THE KING AND THE

TREF-GODDESS
This is one of the stories Koki 's
grandmother told the children
wet monsoon evening, when t was impossible to on
play outside
Grandmother loved trees, and this was one of her juvOurite tree storis
There was once a king living in the
Himalayan foothills, who
longed build himself a palace more beautiful than any he had
to
seen in that part of the world. He could not
make it richer, taller
or stronger than
any other without going to a great deal of
expense and trouble. So he decided to build something different
the entire palace was to be supported one column by and only,
that column was to be made from the tallest tree in the
kingdom.
In the Himalayas there are many tall trees
-spruce and
pine, oak and deodar. And the tallest and the strongest are the
deodars, whose very name, Deo-Dar, means Tree of God.
The King sent for his Prime Minister and said, "Send men
to my forests far and near, and tell them to cut down and bring
to this city without delay the largest deodar they can
find
But the deodar is a sacred tree," protested his daughter
"It is used only for building temples."
All the more reason for me to have one," said the Nug

ple!"
"My palace shall be as magnificent as any
 THE ROAD TO THE
BAZAAR 195

Prime Minister sent out

thirty
but they soon
men
The
urned, saying that though there were many great deodars
Lo kingdom, they could never carry or drag them over so
4:fficult country as lay between
the forests and the
city.
When the King heara this, he called his son and said, "Take
horsemen, and with the help of your horses, bring me
these trees."
ne of
The prince rode out with his horsemen but returned after
w days, saying, "No horses could move such a tree an inch.
e have tried oxen to0, but without any success."
"Well, then, try elephants," said the King.
Elephants were brought from the plains, but the hills were
steep for them, and the paths too narrow; they had to
eturn to the valley.

"Very wel," said the

King angrily. "In one of my own parks
Ou must find me a tree just as big as any in the forests.
ito me within seven days."
Bring
After much searching, the
King's men found a splendid
deodar tree growing not far from the city. It was worshipped
by the people of many villages round about, because within it
ied a Goddess, and it was she who
gave to the tree its great
srength, size and beauty.
When the Prime Minister and his men
had decided that the
Column for the King's palace must be made from this lofty
depdar tree, they came with garlands, lamps and music to pay
ueT
respects to the Goddess inside, and to warn her that she
ust leave her abode. Within seven days it had to be cut to
te ground.
hey lit their lamps and placed them in a circle round the
They hung their garlands upon the branches and tied
y's among the leaves. Then, joining hands, some danced,
ad others sang:

With cruel axe we've come

lo fell
your age-long home;
 CMDREN'S
OMNIUUS
TONDS
RUSKIN
196

Forgive
us, great Tee-Goddes
thronel
your
betore
dance
We must we
the King
To please
down your
lovelest
tree.
Cut
undestooxd whal was about
heard, and
Tree-Goddess
The Dreeze lor a few
as testg
happen.
She reminea quiet a
to Degan to
whisper and her
moments, and
then
all
ner ieaves
branches
bOwed. 1e men went away satisfied hat
topmost understood.
heard and
she had
à figure draped
That night, when the King
was
asieep, gloious
to nim, ànd spoke in a voice
tolage appeared
in shining green leaves:
rustie ol a u t u m n
was Iike the
that Your
I am the
Goddess of the Deodar tree,
great King. men

Cut me down. I have come to

intend
have told me that you to
mind."
to change your
beg you mind is made up,
answered
King in his
the
No, my
is the oniy tree n
all my parks strong enough
dream. 'Yours have it."
and theretore I must
itself a palace,
to support by For hundreds of years I have been
"But consider, oh King! in your kingdom,
of all the vilages
worshipped by people the
out trom me to
them. The birds
but good has gone
and nothing shade upon the grass.
Men
I send a most lovely
nest in me.

trunk and wild creatures

rub
themselves against
rest against my new plants and herbs
and sends up
me. The earth blesses me, with strong8
arms. I bind the earth my
under my protective women returning trom the
Children play at my feet, and
roots.
in my coolness.
tields seek retuge "but
Tree-Goddess," said the King,
"All true enough, good up, my
will
mind is made
all the same I cannot spare you. My
cannot be shaken. breast and spoke
Tree-Goddess sank her head upon her
The
sorrow:
in tones ot great Let me be
m e o n e last request.
"Then, mighty King, grant
with its c r o w n r waving
First my head,
telled in three parts.
 T1E ROAD TO TUE BAZAMR 197

Nlovt my middle, with its hundred strong arms and

nd last my
n r m e r y

base, which bears the heaviest and knottiest

it."
limbs upon
my request," said the King. "T have never
"This iis a strange
who wished to suffer the death stroke
of someone
iore heard
sutter it once, and have done with it?"
i! Why not
is Said the Iree-Goddess. "Dozens of
The reason plain,
deodar trees have sprung rom me, and have grown up
young me. Should you fell me with one mighty stroke, my
sround

icht would certainly crush all my children to death. But if

ffer the stroke three times, and fall in three pieces, some

may escape. is my prayer granted?"

ones
f the young the Tree-Goddess
"Indeed it is," said the astonished King, as
trom his vision.
faded

called his children and his ministers

The next morning the King
and his foresters to him, and told them that he had changed
for the new palace should be
his mind, and that the column
built of stone, not wood.
"For," said he, "within the deodar tree lives a spirit nobler
thanmy own." And he told them of his vision, and they all
marvelled.
And the King built his palace upon a great column of stone,
and around its base he created a beautiful park, and the children
of the city and the surrounding villages flocked to the gardens
to sit on the grass and enjoy the many beautiful flowers and
trees that had been planted on all sides.
laking the example of the King, no one built their houses
wOOd any more. The houses were made of stone, and the
Breat deodars were able to spread freely through the torests.

And if you go up into the mountains," said Grandmother, "you ca

S E P those forests, all the way up the sacred river Ganga, to its

SOurce near the eternal sinows. "