So the son of seven Queens set off, and soon came to the field where,
guarded by eighteen millions of demons, the millionfold rice grew.
He walked on bravely, looking neither to the right nor left, till
he reached the center and plucked the tallest ear, but as he turned
homeward a thousand sweet voices rose behind him, crying in tenderest
accents, "Pluck me too! oh, please pluck me too!" He looked back, and
lo! there was nothing left of him but a little heap of ashes!
Now as time passed by and the lad did not return, the old hag grew
uneasy, remembering the message "His blood shall be as your blood"; so
she set off to see what had happened.
Soon she came to the heap of ashes, and knowing by her arts what it
was, she took a little water, and kneading the ashes into a paste,
formed it into the likeness of a man; then, putting a drop of blood
from her little finger into its mouth, she blew on it, and instantly
the son of seven Queens started up as well as ever.
"Don't you disobey orders again!" grumbled the old hag, "or next time
I'll leave you alone. Now be off, before I repent of my kindness!"
So the son of seven Queens returned joyfully to his seven mothers,
who, by the aid of the millionfold rice, soon became the richest
people in the kingdom.
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