the house and gave out to the neighbours that they had been borne by herself.  The children grew in stature and in strength and when they played in the fields were the admiration of every one that saw them.  They were about twelve years of age when the potter died, and his wife threw herself on the pyre and was burnt with her husband’s body.  The boy with the moon on his forehead (which he always kept concealed with a turban, lest it should attract notice) and his beautiful sister now broke up the potter’s establishment, sold his wheel and pots and pans, and went to the bazar in the King’s city, which they had no sooner entered than it was lit up brilliantly.  The shopkeepers thought them divine beings and built a house for them in the bazar.  And when they used to ramble about they were always followed at a distance by the woman clothed in leather who was appointed by the King to drive away the crows, and by some strange impulse, she also used to hang about their house.

The youth presently bought a horse and went hunting in the neighbouring jungles.  It happened one day, while following the chase, that the King met him, and, struck with his beauty, felt an unaccountable yearning for him.[FN#436] As a deer went past the youth shot an arrow and in so doing his turban fell off, on which a bright light, like that of the moon, was seen shining on his forehead.  When the King perceived this, it brought to his mind the son with the moon on his forehead and stars on the palms of his hands who was to have been born of his seventh queen, and would have spoken with the youth, but he immediately galloped off.  When the King reached home his six wives observing his sadness asked him its cause, and he told them of the youth he had seen in the forest with a moon on his forehead.  They began to wonder if the twins were not still alive, and sending for the midwife closely questioned her as to the fate of the children.  She stoutly declared that she had herself seen them burnt to ashes, but she would find out who the youth was whom the King had met while hunting.  She soon ascertained that two strangers were living in a house in the bazar which the shopkeepers had built for them, and when she entered the house the girl was alone, her brother having gone into the jungle to hunt.  Pretending to be her aunt, the old woman said to her, “My dear child, you are so beautiful, you require only the kataki[FN#437] flower to properly set off your charms.  You should tell your brother to plant a row of that flower in your courtyard.”  “I never saw that flower,” said the girl “Of course not; how could you?  It does not grow in this country, but on the other side of the ocean.  Your brother may try and get it for you, if you ask him.”  This suggestion the old trot made in the hope that the lad would lose his life in venturing to obtain the flower.  When he returned and his sister told him of the visit of their aunt and asked him to get her the kataki flower, on which she had set her heart, he at once consented, albeit he thought the woman had imposed upon his sister by calling herself their aunt.