ld you leave me for a whole week?"
she said to him. "I had not seen my friend for a month," he answered.
Panwpatti Rani did not let her husband see how angry she was; but in
her heart she thought, "I am sure he loves his friend best."

The prince remained with her for a month. Then he said, "I must go and
see my friend." This made her very angry indeed. However, she said,
"Good; go and see your friend, and I will make you some delicious
sweetmeats to take him from me." She set to work, and made the most
tempting sweetmeats she could; only in each she put a strong poison.
Then she wrapped them in a beautiful handkerchief, and her husband
took them to the kotwal's son. "My Rani has made you these herself,"
he said to his friend, "and she sends you a great many salaams." The
Raja's son knew nothing of the poison.

The kotwal's son put the sweetmeats on one side, and said, "Let us
talk, and I will eat them by and by." So they sat and talked for a
long time. Then the kotwal's son said, "Your Rani herself made these
sweetmeats for me?" "Yes," said the Raja's son. His friend was very
wise, and he thought, "Panwpatti Rani does not like me. Of that I am
sure." So he took some of the sweetmeats, and broke them into bits and
threw them to the crows. The crows came flying down, and all the crows
who ate the sweetmeats died instantly. Then the kotwal's son threw a
sweetmeat to a dog that was passing. The dog devoured it and fell
dead. This put the Raja's son into great rage. "I will never see my
Rani again!" he exclaimed. "What a wicked woman she is to try and
poison my friend--my friend whom I love so dearly; but for whom I
should never have married her!" He would not go back to his wife, and
stayed in the old woman's house. The kotwal's son often told him he
ought to return to his wife, but the prince would not do so. "No," he
said, "she is a wicked woman. You never did her any evil or hurt; yet
she has tried to poison you. I will never see her again."

When a month had passed, the kotwal's son said to the prince, "You
really must go back to Panwpatti Rani; she is your wife, and you must
go to her, and take her away to your own country." Still the Raja's
son declared he would never see her again. "If you would like to see
something that will please you," said his friend, "go back to your
wife for one day; and to-night 'when she is asleep' you must take off
all her jewels, and tie them up in a handkerchief, and bring them to
me.