e. And I used to come
to this deserted spot twice a month to worship Shiva.

"One day I came here and it happened that I spent the whole day in
worship. That day my father waited for me and would not eat or drink
anything, though he was hungry and angry with me. At night I stood
before him with downcast eyes, for I had done wrong. And he forgot his
love and cursed me--so strong is fate. Because you have despised me
and left me hungry a whole day, a giant named Terror-of-Fate will
swallow you four times a month when you leave the city. And each time
you will split him open and come out. And you shall not remember the
curse afterwards, nor the pain of being swallowed alive. And you must
live here alone.'

"But when I begged him, he thought awhile and softened his curse. When
Glory-banner, King of the Angas, shall become your husband, and shall
see you swallowed by the giant, and shall kill the giant, then the
curse shall end, and you shall remember all your magic arts.' Then he
left me here, and went with his people to the Nishadha mountain. But I
stayed here because of the curse. And now the curse is ended, and I
remember everything. So now I shall go to the Nishadha mountain to see
my father. Of course now I remember how to fly. And you are at liberty
to stay here, or to go back to your own kingdom."

Then the king was sad, and he begged her thus: "My beautiful wife, do
not go for seven days. Be as kind as you are beautiful. Let me be happy
with you in the garden, and forget my longings. Then you may go to your
father, and I will go home." So he persuaded her, and was happy with
her for six days in the garden. And the lilies in the ponds looked like
longing eyes, and the ripples like hands raised to detain them, and the
cries of swans and cranes seemed to say: "Do not leave us and go away."

On the seventh day the king cleverly led his wife to the pool from
which one could get back to the world. There he threw his arms about
her and plunged into the pool, and came up with her in the pool in the
garden of his own palace.

The gardeners saw that the king had come back with a wife, and they
joyfully ran and told the counsellor Farsight. He came and fell at the
king's feet, and then led the king and the fairy into the palace. And
the counsellor and the people thought: "Wonderful! The king has won the
fairy whom others could see only for a moment like the lightning in the
sky. Whatever is written in one's fate, that co