(continued)
A skin-dress that could be put on or taken off to change a person into an animal, or into a human being again, is the basic idea of transformation in folk-tales. When the skin is burnt the animal permanently resumes human shape, as appears from the last story in the preceding chapter. Many legends of frog-princes, serpent-husbands, swan-maidens, tiger-sons, and so forth, fall into this class. A quaint and typical story of the kind is told about a mouse-maiden.
A king and queen of a certain city had a daughter who was invited to become the bride of a prince who lived in another city. Messengers were sent to fetch her, and when they arrived at the palace they ordered the bride to come out of her room to eat the rice of the wedding-feast. But the queen said to the messengers, "She is now eating cooked rice in the house."
They then begged the princess to come out to dress in the robes sent by the bridegroom, but the queen said, "She is already putting on robes in her chamber." Then they said she was to come out and be taken to the bridegroom's city, and the queen, having put a female mouse in an incense box, asked two of the messengers to come forward and gave the box into their hands, saying, "Take this and until seven days have gone by do not lift the lid of the box."
With this the messengers had to be satisfied. They took the box to the prince's city, and when they lifted the lid after seven days the mouse jumped out of the box and hid herself among the cooking pots. Now it was the duty of a servant girl in the prince's household to apportion and serve cooked rice and vegetable curry to the prince, and when he was satisfied, she covered up the cooking pots containing the rest of the food. Then the mouse came, and having taken and eaten some of the cooked rice and vegetables, covered up the cooking pots and went back to hide among the pots.
The following day the same thing occurred, and the prince said to the servant, "Does the mouse eat cooked rice? Look and tell me."
The girl went to see and when she came back she said, "She has eaten the cooked rice and covered the cooking pots, and has gone."
Next day the prince said, "I am going to cut the rice-crop. Remain at home and, when evening comes, put the utensils for cooking near the hearth." So the servant obeyed him and in the evening the mouse came and cooked. She placed the food ready and again ran and hid behind the pots.
This went on for several days, and when the whole rice-crop was garnered in, the prince went near to the place where the mouse was hidden and said, "Having pounded the rice and removed the husks, let us go to your village and present it to your parents as first-fruits." But the mouse said, "I will not go. You go!" So the prince made the servant get the package of cooked rice ready, and he went to the village of the queen and gave the package to her.
And the queen said, "Where is my daughter?" The prince answered, "She refused to come."