In Tales of the Punjab (Steel), p. 89, and Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 98, the demoness Queen persuaded the King to give her the eyes of the seven Queens, which she strung as a necklace for her mother. The seventh boy, who was shooting game for the blind Queens’ food, was sent for the eyes and got thirteen, one having been eaten. The written message which requested that he should be killed was changed by a Princess. On two other journeys he obtained the Jōgī’s white cow which gave milk unceasingly, and rice that bore a million-fold, by the aid of which the seven Queens became the richest people in the kingdom. After he had married the Princess who assisted him, the King heard the whole story, and killed the demoness.
In Folk-Tales of Bengal (Day), p. 117, the Rākshasa Queen, after getting the seven Queens’ eyes plucked out, ate up all the people, and no one remained to attend on the King. At last the boy offered his services. He always left before night, the time when the Ogress caught her victims. She sent him to her mother for a melon, with a letter which he tore up. He got back safely, bringing a bird in which was the life of the Ogress Queen; when he killed it she died.
In The Indian Antiquary, vol. i, p. 170, there is a Bengal story by Mr. G. H. Damant. The Ogress or Rākshasa Queen obtained the eyes of the seven Queens from the King, and sent the boy for sea-foam, and afterwards for rice grown in Ceylon, “the home of the Rākshasas,” that ripened in one day. A Sannyāsi, or Hindu religious mendicant, changed him into a kingfisher on one trip and a parrot on the other, which brought the things, being re-converted into a Prince on the way back. Lastly, he was sent to Ceylon for a cow a cubit long and half a cubit high. The King paid him heavily for getting these things, and for the last one was obliged to sell his kingdom and give the proceeds to the boy. The Sannyāsi instructed him to conciliate a Rākshasī by addressing her as “Aunt,” and to deliver a pretended message from the Ogress Queen. He was well received, and learnt that the Rākshasas’ lives were in a lemon and the Ogress Queen’s in a bird. He cut the lemon and thus killed all the Rākshasas, brought back the blind Queens’ eyes, and killed the bird, and with it the Ogress Queen.
In Folk-Tales of Hindustan, Allahabad (Shaik Chilli), p. 105, the seven Queens were thrown into a large dry well; it is not stated that their eyes were plucked out. The seventh boy got his grandfather, a carpenter, to make him a wooden flying horse. He was sent for singing-water, magic rice, and news of the Rākshasa Queen’s relatives. He met a lion, a wolf, and various other savage animals, which he appeased by addressing them as “Uncle,” “Cousin,” etc. A kind Yōgī changed his letter, and he was welcomed by the Rākshasas, whose lives he learnt were in a number of birds. These he killed, taking back a pea-hen in which lay the life of the Ogress Queen, as well as the magic water and rice. Each of the animals sent a cub with him, and on his return these performed a dance, at the end of which he killed the pea-hen and the Ogress died. The persons who had been eaten by the Ogress revived when the magic water was sprinkled on their bones. The magic rice plant, called Vanaspati, grew into a tree forty yards high, and bore cooked rice.
In Folk-Tales of Kashmir (Knowles), 2nd ed., p. 43, the seven Queens’ eyes were put out, and they were thrown into a large dry well. The seventh boy was sent for the milk of a tigress, and then to the grandparents of the Ogress Queen. A friendly Fakīr having altered the messages, he was well received, got medicine that cured the blind Queens’ eyes, and also killed the birds and smashed a spinning-wheel in which were the lives of the Ogress Queen and her relatives.
At p. 446, also, the eyes of a Queen which had been plucked out were replaced and healed.
A variant of the Western Province of Ceylon, in which there were twelve Queens, whose sight was not regained, however, has been given already. See No. 24.