Thereupon, when Koṭā remembered about the doves, all of them having come and collected the whole of the mustard seeds with their bills, gave him them. Having gone to the King and given that also, he pleased the King.
At the last, the King having put all his seven daughters in a dark room, told him to take the youngest Princess by the hand among them, and come out into the light.
Thereupon, when Koṭā remembered the fire-flies, the whole of them having come, when they began to light up the chamber, Koṭā, recognising the youngest Princess and taking her by the hand, came into the light.
After that, the King gave the Princess in marriage to Koṭā. They two lived happily.
Western Province.
Regarding the ring in the jar of water, and the tasks to be performed before the Princess could be married, see vol. i, p. 294.
In the Kathā Sarit Sāgara (Tawney), vol. i, p. 142, a Brāhmaṇa who wished to let his wife, a Vidyādharī who had taken refuge on Udaya, the Dawn Mountain, know of his arrival, dropped a jewelled ring into a water pitcher when one of the attendants who had come for water in which to bathe her, asked him to lift it up to her shoulder. When the water was poured over his wife she saw and recognised the ring, and sent for him.
In A. von Schiefner’s Tibetan Tales (Ralston), p. 71, Prince Sudhana, who had made his way to the city of the Kinnara King in search of his wife, the Kinnarī Manōharā, met with some Kinnara females drawing water for pouring over Manōharā, to purify her after her residence with him. He placed her finger-ring in one pot, and requested that it might be the first to be emptied over her. When the ring fell down she recognised it and sent for him, introduced him to her father the King, and after he performed three tasks was formally married to him. The third task was the identification of Manōharā among a thousand Kinnarīs. In this she assisted him by stepping forward at his request.
The incident of the ring sent in the water that was taken for a Princess’s bath, also occurs in Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. i, p. 302. She recognised it, and sent for her husband who had thus notified his arrival in search of her.