The girl replied, “I went in men’s clothes, and having rubbed oil on the foot and drawn out the finger-nail, I came back.”
“If thou drewest it out, where is now the gold ring I gave thee?” he said.
Then the girl, saying, “Here is the gold ring He gave me,” showed it to the King.
After that, placing the girl on the back of the tusk elephant, he went to the palace in the city.
North-western Province.
Regarding the poisonous nature of the finger-nails, see vol. i, pp. 124 and 128.
In Indian Fairy Tales (M. Stokes), p. 199, a Princess in the disguise of a Yōgī cured a Prince who had married her, and who had been poisoned by means of powdered glass laid on his bed. She applied earth from the foot of a tree, mixed with cold water, and rubbed this over him for three days and nights. When the Prince wished to reward her, she asked for a ring and handkerchief that she gave him on their wedding day. She afterwards informed him that it was she who had cured him, but he would not believe her until she produced these articles.