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in, the father, promised his daughter to the Brahman possessed of magic power, and set the marriage day seven days hence. Another Brahman (No. 2) came and asked the son for his sister's hand. When told the conditions, he said that he was a hero, and he displayed his skill in the use of weapons. The brother, ignorant of what his father had done, promised his sister's hand to this man, and by the advice of an astrologer he selected the same day for the wedding as his father had selected. A third Brahman (No. 3) on that same day asked the mother for her daughter's hand, saying that he was possessed of wisdom. Ignorant of what her husband and her son had done, she questioned this Brahman about the past and the future, and at length promised him her daughter's hand on the same seventh day. On the same day, then, three bridegrooms appeared, and, strange to say, on that very day the bride disappeared. No. 3, with his knowledge, discovered that she had been carried off by a Rakshasa. No. 1 made a chariot equipped with weapons, and the three suitors and Harisvamin were carried to the Rakshasa's abode. There No. 2 fought and killed the demon, and all returned with the maiden. A dispute then arose among the Brahmans as to which was entitled to the maiden's hand. Each set forth his claim. The vetala, who has been telling the story, now makes King Vikramasena decide which deserves the girl. The king says that the girl ought to be given to No. 2, who risked his life in battle to save her. Nos. 1 and 3 were only instruments; calculators and artificers are always subordinate to others. The story next passed over into Mongolia, growing by the way. The version in the "Siddhi-Kuer," No. 13, is interesting, because it shows our story already linked up with another cycle, the "True Brothers." Only the last part, which begins approximately where the companions miss the rich youth, corresponds to the Sanscrit above. (This Mongolian version may be found in English in Busk, 105-114.) The story then moved westward, and we next meet it in the Persian and the Turkish "Tuti-namah," "The Story of the Beautiful Zehra." (For an English rendering from the Persian, see "The Tootinameh; or, Tales of a Parrot," Persian text with English translation [Calcutta, 1792], pp. 111-114.) W. A. Clouston (Clouston 3, 2 : 277-288) has discussed this group of stories, and gives abstracts of a number of variants that Benfey does not mention: Dozon, "A
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