North-western Province.
In the Jātaka story No. 159 (vol. ii, p. 23) there is a tale of a Golden Peacock which lived upon a golden hill. A King got it caught and informed it that the reason was because “Your colour is golden; therefore (so it is said) those who eat your flesh become young and live so for ever.”
In the story No. 491 (vol. iv, p. 210) the chick is described as “of the colour of gold, with two eyes like gunja fruit, and a coral beak, and three red streaks ran down his throat and down the middle of his back.” On p. 212, it is said that “they who eat his flesh will be ever young and immortal.” This one lived in the Himālayas for seven thousand years.
In The Story of Madana Kāma Rāja (Naṭēśa Sāstrī), p. 56, a Queen bore a Tortoise Prince who had the power of leaving his shell. At p. 141, a Queen also bore a Tortoise, which was reared by her, and eventually went in search of divine Pārijāta flowers (Erythrina indica) from a tree which grew in Indra’s heaven. He seems to have been a turtle and not a tortoise, being described as swimming for weeks across the Seven Seas. He climbed Udayagiri, the Mountain of the Dawn, and blocked the way of the Sun-god (who rises from behind it), in honour of whom he uttered 1,008 praises. Pleased with this, the deity gave him a splendid divine body like a man’s, and the power to resume his tortoise shape at will; he directed him to a sage, who sent him to another, and this one to a third, by whose advice he secured the love and assistance of a divine nymph, an Apsaras, by concealing her robes when a party of them were bathing. With her aid he obtained the heavenly flowers.
In Old Deccan Days, Ganges Valley (Frere), p. 69, a Prince, using a wand belonging to a Rākshasī, created in order to stop her pursuit, a river, a mountain, and apparently a forest. Lastly, by throwing down three of her hairs that he had secured he set the trees on fire, and she was burnt in the flames.
In the Kathā Sarit Sāgara (Tawney), p. 360 ff., the daughter of a Rākshasa King gave the Prince who wanted to marry her “some earth, some water, some thorns, and some fire, and her own fleet horse,” telling him how to use them. He was chased by the brother of the King, whom he went to invite to the wedding. When he threw down the earth a mountain was produced behind him; the water became a great river; the thorns a dense thorny wood. When the Rākshasa emerged from the wood and was coming on, the Prince threw down the fire, which set the bushes and trees in front of him ablaze, and finding this difficult to cross he returned home, “tired and terrified.”
[1] Mini Ran Kukuḷā. The spelling in this and other instances is according to the manuscripts, except in such words as Rākshasa and Rākshasī, the village forms of which are Rāsayā and Rāsī; and Brāhmaṇa, which is usually given as Brahmanayā. [↑]
[2] A word without any special meaning in English, often used in addressing a person familiarly and somewhat disrespectfully. [↑]