In a little while Muchie Rajah had grown too long to live in the small basin, so they put him into a larger one, and then (when he grew too long for that) into a big tub.  In time, however, Muchie Rajah became too large for even the big tub to hold him; so the Ranee had a tank made for him, in which he lived very happily, and twice a day she fed him with boiled rice.  Now, though the people fancied Muchie Rajah was only a fish, this was not the case.  He was, in truth, a young Rajah who had angered the gods, and been by them turned into a fish and thrown into the river as a punishment.

One morning, when the Ranee brought him his daily meal of boiled rice, Muchie Rajah called out to her and said, “Queen Mother, Queen Mother, I am so lonely here all by myself!  Cannot you get me a wife?” The Ranee promised to try, and sent messengers to all the people she knew, to ask if they would allow one of their children to marry her son, the Fish Prince.  But they all answered:  “We cannot give one of our dear little daughters to be devoured by a great fish, even though he is the Muchie Rajah and so high in your Majesty’s favor.”

At news of this the Ranee did not know what to do.  She was so foolishly fond of Muchie Rajah, however, that she resolved to get him a wife at any cost.  Again she sent out messengers, but this time she gave them a great bag containing a lac of gold mohurs, and said to them:  “Go into every land until you find a wife for my Muchie Rajah, and to whoever will give you a child to be the Muchie Ranee you shall give this bag of gold mohurs.”  The messengers started on their search, but for some time they were unsuccessful; not even the beggars were to be tempted to sell their children, fearing the great fish would devour them.  At last one day the messengers came to a village where there lived a Fakeer, who had lost his first wife and married again.  His first wife had had one little daughter, and his second wife also had a daughter.  As it happened, the Fakeer’s second wife hated her little stepdaughter, always gave her the hardest work to do and the least food to eat, and tried by every means in her power to get her out of the way, in order that the child might not rival her own daughter.  When she heard of the errand on which the messengers had come, she sent for them when the Fakeer was out, and said to them:  “Give me the bag of gold mohurs, and you shall take my little daughter to marry the Muchie Rajah.” ("For,” she thought to herself, “the great fish will certainly eat the girl, and she will thus trouble us no more.”) Then, turning to her stepdaughter, she said:  “Go down to the river and wash your saree, that you may be fit to go with these people, who will take you to the Ranee’s court.”  At these words the poor girl went down to the river very sorrowful, for she saw no hope of escape, as her father was from home.  As she knelt by the river-side, washing her saree and crying bitterly, some