ir said to them, "Mamma, give me rice."
"Why do you call us 'Mamma'?" they said. "We have no sons. You are not
our son." But at last they saw he was indeed their husband, and they
wrung their hands and wept bitterly, and threw themselves on the
ground before him and said, "Why have you called us 'Mamma'? Why do
you ask for bread? We must now leave you." "Don't go away," said the
king. "Take my kingdom, my money, my houses, and stay here till I
return. I am going to be a fakir." His wives gave him some rice and
some money, and he went back to Goraknath.

In old days men who intended to become fakirs had to do three tasks
set them by one who was already a fakir; so Goraknath said to the
king, "Now you must go to a jungle that I will show you, and stay
there for twelve years." Then King Burtal took the flat pan and the
rolling-pin which he used in making his flour cakes, and was quite
ready to start for the jungle, but the fakir stopped him. "You must
leave your pan and your rolling-pin behind," he said; "and all these
twelve years you must neither eat nor drink, or you can never be a
fakir. You must sit quite still on the same spot and never move." "I
shall die if I don't eat," said the king; "but I don't care if I do
die, so I will do all you tell me." Then the fakir took him to a
jungle, and made him sit down on the grass, and instantly all the
grass round him grew up so tall and thick that King Burtal was quite
hidden by it, and no one could see him. Here he lived for twelve
years, and never moved, and he ate nothing, and drank nothing, and
nobody knew he was there.

At the end of that time Goraknath came and took him away and said,
"Now go home to your wives." "Why should I go to my wives? I do not
wish to see my wives, for they have given me no children," said King
Burtal. But Goraknath said, "Go and see them." So King Burtal went;
and he begged for rice from them; and they entreated him to stay with
them, but he would not. "I will return to the fakir Goraknath," he
said. "Why should I stay with you? You have never given me a child.
What use is all my wealth to me? I have no son to take it when I am
dead. I will become a fakir." And they threw themselves on the ground
and wrung their hands, and said, "Oh, why will you leave us?" He
answered, "Because it pleases me to do so." And he called them all
"Mamma," and told them to stay in his palace and take all he possessed
for their own use. Then he returned to Goraknath