The Prince accepted the invitation to dinner, and came to the house.
After showing him all round, the girl led him at last to the room in which she had prepared dinner; and as her bird was also there, she told it to make a salaam to the Prince, which it did.
Then the first dish was uncovered, and the Prince knew that he could not eat it as it was made of pearls; but the bird spoke up and said: “O Prince! are you not yet able to understand the difference between pearls and dross? When your wife bore your children, you believed them to be dogs, cats, or rats, and turned out your poor wife, who was in reality the mother of these”—and she pointed to the two boys and their sister—“your own children, who were exchanged by their wicked aunts for a dog, a cat, a rat, and you believed them.”
On hearing this, the Prince was astounded; and then the bird told him exactly all that had taken place.
Delighted to be once more united to his children, he sought his poor wife, and, throwing himself at her feet, besought her with tears to forgive him.
This she very gladly did, and returned with him to the Palace, where her children received her; and they were all very happy ever after.
The two wicked sisters were killed by order of the Prince.
THE DOG TEMPLE
About eleven miles from Raipur, near the village of Jagasar, is a temple built to the memory of a faithful dog of the Bunjara species, and this is the story of how it came to be built.