange woman in your palace?’

Then Ali Mardan, feeling a strange relief in speaking, told the Jogi about the finding of the maiden, so lovely and forlorn, in the forest.

‘She is no handmaiden of the Emperor of China —she is no woman!’ quoth the Jogi fearlessly ; ‘she is nothing but a Lamia—the dreadful two-hundred- years-old snake which has the power of taking woman's shape !'

Hearing this, King Ali Mardan was at first indignant, for he was madly in love with the stranger ; but when the Jogi insisted, he became alarmed, and at last promised to obey the holy man’s orders, and so discover the truth or falsehood of his words.

Therefore, that same evening he ordered two kinds of khichri to be made ready for supper, and placed in one dish, so that one half was sweet khichri, and the other half salt.

Now, when as usual the King sat down to eat out of the same dish with the Snake-woman, he turned the salt side towards her and the sweet side towards himself.

She found her portion very salt, but, seeing the King eat his with relish and without remark, finished hers in silence. But when they had retired to rest, and the King, obeying the Jogi’s orders, had feigned

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