FOLK-TALES OF BENGAL : Illustrated

There was a king who had two queens, Duo and Suo. [1] Both of them
were childless. One day a Faquir (mendicant) came to the palace-gate
to ask for alms. The Suo queen went to the door with a handful of
rice. The mendicant asked whether she had any children. On being
answered in the negative, the holy mendicant refused to take alms, as
the hands of a woman unblessed with child are regarded as ceremonially
unclean. He offered her a drug for removing her barrenness, and she
expressing her willingness to receive it, he gave it to her with the
following directions:--"Take this nostrum, swallow it with the juice
of the pomegranate flower; if you do this, you will have a son in due
time. The son will be exceedingly handsome, and his complexion will
be of the colour of the pomegranate flower; and you shall call him
Dalim Kumar. [2] As enemies will try to take away the life of your
son, I may as well tell you that the life of the boy will be bound up
in the life of a big boal fish which is in your tank, in front of the
palace. In the heart of the fish is a small box of wood, in the box is
a necklace of gold, that necklace is the life of your son. Farewell."

In the course of a month or so it was whispered in the palace
that the Suo queen had hopes of an heir. Great was the joy of
the king. Visions of an heir to the throne, and of a never-ending
succession of powerful monarchs perpetuating his dynasty to the
latest generations, floated before his mind, and made him glad as he
had never been in his life. The usual ceremonies performed on such
occasions were celebrated with great pomp; and the subjects made loud
demonstrations of their joy at the anticipation of so auspicious an
event as the birth of a prince. In the fulness of time the Suo queen
gave birth to a son of uncommon beauty. When the king the first time
saw the face of the infant, his heart leaped with joy. The ceremony
of the child's first rice was celebrated with extraordinary pomp,
and the whole kingdom was filled with gladness.