Afterwards, when the Prince looked to see if the girl whom he had taken in marriage was there, neither the girl nor the widow-mother was there. Then the Prince went with the three giants to the King’s palace, and on looking there they learnt that the girl was married to the King, and that the widow woman also was there. So the Prince said to the widow woman, “Quickly give me the Princess whom I married.”
The woman said, “Anē! The Princess whom I knew is not here. She did not come with me.”
Then the Prince cut off the woman’s head with his sword, and having gone to the King, asked, “Where is my Princess? You must give her to me.”
The King said, “No Princess will be here.”
Thereupon the Prince cut off the King’s head with his sword; and he and the three giants having cut down all the servants who were in the palace, summoning the Princess, remained in that very palace.
North-western Province.
The giving a plant or flower as a life index, which fades when illness or danger besets the giver, and dies at his death, is a very common incident in folk-tales.
In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 52—Tales of the Punjab (Steel), p. 47—it was a barley plant.
In Folk-Tales of Bengal (Day), p. 189, a Prince planted a tree as his life index, and said, “When you see the tree green and fresh then you know that it is well with me; when you see the tree fade in some parts, then you know that I am in an ill case; and when you see the whole tree fade, then know that I am dead and gone.”