So off they started together, and some days later the uncle and nephew halted at a village where some little girls were playing.  One of the little girls said to the other, “You are nothing but a wretched little widow.”  But the other little girl said, “Oh no! there are never any widows in our family.  Mother worships Parwati and so I can never be a widow.”  The uncle heard this, and thought that if his nephew could only marry a little girl who could not become a widow, he would not die young.  So he began to think how he could bring about the marriage.  Now it so happened that the little girl was to be married that day.  But in the morning the boy to whom she was betrothed fell ill.  Her parents were in great trouble, but at last they thought that, rather than postpone the wedding and disappoint all the guests, it would be better to marry their little daughter to the first traveller who passed through the village.  So they went to the rest-house to inquire if any one was there.  There they found the uncle and nephew, and they married their little girl to the latter that very evening when the cows were homing.  They drew on the wall a picture of Shiva and Parwati, and they put the children to bed beneath it.  Parwati appeared to the little girl in her sleep.  The goddess said, “My child, a snake will come to bite your husband:  give it milk to drink.  Then put near it a new earthen jar.  When the snake has finished drinking, it will enter the earthen jar.  Then at once pull off your bodice and stuff it into the jar’s mouth.  Next morning give the jar to your mother.”  Next evening everything happened as Parwati had said.  The snake came to bite her husband as he slept.  But the little girl offered it milk, which it drank.  After drinking, it curled itself up inside the earthen jar, and, the moment it did so, the little girl slipped off her bodice and stuffed it into the mouth of the jar.  Next morning her husband gave her a ring, and she in exchange gave him a sweet-dish, and he and his uncle continued their journey to Benares.  When they had gone, the little girl gave the earthen jar with the snake inside it to her mother.  The mother took out the bodice, but instead of a snake a garland lay inside, and the mother put it round her little daughter’s neck.  Some weeks passed, but neither uncle nor nephew returned.  So the little girl’s parents grew anxious.  The sick boy who was to have been her husband recovered, but she could no longer marry him, and the boy whom she had married had gone away and might never return.  In despair the parents built a house, in which they entertained every traveller who passed by, hoping that sooner or later one of the travellers would prove to be their daughter’s husband.  To all of them the mother gave water; the daughter washed their feet; her brother gave them sandal-wood paste; and her father gave them betel-nut.  But it was all in vain; none of the travellers’ fingers fitted the ring given to the little girl by her husband, nor could any of them produce the sweet-dish which she had given him in exchange.