ddess said, "My child, a snake will come to bite your husband: give
it milk to drink. Then put near it a new earthen jar. When the snake
has finished drinking, it will enter the earthen jar. Then at once
pull off your bodice and stuff it into the jar's mouth. Next morning
give the jar to your mother." Next evening everything happened as
Parwati had said. The snake came to bite her husband as he slept. But
the little girl offered it milk, which it drank. After drinking,
it curled itself up inside the earthen jar, and, the moment it did
so, the little girl slipped off her bodice and stuffed it into the
mouth of the jar. Next morning her husband gave her a ring, and she
in exchange gave him a sweet-dish, and he and his uncle continued
their journey to Benares. When they had gone, the little girl gave the
earthen jar with the snake inside it to her mother. The mother took
out the bodice, but instead of a snake a garland lay inside, and the
mother put it round her little daughter's neck. Some weeks passed,
but neither uncle nor nephew returned. So the little girl's parents
grew anxious. The sick boy who was to have been her husband recovered,
but she could no longer marry him, and the boy whom she had married
had gone away and might never return. In despair the parents built
a house, in which they entertained every traveller who passed by,
hoping that sooner or later one of the travellers would prove to be
their daughter's husband. To all of them the mother gave water; the
daughter washed their feet; her brother gave them sandal-wood paste;
and her father gave them betel-nut. But it was all in vain; none of
the travellers' fingers fitted the ring given to the little girl by
her husband, nor could any of them produce the sweet-dish which she
had given him in exchange.

In the meantime the uncle and nephew had reached Benares and had
given large sums in charity, and had visited all the holy places
and had received the blessings of all the Brahmans. One day the
little boy, fainted. And in a dream he saw the messenger of Yama,
the god of death, come close to him as if to carry him off. Next he
saw the goddess Parwati come to his rescue and, after a struggle,
drive away Yama's messenger. When the boy woke up he told the dream to
his uncle. The latter was overjoyed because he felt certain that now
the boy would no longer die young. He told his nephew to get ready,
and next day they left Benares. On their way home they passed by
t