Now all this was told to the Queen, who took a very different view of the thing from the King’s. And coming to him in fury and indignation, she cried out,—
“It is not good for such a man to live. He must be already deprived of his senses; let him die the death!”
But the King gave for all answer, “The thing is not of that import that he should die for it.”
The Princess also heard of it; and she too came to complain to the King that he should cause such a man to be kept in the palace; but before she could open her complaint, the King, joking, said to her,—
“Such and such a man is come to sue for thy hand; and I am about to give thee to him.”
But she answered, “This shall never be; surely the King hath spoken this thing in jest. Shall a princess now marry a beggar?”
“If thou wilt not have him, what manner of man wouldst thou marry?” asked the King.
“A man who has gold and precious things enough that he should carry silk stuff[3] in his boots, such a one would I marry, and not a wayfarer and a beggar,” answered the Princess.
When the people heard that, they went and pulled off Shanggasba’s boots, and when they found in them the pieces of silk he had taken from the image of the garuda-bird, they all marvelled, and said never a word more.
But the King thought thereupon, and said, “This one is not after the manner of common men.” And he gave orders that he should be lodged in the palace.