The
lad, nothing loth, gave her the pigeon; whereupon, as before, she bade
him go and ask her mother for the cow, and gave him a potsherd where
on was written, "Kill this lad without fail, and sprinkle his blood
like water!"
But on the way the son of seven Queens looked in on the Princess,
just to tell her how he came to be delayed, and she, after reading the
message on the potsherd, gave him another in its stead; so that when
the lad reached the old hag's hut and asked her for the Jogi's cow,
she could not refuse, but told the boy how to find it; and bidding
him of all things not to be afraid of the eighteen thousand demons who
kept watch and ward over the treasure, told him to be off before she
became too angry at her daughter's foolishness in thus giving away so
many good things.
Then the lad bravely did as he had been told. He journeyed on and on
till he came to a milk-white pond, guarded by the eighteen thousand
demons. They were really frightful to behold, but, plucking up
courage, he whistled a tune as he walked through them, looking neither
to the right nor the left. By and by he came upon the Jogi's cow,
tall, white, and beautiful, while the Jogi himself, who was king of
all the demons, sat milking her day and night, and the milk streamed
from her udder, filling the milk-white tank.
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