She seemed a little Princess, for her dress was all made of cloth of gold, and on her feet were two anklets that shone like the sun.
When the Sowkar opened the box, she smiled; and stretched out her little arms toward him. Then he was pleased, and said, “Fisherman, the box is yours, but this child must belong to me.” The Fisherman was content that it should be so, for he had many children of his own at home, and wanted no more, but was glad to have the golden box; while the Sowkar, who had only his one little son and was rich, did not care for the box, but was well pleased to have the baby.
He took her home to his wife, and said, “See, wife, here is a pretty little daughter-in-law for us. Here is a wife for your little son.” And when the Sowkar’s wife saw the child looking so beautiful and smiling so sweetly, her heart was glad and she loved her, and from that day took the greatest care of her, just as if the baby girl had been her own daughter. And when Chandra Ranee was a year old they married her to their son, Koila.
Years wore on, and the Sowkar and his wife were in a good old age gathered to their fathers. Meantime, Koila and Chandra had grown up the handsomest couple in all the country: Koila tall and straight, with a face like a young lion, and Chandra as lithe and graceful as a palm tree, with a face calm and beautiful like the silver moonlight.
Meantime Moulee, the Nautch woman’s daughter (and third of the mango children), had likewise grown up in the Madura Tinivelly country, and was also very fair—fairer than any one in all the land around. Moreover, she danced and sang more beautifully than any of the other Nautch girls. Her voice was clear as the voice of a quail, and it rang through the air with such power that the sound could be heard a twelve-days’ journey off. The Nautch people used to travel about from place to place, staying one day in one town and the next in another, and so it happened that in their wanderings they reached the borders of the land where Koila and Chandra lived.
One morning Koila heard the sound of singing in the distance, and it pleased him so well that he determined to try and discover who it was that possessed such an exquisite voice. For twelve days he journeyed on through the jungle, each day hearing the singing repeated louder and louder, yet still without reaching the place whence it came. At last, on the twelfth day, he got close to the Nautch people’s encampment, not far from a large town, and there saw the singer (who was none other than Moulee), singing and dancing in the midst of a great crowd of people who had collected around her. In her hand she held a garland of flowers, which she waved over her head as she danced.
Koila was so charmed with the sound of her voice that he felt spell-bound, and stood where he was, far off on the outskirts of the jungle, listening, without going any nearer.
When the entertainment was over, all the people crowded round Moulee, saying, “Why should you, who have such a beautiful voice, go away and leave our city? Marry one of us, and then you will stay here always.” Then, the number of her suitors being so great that she did not know whom to choose, she said, “Very well; he on whose neck this garland falls shall be my husband.” And waving the flowers she held two or three times round her head, she threw them from her with her utmost force.
The impetus given to the garland was so great that it swung through the air beyond the crowd and fell upon the neck of Koila as he stood by the borders of the jungle. And the people ran to see who was the fortunate possessor, and when they saw Koila they were astonished, for he looked more beautiful than any of the sons of men: it was as if an immortal had suddenly come among them. And the Nautch people dragged him back to their camp, crying, “You have won the garland; you must be Moulee’s husband.” He answered, “I only came here to look on; I cannot stay. This is not my country; I have a wife of my own at home.” “That is nothing to us,” they said; “it is your destiny to marry Moulee—Moulee the beautiful one—Moulee, whose voice you heard and who dances so well. You must marry her, for the garland fell on you.”
Now so it was, that though Koila was very kind to his wife, he did not love her as well as she loved him (perhaps it was that, having been accustomed to her from a child, Chandra’s goodness and beauty struck him less than it did other people); and instead of thinking how unhappy she would be if he did not return, and going back at once, he stopped and hesitated and debated what to do. And the Nautch people gave him a drink that was a very powerful spell, insomuch that he soon totally forgot about his own home, and was married to Moulee, the Nautch girl, and lived among the Nautch people for many months. At last, one day, Moulee’s mother (the very Nautch woman who had gone with Coplinghee Ranee and the Sowkar’s wife to find Mahdeo) said to Koila, “Son-in-law, you are a lazy fellow; you have been here now for a long time, but you do nothing for your support; it is we who have to pay for your food, we who have to provide your clothes. Go now and fetch us some money, or I will turn you out of the house, and you shall never see your wife Moulee again.” Koila had no money to give his mother-in-law: then, for the first time he bethought him of his own country and of Chandra, and he said “My first wife, who lives in my own country, has on her feet two bangles of very great value; let me return home and fetch one of them to sell, which will more than pay whatever I owe you.” The Nautch people consented. So Koila returned to his own home, and told Chandra what he wanted the money for, and asked her to let him have one of her bangles; but she refused, saying, “You have been away a long, long time, and left me all alone, and chosen for your second wife one of the Nautch people, and become one of them; and now you want to take one of my bangles—the bangles that I had when a little child, that have grown with my growth, and never been taken off—and to give it to your other wife. This shall not be; go back, if you will, to your new friends, but I will not give you my bangle.”