The Jogi's Punishment

Once upon a time there came to the ancient city of Rahmatabad a jogi of holy appearance. He took up his home under a tree outside the city, where he would sit for days at a time, fasting from food and drink, motionless except for the fingers that turned restlessly his string of beads.

The fame of such holiness soon spread, and every day the citizens would flock to see him, eager to get his blessing, to watch his devotions, or to hear his teaching, if he felt like speaking.

Very soon the rajah himself heard of the jogi and began to visit him regularly to seek his advice and to ask him to pray that a son might be granted to him. Days passed, and at last the rajah became so taken with the holy man that he decided to have him all to himself.

So he built a little shrine nearby, with a room or two added to it and a small courtyard with high walls. When it was ready, he begged the jogi to live there and to receive no other visitors except himself and his queen, and any pupils the jogi might choose, who would pass on his teaching.

The jogi agreed, and he lived there for some time on the king's gifts, while his fame for godliness grew day by day.

Now, although the rajah of Rahmatabad had no son, he had a daughter. As she grew up, she became the most beautiful creature that anyone had ever seen. Her father had long before promised her in marriage to the son of the neighboring rajah of Dilaram, but she had not yet been married to him and lived the quiet life proper to a maiden of her beauty and position.

The princess had of course heard of the holy man and his miracles and his fasting, and she was very curious to see him and speak to him. But this was hard, because she was not allowed to go out except into the palace grounds, and even then she was always closely guarded.

However, at last she found a chance, and one evening she made her way alone to the hermit's shrine.

Unhappily, the hermit was not really as holy as he seemed. As soon as he saw the princess, he fell in love with her wonderful beauty and began to plan in his heart how he could win her for his wife. But the maiden was not only beautiful, she was also clever.

As soon as she saw in the jogi's glance the love that filled his soul, she jumped up, pulled her veil around her, and ran from the place as fast as she could. The jogi tried to follow, but he could not catch her.

So, beside himself with rage at not being able to overtake her, he threw a lance at her, which wounded her in the leg. The brave princess bent down for a moment to pull the lance out of the wound, and then ran on until she was safe at home.

There she washed and bandaged the wound secretly and told no one how naughty she had been, because she knew her father would punish her severely.

The next day, when the king went to visit the jogi, the holy man would neither speak to him nor look at him.

“What is the matter?” asked the king. “Won't you speak to me today?”

“I have nothing to say that you would care to hear,” answered the jogi.

“Why?” said the king. “Surely you know that I value everything you say, whatever it may be.”

But the jogi still sat with his face turned away, and the more the king urged him, the more silent and mysterious he became. At last, after much begging, he said:

“Let me tell you, then, that there is in this city a creature which, if you do not destroy it, will kill every single person in the place.”

The king, who was easily frightened, grew pale.

“What?” he gasped. “What is this dreadful thing? How can I recognize it and catch it? Only advise me and help me, and I will do everything you suggest.”

“Ah!” replied the jogi. “It is indeed dreadful. It is in the shape of a beautiful girl, but it is really an evil spirit. Last evening it came to visit me, and when I looked at it, its beauty faded into ugliness, its teeth became horrible fangs, its eyes blazed like coals of fire, great claws sprang from its slender fingers, and if I were not what I am, it might have devoured me.”

The king could hardly speak from fear, but at last he said:

“How can I tell this awful thing when I see it?”

“Search,” said the jogi, “for a lovely girl with a lance wound in her leg. When you find her, tie her up safely and come and tell me, and I will advise you what to do next.”

The king hurried away and soon set all his soldiers to search the country for a girl with a lance wound in her leg. For two days the search went on, and then it was somehow discovered that the only person with a lance wound in the leg was the princess herself. The king, very upset, went to tell the jogi and to assure him that there must be some mistake. But of course the jogi was ready for this and had his answer prepared.

“She is not really your daughter, who was stolen away at her birth, but an evil spirit that has taken her shape,” he said solemnly. “You may do what you like, but if you don't take my advice, she will kill you all.” He looked so serious and so sure of himself that the king's judgment was clouded, and he declared that he would do whatever the jogi advised and believe whatever he said.

So the jogi told him to send him two carpenters secretly. When they arrived, he set them to make a large chest, so cleverly put together that neither air nor water could get in. The chest was made right there, and when it was ready, the jogi told the king to bring the princess by night.

They two forced the poor little maiden into the chest and nailed it shut with long nails. Together they carried it to the river and pushed it out into the stream.

As soon as the jogi returned from this deed, he called two of his pupils and pretended that it had been revealed to him that a chest with something very valuable inside would be found floating on the river.

He told them to go and watch for it at a certain place far down the stream, and when the chest came slowly along, bobbing and turning in the current, they were to grab it and secretly and quickly bring it to him, because he was now determined to put the princess to death himself.

The pupils set off at once, amazed at how strange their errand was, and even more amazed at the holiness of the jogi, to whom such secrets were revealed.

It happened that, as the next morning was dawning, the brave young prince of Dilaram was hunting by the banks of the river, with a great following of wazirs, attendants, and huntsmen. As he rode, he saw floating on the river a large chest, which came slowly along, bobbing and turning in the current.

He rose in his saddle, gave an order, and half a dozen men plunged into the water and dragged the chest out onto the river bank. Everyone crowded around to see what it might contain. The prince was certainly the most curious among them, but he was a careful young man.

As he prepared to open the chest himself, he told all but a few to stand back, and those few to draw their swords, in case the chest held some evil beast, a djinn, or a giant.

When everyone was ready and waiting, the prince forced the lid open with his dagger and flung it back. There lay, living and breathing, the most lovely maiden he had ever seen in his life.

Although she was half suffocated from being shut up in the chest, the princess quickly revived. When she was able to sit up, the prince began to ask her who she was and how she came to be shut in the chest and set afloat on the water.

Blushing and trembling to find herself in the presence of so many strangers, she told him that she was the princess of Rahmatabad and that she had been put into the chest by her own father.

When he told her that he was the prince of Dilaram, the young people were amazed to find that they, who had been betrothed without ever having seen each other, should have actually met for the first time in such strange circumstances.

Indeed, the prince was so moved by her beauty and modest ways that he called his wazirs and demanded to be married at once to this lovely lady who had so completely won his heart.

And married they were, right there on the river bank, and they went home to the prince's palace. There, when the story was told, they were welcomed by the old rajah, the prince's father, and the rest of the day was spent feasting and rejoicing.

But when the feast was over, the bride told her husband that now, at the start of their married life, she had more to tell about her adventures than he had given her a chance to say yet.

And then, without hiding anything, she told him everything that had happened to her from the time she had sneaked out to visit the wicked jogi.

In the morning, the prince called his chief wazir and ordered him to shut up in the chest in which the princess had been found a large monkey that lived chained up in the palace. He was told to take the chest back to the river and set it afloat once more and watch what became of it. So the monkey was caught and put into the chest, and some of the prince's servants took it down to the river and pushed it off into the water. Then they followed secretly from a distance to see what would happen.

Meanwhile, the jogi's two pupils watched and watched for the chest until they were nearly tired of watching. They were beginning to wonder if the jogi was right after all, when on the second day they spotted the large chest floating on the river, slowly bobbing and turning in the current.

Instantly great joy and excitement seized them, for they thought that here was further proof of their master's wonderful wisdom. With some difficulty they grabbed the chest and carried it back as quickly and secretly as possible to the jogi's house.

As soon as they brought in the chest, the jogi, who had been getting very angry and impatient, told them to put it down and go outside while he opened the magic chest.

“And even if you hear cries and sounds, no matter how alarming, you must on no account come in,” said the jogi, walking over to a closet where lay the silken cord that was to strangle the princess.

The two pupils did as they were told. They went outside and shut all the doors tightly. Soon they heard a great uproar inside and the jogi's voice crying aloud for help. But they dared not enter, because he had told them that whatever the noise, they must not come in.

So they sat outside, waiting and wondering. At last everything grew still and quiet, and it stayed that way for such a long time that they decided to enter and see if all was well.

No sooner had they opened the door leading into the courtyard than they were nearly knocked over by a huge monkey that came leaping straight to the doorway and escaped past them into the open fields.

Then they stepped into the room, and there they saw the jogi's body lying torn to pieces on the threshold of his house!

Very soon the story spread, as stories do, and reached the ears of the princess and her husband. When she knew that her enemy was dead, she made peace with her father.