Atondido Stories
The youngest princess ordered a grand elephant to be ready
for her the next morning, and when the morning came, and all
was ready, she dressed herself in the most lovely clothes, and
put on her beautiful jewels; then she mounted her elephant,
which was painted blue. In her hand she took a gold necklace.
Then she went into the garden where the Kings, Rajas, and their
sons were seated. The boy, the grain merchant's servant, was al-
so in the garden: not as a suitor, but looking on with the other
servants.
The princess rode all round the garden, and looked at all the
Kings and Rajas and princes, and then she hung the gold neck-
lace round the neck of the boy, the grain merchant's servant. At
this everybody laughed, and the Kings were greatly astonished.
But then they and the Rajas said, "What fooling is this?" and they
pushed the pretended poor man away, and took the necklace off
his neck, and said to him, "Get out of the way, you poor, dirty
man. Your clothes are far too dirty for you to come near us!" The
boy went far away from them, and stood a long way off to see
what would happen.
Then the King's youngest daughter went all round the gara-
gain, holding her gold necklace in her hand, and once more she
hung it round the boy's neck. Every one laughed at her and said,
"How can the King's daughter think of marrying this poor, com-
mon man!" and the Kings and the Rajas, who had come as suit-
ors, all wanted to turn him out of the garden. But the princess
said, "Take care! take care! You must not turn him out. Leave him
alone." Then she put him on her elephant, and took him to the
palace.
The Kings and Rajas and their sons were very much aston-
ished, and said, "What does this mean? The princess does not
care to marry one of us, but chooses that very poor man!"
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