Narration: The Enchanted Princess (part 1)

TITLE: The Enchanted Princess (from the collection, Stories From Bengal)
AUTHOR: Betsey Bang

NARRATION: There was a raja and he had seven ranis. They had no sons. And then a man gave them a root and told them to pound it well and eat it and they will have sons. So the five eldest ate so much that there was none left for the other ranis, Middle Rani and Little Rani. The other ranis laughed at them and said that if they had children it would be an owl and a monkey. They gave birth to baby boys and there were five boys and Middle Rani had an owl and Little Rani had a monkey. And then everybody cheered because they had sons. But no one asked about Middle Rani and Little Rani and they were put work in the garden as slaves. Little Rani had to get fuel for the palace and Middle Rani had to sweep the garden and feed the birds.

The princes grew up to be big and they ran around and around and around. They were not nice. They rode their pegasuses and beheaded people. But the owl and the monkey grew up in the garden. One day, the owl and the monkey got out of the garden and went to the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper asked "Who are you?" and they said, "I'm the monkey prince." "And I'm the owl prince."The gate keeper opened the gate and they went to the raja, and the monkey prince sat on his lap and the owl prince sat on his shoulder. They said "Father!" And the raja had tears in his eyes, he cried for joy.

One day, an enchanted princess came and the ranis wanted their sons to look for her kingdom, so they set off in peacock boats. The monkey and the owl princes said "We need to go too in our own peacock boats." So they went home, and the ranis said, "Our sons should go too." So they made little canoes and painted them a beautiful color.

REVIEW: So far I think that it is a rather long story. I think that it is a very unusual story because there is almost no way humans could give birth to a monkey and an owl. That means this story is not a true story. Those two girls could not have given birth to an owl and a monkey. And that's all I think about it so far.