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  Now such was Momul’s beauty that all the princes and nobles of Sind, taking with them their treasure and their men-servants, went forth gaily to win the lovely princess. As the wooers came to the outer gate, Momul sent her slave-girls to greet them and invite them to try to win her hand. Led by the slave-girls, one by one they entered the tunnel and passed into the maze. Then the magic river Kak circled round the maze, closing all exits, so that the wooers died miserably, one after the other, and the princess’s slaves stripped their bodies and plundered their treasure. A few only, whose hearts failed them in the tunnel or who fled back from the maze before the Kak river surrounded it, wholly escaped; but they found that in their absence Momul’s slaves had taken their tents and their horses.

  Now about this time there ruled in Umatkot king Hamir, a Rajput of the Sumro clan. He had three viziers, all devoted to one another and still more to king Hamir. Nor would the king ever go hunting or to battle unless either Dunar or Shinro or Rano rode at his side. All four were as handsome and brave as could be, but the handsomest and bravest was Rano.

  One day the king and his viziers went a-hunting. As they came to a village, they saw a beggar-man standing by the road-side. His face and bearing were those of a man gently born, but he was covered with rags and half-dead with want and wretchedness. At first the four young men laughed at his strange appearance. Then they went up to him and asked him who he was and whence he came. ‘You seem to be gently born,’ said king Hamir, ‘yet I have never seen anyone in such a sorry state.’ The beggar answered courteously, ‘My lord king, there was a time when I was rich as any one of the three nobles with you. I had horses and lands and a host of attendants. But one day, to my sorrow, I heard of the beauty of princess Momul, and with a great store of gold and a troop of companions I set forth to win her. But she and her slaves murdered all my friends and plundered me even of my horse, so that I am now begging my way back to my own country.’

  The king asked who Momul was, and the beggar-man told her story. After hearing it, the king and his three viziers vowed that they too would try to win her, or would die in the attempt. They asked the beggar-man the way to her palace, and after several days’ journey they reached the outer gate of her garden, just as it was growing dark. They camped there for the night, and next morning one of Momul’s slave-girls came to greet them. Here name was Natar, and she was so pretty and graceful that at first the four young men thought that she must be Momul herself. But Natar laughed, and said, ‘Nay, I am not the princess. To see her, you must win through to the palace. No man except her father has yet seen her face. But she sent me to welcome you and offer you this tray of food.’ She put down the tray on the ground; and as the young men ate the food, she described to them Momul’s beauty, until they all grew sick with love. Then she mocked them, saying, ‘Who are you to think of my lovely princess? The hero who would win her must be cast in a different mould. You had better run back to your villages. If not, you will be torn to pieces in the tunnel, or die of hunger and thirst in her maze.’ In this way Natar excited their desire and their courage, until they all cried together that they feared neither the tunnel nor the maze, but that they would stay by Momul’s gate until they bore off in triumph the beautiful maiden. In answer, the slave-girl threw them a tangled skein of silk and said, ‘Test your skill by undoing this, before you try to find your way through the maze.’ King Hamir took the skein; first he, and then Dunar, and then Shinro tried in vain to unravel it. At last they passed it on to Rano. His deft fingers soon solved the knot, and untying it he made the silken skein into a tassel and fastened it as a plume to his horse’s head.

  The slave-girl looked at Rano in wonder; then she went back to her mistress, and said, ‘Four beautiful youths have come to win you, but one, Rano by name, is fairer and wiser than the others, or indeed than any wooer who has yet come to your palace-door. Why not marry him, my mistress, at once? Do not kill this gallant as you have killed the others.’ The princess felt a moment’s pity. Then she hardened her heart and answered, ‘If, forsooth, he is as wise as you say, let him win me. If he fails, he is but a fool, and I shall add his wealth to my father’s treasure.’

  Then she got ready some tasty dishes, and put a deadly poison in each of them. Giving them to the slave-girl, she bade her take them back to the king and his three viziers. The slave-girl did so; and setting the tray before them, served each of them with her own hands, saying, ‘Fair sirs, my mistress has cooked these dishes with her own hands for you as she fears that you must be weary after trying to unravel the skein.’ The king and Shinro and Dunar would have eaten the food and perished miserably, had not Rano thrown a piece to a stray dog. The dog ate is, and at once rolled over screaming in agony. The king rose in wrath and said to his viziers, ‘We will go back to our homes and let this murderess be.’ But Rano replied, ‘O king, to go back now would be the act of cowards. Let us go on with our task; and, with God’s help, we shall win the maiden.’

  In the meantime, Natar went back to the palace and told Momul how Rano had saved his comrades from the poison. She again pleaded with her mistress to spare him. But the princess rebuked her, saying, ‘If I spared him, all men would laugh at me. Go now to the young men, and invite them, one by one, to win through to my chamber. When they have entered the maze, they will fall easy victims.’

  Natar did as her mistress ordered. Going to king Hamir, she said, ‘Come with me, king Hamir. My princess challenges you to win her. If you but find your way to her chamber, she is yours.’

  The king rose to his feet and followed the slave-girl into the tunnel. There, in the darkness, she slipped away, leaving the king alone. The contrivances created by Somal’s magic began to roar and scream, imitating the cries of wild beasts and the hissing of snakes, and filling the whole air with horror. The king all but fainted. Had he fainted outright, he would have been lost; for the princess’s slaves were lurking near, and they would have fallen on him and killed and robbed him. But he recovered himself; and giving up the quest, made his way back to where his comrades sat waiting. He told them of the horrors of the tunnel and of the awful noises that he had heard there. ‘Let us stay here no longer,’ he said to his viziers. ‘Let us go back to Umarkot.’

  But Rano said: ‘My lord king, although you have failed, you have tried; and so none can blame you. But if we go back without even trying, all Umarkot will laugh us to scorn. Let us all try. Then if we fail, we can go back together.’

  Just then Natar came to the camp, and said with a mocking smile. ‘You stayed in the princess’s garden but a short time, king Hamir. You will never win Momul thus. Now, who among your viziers will come with me to seek her?

  Dunar rose and mounted his horse and followed Natar into the tunnel. There she slipped away; and all round Dunar, Somal’s contrivances began to hiss and roar and scream. Dunar’s heart failed him, and turning his horse’s head, he galloped back trembling to the king’s camp, and told his comrades what had befallen him.

  A few minutes later, Natar came out of the garden and said scornfully, ‘King Hamir, your vizier stayed on the quest even less time than you did. Hearts so faint will never win so fair a lady.’

  Then Shinro rose and donned his armour; and mounting a chestnut horse, he followed Natar into the tunnel. But he too lost heart, and galloped back before entering the maze.

  At last Rano rose to try his fortune. While the others in vain sought to dissuade him, Natar came to the camp; and her lips curled with scorn, as she said, ‘It is but waste of time to lead you into my mistress’s garden. You are all cowards, impostors! At the first sound you run away like frightened hares. Such cravens will never win Momul and her beauty.’

  Rano donned his armour and mounted a dun horse and praying to Heaven to help him, he followed Natar into the tunnel. There he seized her, so that she should not leave him, and he held her firmly, while Momul’s hellish machine roared and screamed all round him, until his ears were deafened with the noise and his eyes blinded with the darkness
. The cunning slave-girl, finding that she could not free herself, led Rano to the edge of a pit. There she gave his horse a push, so that it fell into the pit, carrying its rider with it. As Rano fell, he heard the slave-girl laugh scornfully at him out of the darkness.

  Happily, the horse fell under the youth, so that he was not badly hurt by the fall. He clambered out, and made his way from the tunnel into the maze. As soon as Rano was inside the maze, the waters of the Kak river closed round it, so that whenever he came to the edge of the maze, he found a raging torrent in front of him. To test its force, he threw into it an areca-nut. But the nut, instead of floating, bounded along the surface of the stream. Then Rano guessed that the Kak river was but an illusion, and that the ground in front of him was only part of the dry desert. So he walked to the edge of the river, and stepped boldly into it. At once the river vanished; and Rano, walking on, found himself close to Momul’s palace.

  The lions in the palace-courtyard crouched as if to spring on the youth, while, from the window, the princess screamed and scolded at him. But drawing his sword, he rushed past the lions and through the palace-door. Then he ran upstairs into the room where he had seen the princess. She no longer screamed or scolded. Directly he entered the room, she ran towards him and threw herself into his ams, crying, ‘You have won me fairly, bold prince! Take me! I am yours.’

  II

  When morning broke, Rano took leave of the princess. At first Momul would not hear of his going. Indeed, it was not until he had promised to return every night, that, with many tears and embraces, she let her lover go. He put on his armour, mounted his dun horse, and rode back through the maze and the tunnel until he reached king Hamir’s camp. There a cry of joy greeted him from Hamir and his two viziers, for they had been grieving for him as for one dead. ‘Where have you been?’ ‘Why did you tarry so long?’ ‘Did you win your way to the magic palace?’ Such were the questions that met him on his return.

  Rano feared the king’s jealous wrath; so he answered with downcast eyes that he too had failed. ‘All night,’ he said, ‘I wandered in that accursed tunnel, and only now I have escaped.’

  Shinro and Dunar believed him; but the king suspected Rano’s words to be false, for his bearing was not that of a man who had failed in a high adventure. ‘My comrades,’ said the king, ‘as we have all failed, let us go back to Umarkot; but let none of us say aught to any man, or the shame of our failure will resound throughout India.’

  The king and his three viziers rode back silently to Umarkot; for Hamir was angry with Rano, Shinro and Dunar were sad at their ill success, and Rano feared the wrath of his master.

  On reaching Umarkot, Rano at once bethought himself of his promise to Momul. That very night, and every night afterwards, Rano mounted a wonderful she-camel that he had, and in an hour’s time she brought him from Umarkot to the princess’s palace. Before dawn, he rose and bade Momul good-bye; before daylight, he was back in his own house. This he did night after night for several weeks; but all the time the king’s anger was burning more and more fiercely, until at last he refused to speak to Rano or acknowledge his salute, and he thought only how he might bring about Rano’s ruin.

  At last Rano sought a private audience of the king. He confessed to him that he had lied, and begged his mercy. ‘Tell me what really happened,’ said king Hamir, ‘and I will forgive you.’ Rano told the king the whole truth; how he had won through the tunnel and the maze, how he had crossed the magic river, and how, sword in hand, he had forced his way into Momul’s room. Then he described the beauty of Momul with such glowing words, that king Hamir longed to see her more than ever. ‘Let me see her but once,’ he cried, ‘and I will give back to you all my former favour.’

  Rano thought for a moment; then he said, ‘She will not see you, king Hamir, if you come as a king. But if you come disguised as my servant, she will suspect nothing, and you will see her.’

  So king Hamir disguised himself as a cowherd. He put on an old garment that reached his feet, he tied a scarf round his head, and he took a stick in his hand. Then he got up behind Rano on his swift camel, and in an hour’s time they had reached the outer gate of Momul’s garden. Rano guided the camel through the tunnel and the maze, across the river, and into Momul’s courtyard. There he made the camel kneel, and flinging the nose-string to king Hamir, he walked into the palace and up the stairs into Momul’s room. Momul asked who the man was whom he had brought with him. ‘He is only a cowherd,’ said Rano. But Momul answered, ‘If he is only a cowherd, how comes it that he is so fair?’ ‘He is the son of a slave-girl,’ said Rano, ‘and he was brought up in my father’s house.’ But Momul suspected that the stranger was no herdsman. To test him, she had a she-buffalo brought into the courtyard and bade him milk it. Then she turned into the palace with Rano, and both forgot all else but each other’s love.

  King Hamir milked the she-buffalo as best he could, but his body itched and his hands grew red with the unwonted labour, and all the time his wrath grew fiercer against Rano, whom he knew to be in the arms of the lovely woman who had spoken to him so curtly. Every minute seemed a month, until at last his growlings and cursings reached the ears of Rano upstairs. He rose and, bidding Momul farewell, went back to the courtyard and tried to soothe the king. But Hamir’s anger would not be appeased. Sullenly he rode back with Rano to Umarkot, and, as soon as they reached the city, flung him into prison. There Rano remained in a noisome cell for seven days and nights. On the eighth day his sister, the most beautiful of king Hamir’s wives, begged the king to release her brother. At first Hamir refused; but at last he said, Tomorrow I will ask him a riddle. If he guesses it, he shall be a free man. If not, he shall go to the gallows.’ It was in vain that Rano’s sister tried to make the terms less hard.

  Next morning Rano was led in chains to the royal palace. The king turned on him an evil look, and said, ‘I have a riddle to ask you. If you guess it, you are a free man. If you fail to guess it you die this very day.’ ‘As the king pleases,’ said Rano. ‘Ask me the riddle that I may know my fate.’ ‘The riddle,’ said king Hamir, ‘is this:

  ‘How came the wide rent in the sari of silk?’

  Now Rano’s wisdom had already been proved in his quest of Momul; so, after but a moment’s hesitation, he answered:

  ‘The king toyed with his wife, whose child newly born Cried to its mother to give it some milk: She jumped to her feet, and her sari was torn.’

  Hamir was amazed at the ready wit of his vizier, and at once set him free and gave him back all, and more than all, his old honours; and every night, as before, Rano mounted his camel and rode to the princess’s fairy palace.

  At last, it fell out that Rano’s wife and his father Kabir began to suspect Rano’s intrigue. Rano’s wife noticed red dust on her husband’s clothes, whereas the dust of Umarkot was white. Rumours of Momui’s love for Rano had spread over the country-side, and reached Kabir. He wondered how Rano could go to Momui’s palace and return in one night, for it was two hundred miles from Umarkot. He went to Rano’s stables and there learnt of the exceeding swiftness of Rano’s she-camel. He at once ordered her to be taken out of the stables and killed. Then he had her buried in a distant pit.

  That night, when Rano looked for his she-camel, he could not find her. Nor could he find his camel-men; for they had fled when Kabir led the she-camel away to kill her. At last he found a deaf camel-man, who had stayed behind. He bawled in his ears, ‘Where is my she-camel?’ The deaf man answered, ‘Your father killed her; but she had a young camel, and it will carry you just as swiftly.’ With these words he took Rano to the young camel’s stable. They led it out, petted it, and promised it rich food if it carried Rano well. Then they bridled and saddled it; and it carried Rano even more swiftly than its mother had done. Thus he reached Momui’s house at the appointed time.

  But Rano did not spend all night with Momul as he had done before. Instead, he returned home early and, having cleaned his clothes, sought his wife’s couch, so t
hat she might not suspect him. So Rano’s wife and his father thought that Rano no longer visited Momul.

  Unhappily, the tale of Momui’s love for Rano reached the ears of the queen, her mother, and of her sister Somal. The queen grieved for her daughter’s good name; but Somal grieved because Momul no longer snared and robbed young men, that she might repay to king Nanda his lost treasure. Somal thought of a cruel trick. She went to Momui’s palace and greeted her sister with feigned affection. Then she vowed that she must sleep with her on the same couch. When her sister had gone to sleep, Somal slipped from her side, and, exchanging her clothes for those of a man, again lay down by Momul’s side.

  In the meantime, Rano was speeding on his swift camel through the night to his beloved. As he went, he strayed some distance from the path, and meeting a camel-man, asked him the way to Momul’s palace. Now the camel-man had been specially sent by Somal to wait for Rano, so he answered, ‘Do you mean king Nanda’s daughter, Momul, the mistress of Sital?’ Then he showed Rano the way. Rano heard the lying words, but he thought no more of them, for he felt sure of Momul’s love. He reached the palace, and, running upstairs, opened the door of Momul’s room. By her side lay a young man asleep.