She used to light
them herself and neap the burners with sugar-candy, and on Divali [16]
Day she used to worship them and make them suitable offerings. But,
directly the little daughter-in-law was driven away, none of the
lamps were any longer cared for. On the next Divali Day the king was
returning from a hunt, and he camped under a tree. Suddenly he saw all
the lamps in his town of Atpat come and settle on its branches. One
lamp after another told what was happening in its house--when there had
been a dinner party, what there had been to eat, who had been invited,
how they themselves had been cared for, and what honours they had
received on Divali Day. After all the other lamps had told their story,
the big lamp from the king's palace began, "Brother lamps, I do not
know how to tell you. For none among you is so wretched as I am. In
former years I was the most fortunate of all the lamps in Atpat. No
other lamp had such honours paid it as I had, and this year I have
to drag out my days In unspeakable misery." All the other lamps tried
to comfort it, and asked it how it was that ill-fortune had overtaken
it.
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