ods as fast as her fat
little legs would carry her. There she met again the serpent-maidens
of Patala and the bevy of wood-nymphs and went with them to the
temple of Shiva in the distant heart of the forest. The first time the
serpent-maidens and the wood-nymphs had given her the incense and the
flowers, the rice and the betel-nut, and the leaves of the bel tree,
with which to perform her worship. But they had told her that the
next time she must bring them herself. So when she ran away on the
second Monday in Shravan she brought with her incense and flowers,
rice and betel-nut and bel-tree leaves, and after offering them and
some sesamums to the god she once more prayed, "O God Shiva, please,
please grant my prayer and make my father-in-law and my mother-in-law,
my brothers-in-law and my sisters-in-law like me as much as they now
dislike me." Then she went home and fasted, and giving all her dinner
to her favourite cow she sat by herself and prayed to Shiva. That
evening the king asked her who the god was whom she was honouring,
and where he lived. The ugly little daughter-in-law replied, "Afar
off my god lives, and the roads to him are hard, and the paths to him
are full of thorns. Where snakes abound and where tigers lie in wait,
there is his temple." The third Monday in Shravan, the ugly little
daughter-in-law again started from the palace with her flowers and
incense, her betel-nut and bel leaves, her rice and sesamum, in order
to meet the serpent-maidens of Patala and the bevy of wood-nymphs, and
with them to worship the god in the hidden depths of the forest. This
time the king and her other male relatives followed her and said
to her, "Ugly little daughter-in-law, take us with you and show us
your god." But the temple of Shiva was ever so far from the king's
palace. The ugly daughter-in-law did not mind, for she was used to
cruel treatment. She had also walked to the temple twice before, and
her feet had got as hard as two little stones. But the king and his
relatives were tired to death; and their feet swelled up to the size
of an elephant's, and they became as full of thorns as the back of a
porcupine. And they muttered to each other, "How on earth does that
ugly little daughter-in-law manage to walk as she does through the
heart of the forest?" The ugly daughter-in-law at last felt sorry for
them. She prayed to the god Shiva to build a temple near at hand. The
god consented, and, with the help of the serpent-m