At last one day they came to where, in the midst of the jungle, there rolled a great river of fire. It was the biggest river they had ever seen, and made of flames instead of water. There was no one on this side and no one on that—no way of getting across but by walking through the fire.
When Coplinghee Ranee and the Nautch woman saw this, they said, “Alas! here is the end of all our pains and trouble. All hope is over, for we can go no farther.” But the Sowkar’s wife answered, “Shall we be deterred by this after having come so far? Nay, rather seek a way across the fire.” And so saying, she stepped into the fire waves; the others, however, were afraid, and would not go. When the Sowkar’s wife had half crossed the river of fire, she turned, and waving her hands toward them, said, “Come on, come on, do not be afraid. The fire does not burn me. I go to find Mahdeo; perhaps he is on the other side.”[96] But they still refused, saying, “We cannot come, but we will wait here until your return; and if you find Mahdeo, pray for us also, that we may have children.”
So the Sowkar’s wife went on her way, and the fire-waves lapped round her feet as if they had been water, but they did not hurt her.
When she reached the other side of the river she came upon a great wilderness, full of wild elephants, and bison, and lions, and tigers, and bears, that roared and growled on every side. But she did not turn back for fear of them, for she said to herself, “I can but die once, and it is better that they should kill me than that I should return without finding Mahdeo.” And all the wild beasts allowed her to pass through the midst of them and did her no harm.
Now it came to pass that Mahdeo looked down from heaven and saw her, and when he saw her he pitied her greatly, for she had been twelve years wandering upon the face of the earth to find him. Then he caused a beautiful mango tree, beside a fair well, to spring up in the desert to give her rest and refreshment, and he himself, in the disguise of a Gosain Fakeer, came and stood by the tree. But the Sowkar’s wife would not stay to gather the fruit or drink the water; she did not so much as notice the Fakeer, but walked straight on in her weary search for Mahdeo. Then he called after her, “Bai, Bai, where are you going? Come here.” She answered, scarcely looking at him, “It matters not to you, Fakeer, where I am going. You tell your prayer-beads and leave me alone.” “Come here,” he cried; “come here.” But she would not, so Mahdeo went and stood in front of her, no longer disguised as a Fakeer, but shining brightly, the Lord of Kylas[97] in all his beauty, and at the sight of him the poor Sowkar’s wife fell down on the ground and kissed his feet, and he said to her, “Tell me, Bai, where are you going?” She answered, “Sir, I seek Mahdeo, to pray him to grant that I may have a child, but for twelve years I have looked for him in vain.” He said, “Seek no further, for I am Mahdeo; take this mango,” and he gathered one off the tree that grew by the well, “and eat it, and it shall come to pass that when you return home you shall have a child.” Then she said, “Sir, three women came seeking you, but two stayed by the river of fire, for they were afraid; may not they also have children?”
“If you will,” he answered, “you may give them some of your mango, and then they also will each have a child.”
So saying, he faded from her sight, and the Sowkar’s wife returned glad and joyful, through the wilderness and the river of fire, to where the Ranee and the Dancing woman were waiting for her on the other side. When they saw her, they said, “Well, Sowkar’s wife, what news?” She answered, “I have found Mahdeo, and he has given me this mango, of which if we eat we shall each have a child.” And she took the mango, and squeezing it gave the juice to the Ranee, and the skin she gave to the Nautch woman, and the pulp and the stone she ate herself.
Then these three women returned to their own homes; Coplinghee Ranee and the Dancing woman to the Madura Tinivelly country, and the Sowkar’s wife to very, very far beyond that, even the land where her husband lived, and whence she had first started on her journey.
But on their return all their friends only laughed at them, and the Sowkar said to his wife, “I cannot see much good in your mad twelve-years’ journey; you only come back looking like a beggar, and all the world laughs at you.”
“I don’t care,” she answered; “I have seen Mahdeo and eaten of the mango, and I shall have a child.”