Next morning early several inquisitive people came to see if the Muchie Rajah had eaten up his poor little wife, as they feared he would; what was their astonishment, on looking over the tank wall, to see, not the Muchie Rajah, but a magnificent Prince!  The news soon spread to the palace.  Down came the Rajah, down came the Ranee, down came all their attendants, and dragged Muchie Rajah and the Fakeer’s daughter up the side of the tank in a basket; and when they heard their story there were great and unparalleled rejoicings.  The Ranee said, “So I have indeed found a son at last!” And the people were so delighted, so happy and so proud of the new Prince and Princess, that they covered all their path with damask from the tank to the palace, and cried to their fellows, “Come and see our new Prince and Princess!  Were ever any so divinely beautiful?  Come see a right royal couple,—­a pair of mortals like the gods!” And when they reached the palace the prince was married to the Fakeer’s daughter.

There they lived very happily for some time.  The Muchie Ranee’s stepmother, hearing what had happened, came often to see her stepdaughter, and pretended to be delighted at her good fortune; and the Ranee was so good that she quite forgave all her stepmother’s former cruelty, and always received her very kindly.  At last, one day, the Muchie Ranee said to her husband, “It is a weary while since I saw my father.  If you will give me leave, I should much like to visit my native village and see him again.”  “Very well,” he replied, “you may go.  But do not stay away long; for there can be no happiness for me till you return.”  So she went, and her father was delighted to see her; but her stepmother, though she pretended to be very kind, was in reality only glad to think she had got the Ranee into her power, and determined, if possible, never to allow her to return to the palace again.  One day, therefore, she said to her own daughter, “It is hard that your stepsister should have become Ranee of all the land instead of being eaten up by the great fish, while we gained no more than a lac of gold mohurs.  Do now as I bid you, that you may become Ranee in her stead.”  She then went on to instruct her that she must invite the Ranee down to the river-bank, and there beg her to let her try on her jewels, and while putting them on give her a push and drown her in the river.

The girl consented, and standing by the river-bank, said to her stepsister, “Sister, may I try on your jewels?—­how pretty they are!” “Yes,” said the Ranee, “and we shall be able to see in the river how they look.”  So, undoing her necklaces, she clasped them round the other’s neck.  But while she was doing so her stepsister gave her a push, and she fell backward into the water.  The girl watched to see that the body did not rise, and then, running back, said to her mother, “Mother, here are all the jewels, and she will trouble us no more.”  But it happened that just when her stepsister pushed the Ranee