From the Mango Tree

Long ago, in a certain country, there lived a king who had seven queens. But for all of his wives, he had no children. One day when the king was out walking, he stopped to rest on a chautara where sat a sanyasi, an old religious man. "Oh, Mahatma! I am so un- lucky," cried the king to the sanyasi. "Peace and plenty reach to the farthest corners of my kingdom."

"That does not sound like ill luck to me," the sanyasi said.

The king went on. "But I am getting old and I have no children. What good is so much wealth and glory when there are none to inherit it?" The king began to weep.

Now the sanyasi was no ordinary man. He could make possible the impossible. He took pity on the king and said, "I understand your trouble. Take this magic staff and when you come to a fruit tree, hurl it up into its branches. Do this only once, then gather the fruit that has fallen and bring it to your queens. When they have eaten, one of them will bear you children."

The king then thanked the sanyasi and went on his way. He soon came to a mango tree heavy with fruit. Eagerly he took the staff in his right hand and, with all of his might, flung it up into the tree's branches. Six ripe mangos fell. "I have seven queens,"said the king, "but I must be satisfied with six mangos." He returned to the palace and went straight to the eldest queen.

[1]chautara-a low stone wall

[2]sanyasi-a holy man

[3]Mahatma-Holy One

"Share these fruits with all of my queens," the king ordered, handing her the mangos. The king left and the eldest queen gathered all of the queens to her, all but the youngest. "We will eat these fruits ourselves,"said the eldest queen. "Why should we share them with the youngest queen? She is the king's favorite and does not share his love with us."

The queens agreed and quickly fell to eating the fruit, not knowing its secret. When the youngest queen heard that the king had brought fruit for all of his queens, she ran to him, asking her share. The king, realizing what his wives had done, was filled with sadness.

Nevertheless, he told the youngest queen the secret of the fruit. She ran quickly and gathered the pits of the mangos the others had eaten. Then, praying for a child, she ate whatever fruit still clung to them.

Soon after, to everyone's surprise, the youngest queen grew big and round. The king was beside himself with joy. The other queens pretended to delight in his happiness, but they were consumed with jealousy. When the time came for the baby to be born, the six queens gathered around the youngest queen, ordering her maidservants from the room. Then they watched as the youngest queen gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. Exhausted from her labor, the young queen fell asleep without ever seeing her children.

The wicked queens grabbed the newborn babies, wrapped them in rags, and threw them from the palace window. The tiny infants landed in a prickly nettle bush. The queens then brought a musli and a broom and placed them beside the sleeping mother.

When the youngest queen awoke, she asked, "Where are my babies?"

"Here they are,"said the queens, handing her the musli and the broom. The youngest queen could not believe her eyes. She turned her head aside, tears trickling down her cheeks.

When the king heard that his youngest queen had given birth to a broom and a musli, he howled with grief and anger and imme-diately made the youngest queen the servant of the others. He vowed never to look at her.

[4]musli-a pestle used in grinding grain

Meanwhile, a poor woman passing outside the palace heard the cries of the babies in the nettle bush. She lifted the little ones out of the stinging branches and brought them to her home. There she nursed them and cared for them as though they were her own. The years passed and the tiny infants grew to be beautiful children. Every day they played by the palace well.

One day a queen passing by the well saw the children and, struck by their beauty and pleasant ways, approached them, asking, "Who are your parents?"

"Our mother carries water to the palace," the children replied.

"And your father?" asked the queen. The children could not answer.

The queen said, "Find out the name of your father and tell me tomorrow at this very spot." That evening the children told their guardian what the queen had said. The poor woman knew she must now tell the children their story.

"Dear ones, I am not your mother,"she said. "I found you as babies in a stinging nettle bush beside the palace. I brought you here and raised you as though you were my own. I cannot tell who your parents are because I do not know."

The next day, when the queen approached the children by the palace well, the boy and girl told her all that their guardian had told them. At once, the queen knew that these were the children they had thrown from the palace window long ago. She ran to tell the others. The eldest queen said, "We must do away with these children immediately. No one must discover our deed." That night clouds covered the moon. The six queens left the palace and went to the well, where they dug a deep pit.

The following day, while the children were at play, the queens crept up behind them and pushed them into the pit. Then quickly they shoveled dirt in over them. The days passed and at the place where the children were buried, two large flowering trees grew up bearing beautiful, sweet-smelling blossoms.

One afternoon the eldest queen, passing by the trees, was amazed by their lovely flowers. "How I would love to wear a blossom in my hair," she said. But as she reached for a flower, the branch sprang away. She could touch only the branches without flowers. The queen was puzzled. In the same way, the other queens, drawn to the beauty of the trees, each tried to pluck a flower, but they could reach only the branches that bore no flowers.

One day, the youngest queen, passing by the blossoming trees, was captured by their beauty and sweet aroma. Looking up into their branches, she cried, "Beautiful flowers, how I would love to plait your petals in my hair. Still the king would not notice me."As she spoke, a flowering branch bent low. Gratefully, the youngest queen plucked a blossom.

When the other queens saw the flower in the youngest queen's hair, they were filled with envy and tried to snatch it away. The king, hearing the commotion, came running. Immediately he was capti- vated by the flower's beauty and sweet aroma. "Where is the tree that bore this blossom?" the king asked.

The youngest queen was too frightened to speak. The other queens told him. The king hurried from the palace to the place of the flowering trees, his six queens following after. When he arrived at the spot, the king stretched out his hand to pluck a flower, and a branch laden with blossoms bent to his reach. At this, the queens rushed forward, each trying to grab a flower for herself, but the branch swung quickly away.

The king was amazed. Why did the trees bow low to him and spring away from his queens? He commanded his servants to dig up the ground around the trees to discover the answer. In a short time, the servants unearthed two children, who miraculously, were still alive. The king could not believe his eyes. "Who has done this horrible deed?"he asked. "Tell me, dear children."

The children told the king their story, how a poor woman had found them in a nettle bush beside the palace and raised them with loving kindness. One day they were snatched from their play and buried. They had stayed alive by breathing through gaps in the earth and sucking the roots of trees.

The king then sent for the woman who had been their guardian and listened to her story. Then he gathered all of his councilors and ministers to try to discover who were the parents of these children. "We must bring every young woman in the kingdom before them," the king declared. "Whoever weeps at the sight of them, we will know to be their mother."

That day all the young women in the kingdom were brought before the children. Not one wept. The six queens, too, were brought forward, but their eyes remained dry.

The youngest queen was the only woman in the kingdom who had not come before the children. The king ordered his guards to look for her, but, try as they might, they could not find her. The king then went in search of her himself and found her imprisoned in the palace dungeon. "Who has done this deed?" the king asked the young queen.

"Your six queens," she replied.

The king removed her shackles and brought her to the place where the children were standing. As soon as the young queen saw the girl and the boy, her eyes filled with tears. Now everyone knew the youngest queen was their mother. But the king had suspected it all along. He turned to the other queens and, in a voice filled with rage, asked, "What have you done?" The queens trembled before him.

"Speak!"roared the king, and the six queens confessed theirevil deeds. The king was furious and banished the wicked queens from his kingdom. Then he brought the youngest queen to his side to share in the joy of their children. And he brought the old woman who had rescued and raised the infants to the palace, as well.

Now the king and the queen's joy was complete as the sounds of children's laughter rang throughout the palace halls.