Note 3 — The Story of the Bitch
Reading edition
In Sagas from the Far East, p. 125, in a Kalmuk tale, after the girl who had been taken out of a box found on the steppe3 had three children, the people began to complain of her want of respectable relatives, and she went home with her sons. Instead of her former poor dwelling she found there palaces, many labourers at work, and a youth who claimed to be her brother. Her parents entertained her well, and the Khan and Ministers came, and returned quite satisfied. On the following morning the palaces and all had vanished, and she returned to the Khan’s palace, perceiving that the Dēvas had created the illusion on her behalf. (As she had claimed to be the daughter of the Serpent God, it would appear to have been the Nāgas who had exerted their powers and done this for her. In the story numbered 252 in this volume, Māra, the god of death, assisted the son of a woman who had stated that he was her husband.)