So the little princesses went a long way into the jungle, where they found all the fruit they wished to eat, and were happier than they had been for a long time, watching the green parrots flash in and out between the trees and the monkeys chattering as they swung from bough to bough.
After a while they came to a beautiful white marble palace with a great gateway standing wide open, and over it was written in golden letters:
"Enter, Nala, do not fear;
Silver and gold await you here."
But the words changed as soon as they had read them into these:
"Follow her, Dehra; you shall see
How kind and cruel Fate can be."
The sisters looked at each other, and then Dehra said, "I do not think mine is as nice a verse as yours, Nala. It makes me feel shivery."
"It frightens me a little, too," replied Nala. "I wonder if this palace belongs to a Rakshas."
Now a Rakshas is a kind of ogre, and no one but a Rakshas would have built such a beautiful palace in the middle of a jungle.
"If it does, he may come back at any time and eat us up," said Dehra, more alarmed than ever. "Let us go away."
"The Rakshas has gone away," said a little jackal with a friendly face, who came running up to the princesses, "and you can stay in his palace for quite a while. I will let you know when he is coming back."