(Apparently the story is incomplete, but the narrator knew of no continuation, and I did not meet with it elsewhere.)
Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.
In The Jātaka, No. 120 (vol. i, p. 265), a Queen of the King of Benares is described as scratching herself, rubbing oil on her limbs, and putting on dirty clothes in order to support the charge she brought against the Chaplain, of assaulting her during the King’s absence on a warlike expedition. In No. 472 (vol. iv, p. 118) a Queen scratched herself and put on soiled clothes in order to induce the King to believe that her son-in-law, Prince Paduma, had assaulted her. Paduma was accordingly sentenced to be thrown down a precipice.
In Folklore of the Santal Parganas (Rev. Dr. Bodding), p. 27, a Queen who was a Prince’s step-mother behaved in the same way until the King promised to kill the boy. He smeared the blood of a dog on his sword, and abandoned the boy in the forest.
In Indian Nights’ Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 273, a King observed that two swallows had a nest in a veranda at the palace. The hen disappeared, having been caught by a falconer. The cock constantly attended to the young ones, but when it brought a fresh mate the two came only once on the second day, and the cock then disappeared. The King then examined the nest, and found in it four dead young ones, each with a thorn in its throat. He concluded that if his wife died and he married again the new Queen might ill-treat his two sons. After a while the Queen died and the King was persuaded by the Ministers to marry again. One day when the two Princes were amusing themselves with pigeons one of the birds alighted near the new Queen, who hid it under a basket and denied that she had seen it, but guided by signs made by an old nurse the younger Prince found and took it. On another occasion the elder Prince recovered one in the same way, though forcibly opposed by the Queen. The Queen then charged them with insulting her, the King banished them, and they went away.
In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 166, a King and Queen while in the veranda of the palace watched a pair of birds at a nest. One day a strange hen was seen to go with the cock to the nest, carrying thorns in her bill. When the nest was examined it was discovered that the thorns had been given to the young ones, and that they were dead. The King and Queen discussed it, and the King promised not to marry again if the Queen died. When she died, by the Ministers’ advice and after many refusals he married a Minister’s daughter who became jealous of the two Princes, complained of their disobedience and abusive language, and induced the King to order them to be killed in the jungle. There the soldiers’ swords being turned into wood they allowed the boys to escape. The rest of the story is given in the last note, vol. i, p. 91.
In the Arabian Nights (Lady Burton’s ed., vol. iv, p. 71), in the Sindibad-nāmeh, the favourite concubine of the King of China fell in love with his only son and offered to poison his father, but on his rejection of her offers she tore her robes and hair, and charged him with assaulting her. The seven Wazīrs told the King tales of the perfidy of women, and persuaded him to countermand the death penalty to which the Prince was sentenced, the Prince explained the affair, and the woman was sent away.
In Cinq Cents Contes et Apologues (Chavannes), vol. i, p. 107, the favourite concubine of a King being repulsed by the Crown Prince, charged him with improper conduct towards her, and induced the King to send him to govern the frontier districts. She and a Counsellor then forged an order that he must pluck out and send his eyes. When she received them she hung them before her bed and addressed opprobrious language to them. The Prince became a flute player, and while earning a living thus, accompanied by his wife, was recognised by his father, who scourged the two plotters with thorns, poured boiling oil on their wounds, and buried them alive.
In Santal Folk Tales (Campbell), p. 33, a raja and his wife observed the attention paid by a hen-sparrow to her young ones, and that after she died another mate who was brought let them die of hunger. The queen pointed this out, and told the raja to take care of her children in case she died. When he was persuaded by his subjects to marry afresh after her death, the new wife took a dislike to the elder son, and by an assumed illness induced the raja to exile him. The other brother accompanied him, and they had various adventures.