Afterwards, having torn the blind man’s cloth, he put it into the well. Seizing it, the Princess came to the ground; and making clear the two eyes of the blind man, she went with the blind man [? to her palace].
North-western Province.
In Indian Fairy Tales (M. Stokes), p. 3, while a King and Queen were travelling, a shoemaker’s wife pushed the Queen into a well when she was going to drink, and then took her place, and held the King’s head on her lap. Evidently she was accepted by the King as his wife, since she accompanied him when he proceeded on his journey.
In the same work, p. 143, while a Prince was sleeping, his Princess, who was sitting at his side, was induced by a woman who came up, to exchange clothes and hand over her jewellery. Afterwards the two strolled about, went, at the woman’s suggestion, to look at themselves in the water of a well, and the woman then pushed her in, and took her place beside the Prince. When he awoke, the woman attributed the change in her appearance to the bad air of the country, and he went off with her, and married her.
[1] The names of the three cities are verbal jokes. Awulpura is derived from awulanawā, to collect or pick up; Handi, from handi-karaṇawā, to join together; Upaddā, from upaddanawā, to cause to be born. [↑]
[2] See footnote, p. [5], regarding the use of the third person in addressing a person very respectfully. [↑]