The port where they landed was not a small place; it was a large city, the capital of a great king.  Not far from the palace, the queen and her son hired a hut where they lived.  As the prince was yet a boy, he was fond of playing at marbles.  When the children of the king came out to play on a lawn before the palace, our young prince joined them.  He had no marbles, but he played with the ruby which he had in his possession.  The ruby was so hard that it broke every taw against which it struck.  The daughter of the king, who used to watch the games from a balcony of the palace, was astonished to see a brilliant red ball in the hand of the strange lad, and wanted to take possession of it.  She told her father that a boy of the street had an uncommonly bright stone in his possession which she must have or else she would starve herself to death.  The king ordered his servants to bring to him the lad with that precious stone.  When the boy was brought, the king wondered at the largeness and brilliancy of the ruby.  He had never seen anything like it.  He doubted whether any king of any country in the world possessed so great a treasure.  He asked the lad where he had got it.  The lad replied that he got it from the sea.  The king offered a thousand rupees for the ruby, and the lad, not knowing its value, readily parted with it for that sum.  He went with the money to his mother, who was not a little frightened, thinking that her son had stolen the money from some rich man’s house.  She became quiet, however, on being assured that the money was given to him by the king in exchange for the red ball which he had picked up in the sea.

The king’s daughter, on getting the ruby put it in her hair, and, standing before her pet parrot, said to the bird, “Oh, my darling parrot, don’t I look very beautiful with this ruby in my hair?” The parrot replied, “Beautiful! you look quite hideous with it!  What princess ever puts only one ruby in her hair?  It would be somewhat feasible if you had two at least.”  Stung with shame at the reproach cast in her teeth by the parrot, the princess went into the grief-chamber of the palace, and would neither eat nor drink.  The king was not a little concerned when he heard that his daughter had gone into the grief-chamber.  He went to her, and asked her the cause of her grief.  The princess told the king what her pet parrot had said, and added, “Father, if you do not procure for me another ruby like this, I’ll put an end to my life by mine own hands.”  The king was overwhelmed with grief.  Where was he to get another ruby like it?  He doubted whether another like it could be found in the whole world.  He ordered the lad who had sold the ruby, to be brought into his presence.  “Have you, young man,” asked the king, “another ruby like the one you sold me?” The lad replied:  “No, I have not got one.  Why, do you want another?  I can give you lots, if you wish to have them.  They are to be found in a whirlpool in the sea, far, far away.  I can go and fetch some for you.”  Amazed at the lad’s reply, the king offered rich rewards for procuring only another ruby of the same sort.