1881.] 
SONG OF KING SALIIES. 
13 
6. Then Champa asks her “ Why didst thou leave thine house ?” and 
Dauna Malin replies, <£ For one Salhes did I leave mine house. I left 
mine house for my spouse Salhes.” “Let us five friends (including 
Dauna) go to the banks of the Kamla, where thy spouse Salhes will come 
to water his elephant. If we find thy lord Salhes there, we will tempt 
him and take him by magic. We will bring him to thy garden and will 
build a bridal bovver and marry him to thee. Only thou of us wilt be¬ 
hold his face, we will scatter til and feus* upon him, and give him to thee.” 
Then the five sisters went to bathe in the Kamla, and arrived at the river 
bank just at midday. They stood and gazed upon the road to see whence 
Salhes would come. Then they took off their apparel, and laid them there, 
and floated an offering of sweet oil upon the Kamla. 
7. They float the offering on the Kamla, and reverently with 
joined hands they pray, saying, “ 0 Kamla, cause Salhes to come quickly 
that we may behold him.” Having said this, the five sisters dived into 
the waters of the Kamla. Then the seats of the fifty-six krors of Indra 
and the gods shook, and they went and rushed into the Kachahari, in which 
Salhes was sitting, and charmed him. They told Salhes the whole story, 
how “ For thee five sisters for twelve years have kept their bosoms covered. 
They have prayed unto us ‘ Tell him to come to the bank of the Kamla 
that we may see our Lord.’ ” The news reached Salhes, and he replied, 
** I will not go, I will send my parrot, and he will bring me a bedulif that 
I may shew to my friend as a token of my love.” And so this news was 
told Salhes, and immediately he ordered his man Jhinma to bring his parrot 
from his palace. His man Jhinma has gone; the cage is hanging within 
seven palaces (one surrounding the other). He took the cage, and brought 
it, and laid it before his master in the midst of the Kachahari. He took 
the parrot out of the cage, and let it fly. The parrot abandoned the sur¬ 
face of the earth and the sky above, and taking the middle regions it flew 
in circles, and departed for the bank of Kamla. The five sisters sported 
madly in the Kamla, and above them the parrot flew in circles. Now it 
gazed around on all sides, and now with half closed eye at the beauty of 
the damsels, and again it would cast a glance upon the beduli. Of a 
sudden it swooped down, and fled off with a beduli. It took it from the 
forehead of Dauna Malin. The parrot took the road to Pakaria, through 
the Sal forest; and there in the kingdom of Pakaria, it laid the beduli 
between the two friends in the midst of the Kachahari. When he saw the 
beduli he was mightily pleased in heart. “ If the beduli is so fair, how fair 
must be the woman who owns it.” 
* This is the procedure adopted in making an irrevocable gift. 
f A spot of silver leaf worn by women, on the forehead. 
