s, who had come as suitors, all wanted to turn him out of the
garden. But the princess said, "Take care! take care! You must not
turn him out. Leave him alone." Then she put him on her elephant, and
took him to the palace.

The Kings and Rajas and their sons were very much astonished, and
said, "What does this mean? The princess does not care to marry one of
us, but chooses that very poor man!" Her father then stood up, and
said to them all, "I promised my daughter she should marry any one she
pleased, and as she has twice chosen that poor, common man, she shall
marry him." And so the princess and the boy were married with great
pomp and splendour: her father and mother were quite content with her
choice; and the Kings, the Rajas and their sons, all returned to their
homes.

Now the princess's six sisters had all married rich princes--and they
laughed at her for choosing such a poor ugly husband as hers seemed
to be, and said to each other, mockingly, "See! our sister has married
this poor, common man!" Their six husbands used to go out hunting
every day, and every evening they brought home quantities of all kinds
of game to their wives, and the game was cooked for their dinner and
for the King's; but the husband of the youngest princess always stayed
at home in the palace, and never went out hunting at all. This made
her very sad, and she said to herself, "My sisters' husbands hunt
every day, but my husband never hunts at all."

At last she said to him, "Why do you never go out hunting as my
sisters' husbands do every day, and every day they bring home
quantities of all kinds of game? Why do you always stay at home,
instead of doing as they do?"

One day he said to her, "I am going out to-day to eat the air." "Very
good," she answered; "go, and take one of the horses." "No," said the
young prince, "I will not ride, I will walk." Then he went to the
jungle-plain where he had left Katar, who all this time had seemed to
be a donkey, and he told Katar everything. "Listen," he said; "I have
married the youngest princess; and when we were married everybody
laughed at her for choosing me, and said, 'What a very poor, common
man our princess has chosen for her husband!' Besides, my wife is very
sad, for her six sisters' husbands all hunt every day, and bring home
quantities of game, and their wives therefore are very proud of them.
But I stay at home all day, and never hunt. To-day I should like to
hunt very much."

"We