Folklore of the Santal Parganas

I. Bajun and Jhore.

Once upon a time there were two brothers named Bajun and Jhore.
Bajun was married and one day his wife fell ill of fever. So, as he was
going ploughing, Bajun told Jhore to stay at home and cook the dinner
and he bade him put into the pot three measures of rice. Jhore stayed
at home and filled the pot with water and put it on to boil; then he
went to look for rice measures; there was only one in the house and
Jhore thought “My brother told me to put in three measures and if
I only put in one I shall get into trouble.” So he went to a
neighbour’s house and borrowed two more measures, and put them
into the pot and left them to boil. At noon Bajun came back from
ploughing and found Jhore stirring the pot and asked him whether the
rice was ready. Jhore made no answer, so Bajun took the spoon from him,
saying “Let me feel how it is getting on”, but when he
stirred with the spoon he heard a rattling noise and when he looked
into the pot he found no rice but only three wooden measures floating
about; then he turned and abused Jhore for his folly, but Jhore said
“You yourself told me to put in three measures and I have done
so.” So Bajun had to set to work and cook the rice himself and
got his dinner very late.

Next day Bajun said to Jhore, “You don’t know how to
cook the dinner; I will stay at home to-day, you go to plough, and take
a hatchet with you and if the plough catches in a root or anything,
give a cut with the hatchet.” So Jhore went ploughing and when
the plough caught in anything and stopped, he gave a cut with his
hatchet [18]at the legs of the bullocks; they backed and
plunged with the pain and then he only chopped at them the more until
he lamed them both. At noon Bajun saw the bullocks come limping back
and asked what was the matter with them. “O,” said Jhore,
“that is because I cut at them as you told me.” “You
idiot,” said Bajun, “I meant you to give a cut at the roots
in which the plough got caught, not at the legs of the bullocks; how
will you live if you do such silly things? You cannot plough, you must
stay at home and cook the rice. I will show you this evening how it is
done.” So after that Jhore stayed at home and cooked.
Bajun’s wife grew no better, so one day Bajun, before he went to
the fields, told Jhore to warm some water in order that his wife might
wash with it. But Jhore made the water boiling hot and then took it and
began to pour it over his sister-in-law as she lay on her bed; she was
scalded and shrieked out “Don’t pour it over me,” but
Jhore only laughed and went on pouring until he had scalded her to
death. Then he wrapped her up in a cloth and brought her dinner to her
and offered it her to eat, but she was dead and made no answer to him,
so he left it by her and went and ate his own rice. When Bajun came
back and found his wife scalded to death he was very angry and went to
get an axe to kill Jhore with; thereupon Jhore ran away into the jungle
and Bajun pursued him with the axe.

In the jungle Jhore found a dead sheep and he took out its stomach
and called out “Where are you, brother, I have found some
meat.” But Bajun answered, “I will not leave you till I
have killed you.” So Jhore ran on and climbed up inside a hollow
tree, where Bajun could not follow, Bajun got a long stick and poked at
him with it and as he poked, Jhore let fall the sheep’s stomach,
and when Bajun saw it he concluded that he had killed his brother. So
he went home and burned [19]the body of his wife and a few days
later he performed the funeral ceremonies to the memory of his wife and
brother; he smeared the floor of the house with cowdung and sacrificed
goats and fowls. Now Jhore had come back that day and climbed up on to
the rafters of the house, and he sat there watching all that his
brother did. Bajun cooked a great basket of rice and stewed the flesh
of the animals he had sacrificed and offered it to the spirits of the
dead and he recited the dedication “My wife I offer this rice,
this food, for your purification,” and so saying he scattered
some rice on the ground; and he also offered to Jhore, saying,
“Jhore, my brother, I offer this rice, this food, for your
purification,” and then Jhore called out from the roof
“Well, as you offer it to me I will take it.” Bajun had not
bargained to get any answer, so he was astounded and went to ask the
villagers whether their spirits made answer when sacrificed to: and the
villagers told him that they had never heard of such a thing. While
Bajun was away on this errand, Jhore took up the unguarded basket of
rice and ran away with it; after going some way he sat down by the road
and ate as much as he wanted, then he sat and called out “Is
there anyone on the road or in the jungle who wants a feast?” A
gang of thieves who were on a thieving expedition heard him and went to
see what he meant; he offered to let them eat the rice if they would
admit him to their company; they agreed and he went on with them to
steal; they broke into a rich man’s house and the thieves began
to collect the pots and pans but Jhore felt about in the dark and got
hold of a drum and began to beat on it. This woke up the people of the
house and they drove away the thieves. Then the thieves abused Jhore
and said that they could not let him stay with them: “Very
well”, said he, “then give me back the rice you ate.”
Of [20]course they could not do this. So they had to let
him stay with them. Then they went to the house of a rich Hindu who had
a stable full of horses and they planned to steal the horses and ride
away with them; so each thief picked out a horse, but Jhore got hold of
a tiger which had come to the back of the stable to kill one of the
horses; and when the thieves mounted their horses, Jhore mounted on the
tiger, and the tiger ran off with him towards the jungle. Jhore kept on
calling out “Keep to the road, you Hindu horse, keep to the road,
you Hindu horse.” But it dragged him through the briars and
bushes till he was dead and that was the end of Jhore.

II. Anuwa and His Mother.

Once there was a young fellow named Anuwa who lived with his old
mother, and when he was out ploughing his mother used to take him his
breakfast. One day a jackal met her on her way to the field with her
son’s breakfast and told her to put down the food which she was
carrying or he would knock her down and bite her; so she put it down in
a fright and the jackal ate most of it and then went away and the old
woman took what was left to her son and told him nothing about what had
happened. This happened several days in succession; at last one day
Anuwa asked her why she brought so little rice and that so untidily
arranged; so she told him how she was attacked every day by the jackal.
Then they made a plan that the next day the mother should take the
plough afield, while Anuwa should dress up as an old woman and carry
the breakfast. This they did and the jackal met Anuwa as usual and made
him put down the breakfast basket, but while the jackal was eating,
Anuwa knocked him head over heels with his stick; and the jackal got up
and fled, threatening [21]and cursing Anuwa. Among other things the
jackal as he ran away, had threatened to eat Anuwa’s
malhan plants, so Anuwa put a fence of thorns round them and
when the jackal came at night and tried to eat the pods he only got his
nose pricked.

Foiled in this the jackal called out “Well, I will eat your
fowls to-morrow;” but Anuwa the next night sat by the fowl house
with a sickle and when the jackal came and poked in his head, Anuwa
gave him a rap on the snout with the sickle, so the jackal made off
crying “Well, Anuwa, your fowls have pecked me on the head, you
shall die.” So the next day Anuwa pretended to be dead and his
mother went about crying; she took her way to the jungle and there she
met the jackal and she told him that Anuwa had died in consequence of
his curse and she invited him to the funeral feast, saying that he used
to eat the rice which she had cooked and he had become like a son to
her. The jackal gladly promised to attend, and he collected a number of
his friends and at evening they went to Anuwa’s house and sat
down in the courtyard. Then the old woman came out and began to bewail
her son: but the jackal said “Stop crying, grannie, you cannot
get back the dead: let us get on to the feast.” So she said that
she would fry some cakes first, as it would take some time before the
rice was ready. The jackals approved of this but they asked her to tie
them up with a rope first lest they should get to fighting over the
food, so the old woman brought a thick rope and tied them all up and
tightest of all she tied up the jackal which had cursed Anuwa; then she
went inside and put an iron pan on the fire and from time to time she
sprinkled water on it and when the jackals heard the water hissing they
thought that it was the cakes frying and jumped about with joy.
Suddenly Anuwa came out with a thick stick and set to beating the
jackals till they bit through [22]the ropes and ran away howling; but
the first jackal was tied so tightly that he could not escape, and
Anuwa beat him till he was senseless and lay without moving all night.
The next morning Anuwa took the jackal and tied him to a stake near the
place where the village women drew water and he put a thick stick
beside it and every woman who went for water would give the jackal one
blow with the stick. After a few days beating the body of the jackal
became all swollen and one night some other jackals came there and
asked him what he ate that he had got so fat and he said that every one
who came to draw water gave him a handful of rice and that was why he
was so fat; and if they did not believe him they could take his place
and try for themselves.

So one jackal agreed to try and untied the first jackal and let
himself be tied in his place, but in the morning five women came down
and each gave him a blow with the stick till he jumped about for pain,
and seeing him jumping other women came and beat him till he died.

III. Ledha and the Leopard.

Once upon a time a boy named Ledha was tending cattle with other
boys at the foot of a hill, and these boys in fun used to call out
“Ho, leopard: Ho, leopard,” and the echo used to answer
from the hill “Ho, leopard.” Now there really was a leopard
who lived in the hill and one day he was playing hide and seek with a
lizard which also lived there. The lizard hid and the leopard looked
every where for it in vain. At last the leopard sat down to rest and it
chanced that he sat right on top of the lizard which was hiding in a
hole. The lizard thought that the leopard meant to hurt it and in
revenge bit him and fastened on to his rump so that [23]he could
not get it off, so that day when the boys came calling out “Ho,
leopard,” he ran towards them to get their help: but when they
saw the leopard they all fled for their lives. Ledha however could not
run fast because he was lame, and the leopard headed him off and begged
him to remove the lizard. This he did after the leopard had sworn not
to eat him, and before they parted the leopard made him promise to tell
no one that the lizard had bitten him, and said that if he told then he
would be carried off and eaten. So Ledha rejoined his companions and
told them nothing of what had passed between him and the leopard. But
that night when they had all gone to bed, Ledha’s sister-in-law
began to worry him to tell her what the leopard had said to him, when
it had caught him. He told her that the leopard would eat him if he
told, but she coaxed him and said that no one could hear them inside
the house; so at last he told her that he had taken off a lizard which
was hanging on to its rump. Then they went to sleep; but the leopard
was hiding at the back of the house and heard all that they said; and
when they were all asleep, he crept in and carried off Ledha’s
bed with Ledha in it on his head. When Ledha woke up towards morning,
he found himself being carried through dense jungle and he quietly
pulled himself up into one of the trees which overhung the path. Thus
when the leopard put down the bed and was going to eat Ledha, he found
it empty. So he went back on his track and by and bye came to the tree
in which Ledha was hiding. The leopard begged Ledha to come down, as he
had something to say to him, and promised not to eat him; but directly
Ledha reached the ground the leopard said “Now I am going to eat
you.” Ledha was powerless, so he only asked to be allowed to have
one chew of tobacco before he died; the leopard assented and Ledha felt
in his cloth [24]for his tobacco, but the tobacco did not come out
easily and as Ledha felt about for it the dry tobacco leaves crackled;
the leopard asked what the crackling sound was, and Ledha said
“That is the lizard which bit you yesterday;” then the
leopard got into a terrible fright and ran away as hard as he could,
calling out “Don’t let it loose: Don’t let it
loose.”

So Ledha was saved from the leopard, but he did not know his way out
of the jungle. He wandered about, till he came to the place where the
wild buffaloes used to sleep at night, and he swept up the place and
made it clean and then took refuge in a hollow tree; he stayed there
some days, sweeping up the place daily and supporting himself on the
fruit of a fig-tree. At last one day the buffaloes left one cow behind
to watch and see who it was who swept up their sleeping place. The cow
pretended to be too ill to rise, and Ledha after watching for some time
came out and swept the ground as usual, and then tried to pull the sick
cow up by the tail; but she would not move so he went back to his
hollow tree. When the buffaloes returned they heard that it was a
kindhearted man who cleaned their sleeping place; so they called Ledha
out and said that they would keep him as their servant to clean their
sleeping place and to scrub them when they bathed in the river; they
made him taste the milk of all the cows and appointed the cow whose
milk he liked best to supply him. Thenceforward he used to wander about
with the buffaloes and he made a flute and used to play on it.

One day after scrubbing the buffaloes he washed his head in the
river and some of his hairs came out; so he wrapped them up in a leaf
and set the packet to float down the stream. Lower down the stream two
princesses were bathing with their attendants, and when they saw the
packet they tried who could fish it out [25]and it was the younger
princess who caught it. Then they measured the hairs and found them
twelve cubits long. The princess who had taken the packet from the
water went home and took to her bed and said that she would not eat
until the man was found to whom the hairs belonged. Her father, the
Raja, sent messengers in all directions to search for the man but they
could not find him. Then he sent a parrot and the parrot flew up high
and looking down saw Ledha with the buffaloes in the forest; but it did
not dare to go near, so the parrot returned and told the Raja that the
man was in the forest but that no messenger could approach for fear of
the wild buffaloes. However a crow said, “I can bring him if any
one can,” so they sent the crow and it went and perched on the
backs of the buffaloes and began to peck them; then Ledha threw stones
at it, but it would not go away; then he threw a stick at it and last
of all he threw his flute. The crow caught up the flute and flew up to
a tree with it. Ledha ran after it, but the crow kept flying on a short
distance and Ledha still pursued until he came to the Raja’s
city. The crow flew on till it entered the room where the princess lay,
and dropped the flute into the hands of the princess. Ledha followed
right into the room and they shut him in and the princess gave him his
flute after he had promised to marry her.

So he stayed there a long time, but meanwhile the buffaloes all got
weak and ill for want of some one to look after them. One day Ledha set
off to the jungle with his wife to see them and when he saw how ill the
buffaloes were, he decided to build a house in the jungle and live
there. And the Raja sent them money and horses and cattle and elephants
and servants and they built a palace and Ledha subdued all the jungle
and became a great Raja; and he made a highway to his
father-in-law’s home and used to go to and fro on it.
[26]

IV. The Cruel Stepmother.

There was once a Raja whose wife died leaving him with one young
child. He reared it with great care and when it could toddle about it
took a great fancy to a cat; the child was always playing with it and
carrying it about.

All his friends begged the Raja to marry again, but he said that he
was sure that a stepmother would be cruel to his child; at last they
persuaded him to promise to marry again, if a bride could be found who
would promise to care for the child as her own, so his friends looked
out for a bride; but though they found plenty of girls who were anxious
to marry the Raja, not one would promise to care for his child as her
own. There was a young widow in a certain village who heard of what was
going on, and one day she asked whether a bride had been found for the
Raja and she was told that no one was willing to take charge of the
child. “Why don’t they agree,” said she, “I
would agree fast enough. If I were Rani I should have nothing to do but
look after the child and I would care for it more than its own mother
could.” This came to the ears of the Raja and he sent for the
widow and was pleased with her looks, and when she promised to love his
child as her own, he married her.

At first no one could be kinder to the child than she was, but in
the course of time she had a child of her own and then she began to be
jealous of the elder child; and she thought daily how she could get rid
of him. He was still devoted to his cat and one day when he came back
to the house, he asked his stepmother where the cat was. She answered
angrily, “The cat has bewitched the boy! It is ‘cat,
cat,’ all day long.” At this the child began to cry; so she
found the cat [27]and threw it to him, saying, “Here is your
cat: you are mad about your cat.” But the boy hugged it in his
arms and kept on crying at his stepmother’s cross words. As he
would not keep quiet his stepmother got more angry still; and catching
hold of the cat she scratched her own arms and legs with the
cat’s claws until the blood flowed; then she began to cry and
scold and when the neighbours came to see what was the matter, she told
them that the boy had let his cat scratch her; and the neighbours saw
that she was not loving the boy as she promised.

Presently the Raja came in and asked what was the matter; she turned
and scolded him saying: “You have reared the accursed cat and it
has scratched me finely; look, it has taken all the skin off; this is
the way the boy repays me for all my trouble. I will not stay with you;
if I stay the boy will injure me like this again.” The Raja said,
“Don’t cry like a baby; how can a simple child like that
know better? when he grows up I will scold him.” But the woman
persisted and declared that she would go away with her own child unless
the Raja promised to kill his elder son. The Raja refused to do this,
so the Rani took up her baby and went out of the house with it in a
rage. Now the Raja was deeply in love with her and he followed and
stopped her, and said that he could not let her take away his younger
child; she answered, “Why trouble about the child? it is mine; I
have left you your boy, if you don’t kill him, when he grows up,
he will tell you some lie about me and make you have me beaten to
death.” At last the Raja said “Well, come back and if the
boy does you any harm I will kill him.” But the Rani said.
“Either kill him now or let me go.” So at last the Raja
promised and brought her back to the palace. Then the Raja called the
boy and gave him his dinner and told him that they were going on a
visit to his uncle’s: and the [28]child was delighted and fetched
his shoes and umbrella, and off they set, and a dog came running after
them. When they came to a jungle the Raja told his son to sit under a
tree and wait for him, and he went away and killed the dog that had
followed them and smeared the blood on his axe and went home, leaving
the child.

When his father did not return, the child began to cry, and Thakur
heard him and came down, and to frighten the boy and make him leave the
jungle he came in the guise of a leopard; but the child would not move
from where he was; then Thakur appeared as a bear, and as a snake and
an elephant and in many other forms but the child would not move; so at
last Thakur took the form of an old woman, who lifted him in her arms
and soothed him and carried him to the edge of the jungle and left him
on the outskirts of a village.

In the morning a rich Brahman found him and took him home, and as no
one claimed the child he brought him up and made him his goat-herd, and
they gave him the name of Lela. The Brahman’s sons and daughters
used to go school, and before he took his goats out to graze Lela used
to carry their books to the school. And going to the school every day
Lela got to know one or two letters and used to draw them in the sand
while minding his goats; later he got the children to give him an old
book saying that he wanted to pretend to the other boys that he could
read and out of this book he taught himself to read: and as he grew up
he became quite a scholar. One day he picked up a letter and found that
it was from one of the village girls arranging to elope that very
evening with a young man. At the appointed time Lela went to the
rendez-vous and hid himself in a tree; soon he saw the Brahman’s
daughter come to the place, but as her letter had not been delivered
her lover did not appear. The girl got tired of waiting and then she
began to call to [29]her lover, thinking that perhaps he was hiding for
a joke. When she called, Lela answered from the tree and she thought
that it was her lover and said “Come down and let us be
off.” So Lela came down and they started off together; when day
dawned she saw that it was Lela who was with her and she sat down and
upbraided him for deceiving her. Lela said that they had met by chance;
he had not enticed her away, no harm had been done and she could go
home if she liked or come away with him if she liked. The girl
considered but she saw that if she went home now she would be disgraced
and her family would be outcasted, so in the end she agreed to run away
with Lela.

They went on and after travelling some days they came to a great
city, where they took up their quarters in a tumble-down house and the
next morning Lela went into the city to look for work. He went to the
cutcherry and enrolled himself as a muktear (attorney) and soon
the litigants and the magistrates found out how clever he was and he
acquired a big practice. One day the Raja said, “This fellow is
very handsome, I wonder what his wife is like?” And he sent an
old woman to see; so the old woman went and got into conversation with
Lela’s wife and returned to the Raja and told him that none of
his wives was so beautiful as Lela’s wife; so the Raja determined
to go and see her himself, and as the old woman said that she would
hide herself in the house if she saw the Raja coming, he disguised
himself as a poor man and went and saw her; he found that the old woman
had not exaggerated and he determined to possess himself of
Lela’s wife. He had first to get Lela out of the way, so he sent
for him and said, “You are a fine fellow and have given me
satisfaction. I have one more commission for you, if you perform it I
will give you half my kingdom and my sister in marriage.” Lela
said that he must [30]hear what it was before he made any promise.
The Raja said “It is this: in a certain mountain grows the
Chandmoni Kusum flower; bring it to me and I will give you what I have
promised:”—but the Raja felt sure that if Lela went to the
mountain he would be eaten by the Rakhas (ogress) who dwelt there. Lela
said that he would go if the Raja gave him a written bond In the
presence of witnesses; and this the Raja willingly did. Then Lela went
and told his wife and she said, “This is excellent: I have a
younger sister in the mountain, her name is Chandmoni and it was she
who planted the Chandmoni Kusum flower; when you get there call her by
her name and she will certainly give you the flower.”

So Lela started off and when he was gone his wife fell ill, and her
body became a mass of sores. Directly Lela was out of the way, the Raja
sent the old woman to see what his wife was doing and she brought back
word that she was afflicted with illness; so the Raja sent medicines
and told the old woman to nurse her. Lela went off and came to the cave
in the mountain where Chandmoni lived with the Rakhas; and the Rakhas
was away hunting men, so Lela called out Chandmoni and told her who he
was and begged her to hide him; then they planned how they should kill
the Rakhas, and she hid him in the cave; presently the Rakhas returned
and said to Chandmoni “I smell a man: where is he?” But
Chandmoni said that there was no one there but herself; and that the
smell was probably due to the Rakhas having been eating human flesh and
recommended her to anoint herself with hot ghee. The Rakhas agreed: so
Chandmoni put a great iron pan of ghee on to boil, and when it was
boiling she called the Rakhas, and as the Rakhas was leaning over the
pan, Lela ran out and pushed her into the boiling ghee and she died.
Then Chandmoni asked Lela [31]why he had come, and he told her,
“to fetch the flower.” She promised to give it to him but
asked what was to become of her now that the ogress with whom she lived
was dead. Lela promised to take her with him, so they cut off the
tongue and ears and claws of the Rakhas and returned to the city. And
directly Lela returned, his first wife recovered from her illness.

Then the Raja saw that it was useless to contend with Lela, and he
gave him half his kingdom and married him to his sister according to
his bond. So Lela lived with his three Ranis and they bore him children
and after some years he told them that he was the son of a Raja and he
wished to visit his own country and see whether his father was alive.
So they set out in great style with horses and elephants and came to
the town where Lela’s father lived. Now five or six days after
abandoning Lela, his father had become blind and, he made over the
management of his kingdom to a Dewan, and the Dewan and the Rani
managed everything. When the Dewan heard that Lela had come with a
great force he thought that he would loot the country and he ran away
in fear. Then Lela sent word to his father to come to him, as he was
the son who had been abandoned in the jungle, so the Raja set forth
joyfully and after he had gone a few paces he began to see dimly, and
by the time that he came to Lela’s camp he had quite recovered
his eyesight. When they met, father and son embraced and wept over each
other; and Lela ordered a feast to be prepared and while this was being
done a maidservant came running to say that the wicked Rani had hanged
herself, so they went and burned the body and then returned and enjoyed
the feast. Then the Raja resigned his kingdom to Lela and the ryots
begged him to stay and rule over them; so he remained there and lived
happily ever after. [32]

V. Karmu and Dharmu.

There were once two brothers Karmu and Dharmu. Karmu was a farmer
and Dharmu was a trader; once when Dharmu was away from home Karmu gave
a religious feast and did not invite Dharmu’s household; when
Dharmu returned and learnt this, he told his wife that he also would
perform the ceremonies in his house, so they set to work and were
employed in cooking rice and vegetables far into the night; and Karam
Gosain came down to see what preparations Dharmu was making in his
honour, and he watched from the back of the house.

Just then Dharmu strained off the water from the cooked rice and
threw it out of the window, and it fell on Karam Gosain and scalded
him, and as the flies and insects worried the wound, Karam Gosain went
off to the Ganges and buried himself in the middle of the stream. As he
had thus offended Karam Gosain, all Dharmu’s undertakings failed
and he fell into deep poverty, and had not even enough to eat, so he
had to take service with his brother Karmu. When the time for
transplanting the rice came, Dharmu used to plough and dig the ditches
and mend the gaps along with the day labourers. Karmu told him not to
work himself but act as overseer of the other labourers, and the
labourers also told him that it was not suitable for him to work as a
labourer himself, but Dharmu said that he must earn his wages and
insisted on working; and in the same way Dharmu’s wife might have
acted as overseer of the women, but she was ashamed not to work
too.

One day they were transplanting the rice and Karmu brought out
breakfast for the labourers; he told Dharmu and his wife to wash their
hands and come and eat; but they answered that they belonged to the
household [33]and that the hired labourers should be fed first,
so the labourers ate and they ate up all the rice and there was nothing
left for Dharmu and his wife. When the midday meal was brought the same
thing happened, Dharmu and his wife got nothing; but they hoped that it
would be made up to them when the wages were paid, and worked on
fasting. At evening when they came to pay the wages in kind,
Dharmu’s name was called out first, but he told his brother to
pay the labourers first, and in doing this the paddy was all used up
and there was nothing left for Dharmu and his wife; so they went home
sorrowfully and their children cried for food and they had nothing to
give them. In the night Dharmu’s wife said “They promised
to pay us for merely looking after the work and instead, we worked hard
and have still got nothing. We will not work for them anymore; come,
let us undo the work we did to-day, you cut down the embankments you
repaired, and I will uproot the seedlings which I planted.” So
they went out into the night to do this. But whenever Dharmu raised his
spade a voice called out “Hold, hold!” And whenever his
wife put out her hand to pull up the rice a voice called out
“Hold, hold!” Then they said “Who are you who stop
us?” And the voice answered “You have done evil and
offended Karam Gosain by scalding him; this is why you have become poor
and to-day have worked without food and without wages; he has gone to
the Ganges and you must go and propitiate him.” And they asked
how they should propitiate him, and the voice said “Grind
turmeric and put it on a plate, and buy new cloth and dye it with
turmeric and make ready oil and take these things to the Ganges and
call on Karam Gosain.” And they believed the voice and the next
day did as it commanded, and set off, leaving their children in charge
of Karmu. On the way they came to a fig-tree full of figs and they
[34]went to eat the fruit; but when they got near they
found that all the figs were full of grubs, and they sang:—

Then they came to a mango tree and the same thing happened. And they
went on and saw a cow with a calf; and they thought that they would
milk the cow and drink the milk, but when they went to catch it it ran
away from them and would not let itself be caught; and they
sang:—

But the cow said to them—“Go to the banks of the
Ganges.” Then they came to a buffalo and went to milk it, but it
lowered its head and charged them; and Dharam cried but his wife said
“Don’t cry” and sang:—

And the buffalo said “Go on to the bank of the Ganges.”
Then they came to a horse and they thought that they would catch it and
mount it, but it kicked and snorted; and they sang:—

And the horse said “Go to the banks of the Ganges.” Then
they saw an elephant but it would not let them approach, so they
decided to push on straight for the [35]river; and they saw under a
banyan tree a large pot full of rupees, but they were so disheartened
that they made no attempt to touch it; then they met a woman who asked
where they were going and when she heard, she said “For twelve
years I have had a pai measure stuck on my throat; ask Karam
Gosain for me how I am to get rid of it,” and they promised; and
going on they met a woman with a bundle of thatching grass stuck to her
head; and she made them promise to ask Karam Gosain how she could be
freed; then they met a woman with both her feet burning in a fire and
another with a stool stuck fast to her back and they promised to
enquire how these might be delivered.

So at last they came to the Ganges and they stood on the bank and
called to Karam Gosain; and when he came they caught hold of him and he
said “Fie, what low caste person is touching me?” But they
said. “It is no low caste person, but Dharmu.” Then they
bathed him and anointed him with oil and turmeric and wrapped him in
the new cloth which they had brought, and thus they persuaded him to
return; so they rose up to go back, and Dharmu asked about the women
whom they had met, and Karam Gosain said: “The woman has a stool
stuck to her back because when visitors came she never offered them a
seat; let her do so in future, and she will be freed; and the woman has
her feet burning in the fire because she pushed the fuel into the fire
with her foot; let her not do so in future, and she will be freed; and
the woman has the thatching grass stuck to her head because when she
saw a friend with straw sticking in her hair she did not tell her about
it; let her do so in future and she will be freed; and the woman has
the pai measure stuck to her throat because, when her neighbour wanted
to borrow her measure, she would not lend it; let her do so in future
and she will be freed.” And Karam Gosain asked whether
[36]they had seen an elephant and a horse and a
buffalo and a cow and money and mangoes and figs and Dharmu said
“Yes,” but that he had not been able to catch the animals
and the fruit was bad. Karam Gosain promised them that on their way
back they should take possession of all; and they did so and mounted on
the elephant and returned to their home with great wealth. On their way
they met the four women and told them how they could be saved from
their troubles. The villagers welcomed Dharmu and he arranged a great
feast and gave paddy to all the villagers to husk; but when they had
boiled it the weather became cloudy so that they could not dry it, so
they prayed to the sun and he at once shone out and dried the
paddy.

Then a day was fixed and they prepared rice beer, and worshipped
Karam Gosain and they danced all night and got very drunk and enjoyed
themselves.

VI. The Jealous Stepmother.

There was once a man whose wife died leaving him with one son and
after a year he married again. The second wife was very jealous of the
son and she told her husband that she would not stay with him unless he
killed the boy; at first he refused but she insisted and then he said
that he was frightened to do the deed, but she might kill the boy
herself if she liked. She said, “No: he is your son and you must
kill him; if he were mine I would do it. You need not be frightened;
when you take him out ploughing make him drive the front plough, and
you sharpen your plough pole to a point and drive it into him from
behind and kill him and then it will seem to be an accident.” So
the man promised and made a sharp point to his plough pole but whenever
they ploughed, the son drove his plough so fast that the father could
not catch him up and so the [37]boy was not killed; then the woman
abused her husband and said that he was deceiving her. So he promised
to finish the business the next day and told her to give the boy a good
hot breakfast before they started, so that he might receive one last
kindness, and he said that they must find some other way of killing him
because all the ploughing was finished; but his wife told him he could
plough down their crop of goondli, the bullocks would stop to
eat the goondli as they went along and so he would easily catch
up his son. Accordingly the next morning father and son took out the
ploughs and the boy asked where they should plough, and the father said
that they would plough down the field of goondli. But the boy
said “Why should we do that? it is a good crop and will be ripe
in a day or two; it is too late to sow again, we shall lose this crop
and who knows whether we shall get anything in its place?”

And the father thought ‘What the boy says is true; the first
crop is like the first child, if I kill him who will support me in my
old age? Who knows whether my second wife will have children. I will
not kill him however angry she be;’ so they unyoked their ploughs
and went home. He told his wife that he would not kill the boy and
scolded her and ended by giving her a beating. Then she ran away in a
passion but he did not trouble to go and look for her and in a few days
her father and brothers brought her back, and her husband told them
what had happened and they also scolded her and told her to mend her
ways.

VII. The Pious Woman.

There was once a very pious woman and her special virtue was that
she would not eat or drink on any day until she had first given alms to
a beggar. One day no beggar came to her house, so by noon she got tired
[38]of waiting, and, tying in her cloth some parched
rice, she went to the place where the women drew water. When she got
there she saw a Jugi coming towards her, she greeted him and said that
she had brought dried rice for him. He said that omens had bidden him
come to her and that he came to grant her a boon: she might ask one
favour and it would be given her. The woman said: “Grant me this
boon—to know where our souls go after death, and to see at the
time of death how they escape, whether through the nose or the mouth,
and where they go to; and tell me when I shall die and where my soul
will go to; this I ask and no more.” Then the Jugi answered,
“Your prayer is granted, but you must tell no one; if you do, the
power will depart from you.” So saying he took from his bag
something like a feather and brushed her eyes with it and washed them
with water. Then the woman’s eyes were opened and she saw
spirits—bongas, bhuts, dains, churins, and the souls of
dead men; and the Jugi told her not to be afraid, but not to speak to
them lest men should think her mad; then he took his leave, and she
returned home. Now in the village lived a poor man and his wife and
they were much liked because they were industrious and obedient;
shortly afterwards this poor man died and the pious woman saw men come
with a palankin and take away the poor man’s soul with great
ceremony. She was pleased at the sight and thought that the souls of
all men were taken away like this. But shortly afterwards her
father-in-law died. He had been a rich man, but harsh, and while the
family were mourning the pious woman saw four sipahis armed with
iron-shod staves and of fierce countenance come to the house and two
entered and took the father-in-law by the neck and thrust him forth;
they bound him and beat him, they knocked him down and as he could not
walk they dragged him away by his legs. The woman [39]followed
him to the end of the garden and when she saw him being dragged away,
she screamed. When her husband’s relatives saw her screaming and
crying they were angry and said that she must have killed her
father-in-law by witchcraft, for she did not sit by the corpse and cry
but went to the end of the garden. So after the body had been burnt
they held a council and questioned her and told her that they would
hold her to be a witch, if she could not explain. So she told them of
the power which the Jugi had conferred on her and of what she had seen,
and they believed her and acquitted her of the charge of witchcraft;
but from that time she lost her power and saw no more spirits.

VIII. The Wise Daughter-in-Law.

There was once a rich man who had seven sons, but one day his wife
died and after this the family fell into poverty. All their property
was sold and they lived by selling firewood in the bazar. At last the
wife of the eldest son said to her father-in-law. “I have a
proposal to make: Do you choose one of us to be head of the family whom
all shall obey; we cannot all be our own masters as at present.”
The old man said “Well, I choose you,” and he assembled the
whole family and made them promise to obey the wife of his eldest
son.

Thereupon she told them that they must all go out into the fields
and bring her whatever they found. So the next day they went out in
different directions and the old man found some human excrement and he
thought “Well, my daughter-in-law told me to bring whatever I
found” so he wrapped it up in leaves and took it home; and his
daughter-in-law told him that he had done well and bade him hang up the
packet at the back of the house. A few days later he found the slough
of a snake and he took that home and his daughter-in-law told
[40]to tie a clod of earth to it to prevent its being
blown away, and to throw it on to the roof of the house.

Some years after the Raja of the country was ill with cancer of the
face and none of the ojhas could cure him. At last one
ojha said that there was only one medicine which could effect a
cure, but he saw no chance of obtaining it and that was human excrement
12 years old. Then the Raja sent messengers throughout the kingdom
offering a reward of 200 Rupees to any one who could supply excrement
twelve years old; and when a messenger came to the village where this
family lived the daughter-in-law produced the packet which the old man
had brought home and received the reward of 200 Rupees; and they were
all delighted at making so much money by what the old man had brought
home in jest.

And again it happened that the son of a Raja was bathing and he left
his gold belt on the bank and a kite thought it was a snake and flew
off with it. The prince was much distressed at the loss but the Raja
told him not to grieve as the kite must have dropped it somewhere and
he would offer a reward of a thousand rupees for it. Now the kite had
soon found that the belt was not good to eat and seeing the
snake’s skin which the old man had thrown on to the roof of the
house, it dropped the belt and flew off with the skin; and the
daughter-in-law picked up the belt and when criers came round offering
a reward she produced it and received the money. And they praised her
wisdom and by this means the family became rich again.

IX. The Oilman and His Sons.

There was once an oilman with five sons and they were all married
and lived jointly with their father. But the daughters-in-law were
discontented with this [41]arrangement and urged their husbands to ask
their father to divide the family property. At first the old man
refused, but when his sons persisted, he told them to bring him a log
two cubits long and so thick that two hands could just span it, and he
said that if they could break the log in two, he would divide the
property; so they brought the log and then asked for axes, but he told
them that they must break it themselves by snapping it or twisting it
or standing on it; so they tried and failed. Then the old man said,
“You are five and I make six; split the log into six,” So
they split it and he gave each a piece and told them to break them, and
each easily snapped his stick; then the old man said “We are like
the whole log: we have plenty of property and are strong and can
overcome attack; but if we separate we shall be like the split sticks
and easily broken.” They admitted that this was true and proposed
that the property should not be divided but that they should all become
separate in mess. But the father would not agree to this for he thought
that people would call him a miser if he let his sons live separately
without his giving them their share in the property as their own, So as
they persisted in their folly he partitioned the property.

But in a few years they all fell into poverty and had not enough to
eat nor clothes to wear, and the father and mother were no better off;
then the old man called all his sons and their wives and said
“You see what trouble you have fallen into; I have a riddle for
you, explain it to me. There are
four wells, three empty and one full of water; if you draw water from
the full one and pour it into the three empty ones they will become
full; but when they are full and the first one is empty, if you pour
water from the three full ones into the empty one it will not be
filled; what does this mean?” And they could not answer and he
said, “The four wells mean [42]that a man had three sons, and
while they were little he filled their stomachs as the wells were
filled with water; but when they separated they would not fill the old
man’s stomach.”

And it was true, that the sons had done nothing to help their father
and they were filled with shame and they agreed that as long as their
father lived they would be joint with him and would not separate again
until he died.

X. The Girl Who Found Helpers.

Once upon a time there were seven brothers, and they were all
married, and they had one sister who was not married. The brothers went
away to a far country for a whole year, leaving their wives at home.
Now the wives hated their sister-in-law and did their best to torment
her. So one day they gave her a pot full of holes and told her to bring
it back full of water; and threatened that if she failed she should
have no food. So she took the pot to the spring and there sat down and
cried and sang:—

After she had cried a long time, a number of frogs came up out of
the water and asked her what was the matter, and she told them that she
must fill the pot with water, and was not allowed to stop the holes
with clay or lac. Then they told her not to cry, and said, that they
would sit on the holes and then the water would not run out; they did
this and the girl dried her eyes and filled the pot with water and took
it home. Her sisters-in-law were much disappointed at her success, but
the next day they told her to go to the jungle and bring back a bundle
of leaves, but she was to use no [43]rope for tying them up. So she
went to the jungle and collected the leaves and then sat down and cried
and sang:—

and as she cried a buka sobo snake came out and asked why she
was crying, and when she told it, it said that it would coil itself
round the leaves in place of a rope. So it stretched itself out
straight and she piled the leaves on the top of it and the snake coiled
itself tightly round them and so she was able to carry the bundle home
on her head. Her sisters-in-law ran to see how she managed it, but she
put the bundle down gently and the snake slipped away unperceived.
Still they resolved to try again; so the next day they sent her to
fetch a bundle of fire wood, but told her that she was to use no rope
to tie it with. So she went to the jungle and collected the sticks and
then sat down and cried:—

and as she cried a python came out and asked what was the matter,
and when it heard, it told her not to cry and said that it would act as
a rope to bind up the sticks; so it stretched itself out and she laid
the sticks on it and then it coiled itself round them and she carried
the bundle home.

As the sisters-in-law had been baffled thus, they resolved on
another plan and proposed that they should all go and gather sticks in
the jungle; and on the way they came to a machunda tree in full
flower and they wanted to pick some of the flowers. The wicked
sisters-in-law at first began to climb the tree, but they pretended
that they could not and kept slipping down; then they hoisted
[44]their sister-in-law into the branches and told her
to throw down the flowers to them. But while she was in the tree, they
tied thorns round the trunk so that she could not descend and then left
her to starve. After she had been in the tree a long time, her brothers
passed that way on their return journey, and sat down under the tree to
rest; the girl was too weak to speak but she cried and her tears fell
on the back of her eldest brother, and he looked up and saw her; then
they rescued her and revived her and listened to her story; and they
were very angry and vowed to have revenge. So they gave their sister
some needles and put her in a sack and put the sack on one of the
pack-bullocks. And when they got home, they took the sack off gently
and told their wives to carry it carefully inside the house, and on no
account to put it down. But when the wives took it up, the girl inside
pricked them with the needles so that they screamed and let the sack
fall. Their husbands scolded them and made them take it up again, and
they had to carry it in, though they were pricked till the blood ran
down. Then the brothers enquired about all that had happened in their
absence, and at last asked after their sister, and their wives said
that she had gone to the jungle with some friends to get firewood. But
the brothers turned on them and told how they had found her in the
machunda tree and had brought her home in the sack, and their
wives were dumbfounded. Then the brothers said that they had made a vow
to dig a well and consecrate it; so they set to work to dig a well two
fathoms across and three fathoms deep; and when they reached water,
they fixed a day for the consecration; and they told their wives to put
on their best clothes and do the cumaura (betrothal) ceremony at
the well. So the wives went to the well, escorted by drummers, and as
they stood in a row round the well, each man pushed his own wife into
it and then [45]they covered the well with a wooden grating and
kept them in it for a whole year and at the end of the year they pulled
them out again.

Another version of this story gives three other tasks preliminary to
those given above and begins as follows:—

Once upon a time there was a girl named Hira who had seven brothers.
The brothers went away to a far country to trade leaving her alone in
the house with their wives; these seven sisters-in-law hated Hira and
did what they could to torment her; one day they sowed a basketful of
mustard seed in a field and then told her to go and pick it all up; she
went to the field and began to lament, singing:—

As she cried a flock of pigeons came rustling down and asked her
what was the matter, and when they heard, they told her to be
comforted; they at once set to work picking up the mustard grain by
grain and putting it into her basket; soon the basket was quite full
and she joyfully took it home and showed it to her sisters-in-law. Then
they set her another task and told her to bring them some bear’s
hair that they might weave it into a hair armlet for her wedding. So
she went off to the jungle and sat down to cry; as she wept two bear
cubs came up and asked what was the matter; when she told her story
they bade her be of good cheer and took her into their cave and hid
her. Presently the mother bear came back and suckled her cubs, and when
they had finished they asked their mother to leave them some of her
hair that they might amuse themselves by plaiting it while she was
away. [46]She did so and directly she had gone off to look
for food, the cubs gave the girl the hair and sent her home rejoicing.
The sisters-in-law were only made more angry by her success and plotted
how to kill her, so they ordered her to bring them some tiger’s
milk that they might make it into curds for her wedding. Then she went
off to the jungle and began to weep, singing:—

At the sound two tiger cubs came running up and asked what was the
matter; they told her to be comforted and they would manage to give her
what she wanted; and they took her and hid her near where they were
lying. Presently the tigress came back and suckled her cubs and as she
did so she declared that she smelt a human being, but the cubs laughed
at her and said that it must be they whom she smelt; so she was
satisfied, and as she was leaving them they asked her to leave some of
her milk in an earthern pot so that they might have something to drink
if she were long in coming back. The tigress did so and directly she
was gone the cubs gave the milk to the girl who took it home.—The
story then continues as before.

XI. How to Grow Rich.

Once upon a time there was a woman whose husband died while she was
pregnant, and she was very unhappy and used to pray daily to Singh
Chando to give her a man child in place of her husband; she was left
well off and among her property were three gold coins, and as she was
afraid of these being stolen she decided to place them in the care of
the village headman. So she took them to him and asked him to keep them
till her child was born; and no one was present at the [47]time but
the headman’s wife. In due time her child was born and by the
mercy of Singh Chando it was a son; and when the boy had grown a bit
and could run alone his mother decided to take back the gold coins, so
she went to the headman and asked him for them; but he and his wife
said: “We do not understand what you are talking about? We know
of no gold coins: where are your witnesses? You must have had witnesses
in such a business.” And they drove her out. She went away crying
and called the villagers together and asked them to decide the matter.
So they questioned her and the headman but as it was word against word
they could come to no decision; so they settled to put the parties on
oath, but the headman and the woman both swore that they had spoken the
truth, saying, “May we die if we have spoken falsely.” Then
the villagers made them swear by their children and the woman and the
headman laid their hands on the heads of their sons and swore; and when
the woman swore her son fell down dead and she took up the dead body in
her arms and ran away with it.

The villagers were very sorry for what had happened but the headman
and his wife abused them for not having believed their word. The woman
had not gone very far before she met a stranger who asked why she was
crying and when she told him, he said: “Do not cry: you told one
falsehood and so your son has died. Take your child back to the
villagers and tell them that it was five gold coins and not three that
you gave to the headman and if you do this the child will come to life
again.”

So the woman hastened back and found the villagers still assembled
and she told them as the stranger had directed; and she agreed to be
sworn again on the body of the child, and the headman promised to pay
five gold pieces if the child were restored to life. So [48]the
woman laid her hands on the dead child and swore, and it was restored
to life. Then the headman was dumbfounded and reluctantly brought out
five gold pieces and gave them to the woman. She gave five rupees to
the villagers and they made the headman give them ten rupees for having
deceived them, and they bought pigs and had a feast.

In the course of time the boy grew up and his mother urged him to
marry. He asked her if she knew how to choose a wife and also what sort
of cattle to buy, and she said that she did not know; her husband had
not told her this. So the youth said that he would go to Singh Chando
and ask.

His mother washed his clothes for him and gave him food for the
journey and he set out. On the way he met a man who asked him where he
was going and he answered that he was going to make a petition to Singh
Chando. “Then,” said the man, “make a petition for me
also. I have so much wealth that I cannot look after it all; ask him to
take away half from me.” The youth promised and went on and he
met another man who said that he had so many cattle that he could not
build enough cow-houses for them and asked him to petition Singh Chando
to diminish their number; and he promised, and went on and came to
Singh Chando, and there he asked how to choose a wife and how to buy
cattle. And Singh Chando said, “When you buy a bullock first put
your hand on its quarter and if it shrinks and tries to get free, buy
it; and when you want a wife enquire first as to the character of her
father and mother; good parents make good children.” Then the
youth asked about the two men he had met; Singh Chando
said;—“Tell the first man when he is ploughing to plough
two or three furrows beyond the boundary of his field and his wealth
will diminish and tell the second man to drive away three or four of
his [49]cattle every day and their number will
decrease.” So the youth returned and met the man who had too many
cattle and told him what Chando had said, and the man thought “If
I drive away three or four head of cattle every day I shall soon become
poor” so from that time he looked out for any straying cattle and
would drive them home with his own; if the owner claimed them, he gave
them up, but if no claimant appeared, he kept them and so he became
richer than ever. And the youth went on and met the man who was too
rich, and when he heard what Chando had said he thought “If I
plough over the boundary on to my neighbour’s land it will be a
great sin and I shall soon become poor;” and he went to his
ploughmen and told them never to plough right up to the edge of the
field but to leave two of three furrows space, and they obeyed and from
that time he grew richer than ever. And the youth returned to his
mother and told her all that had happened and they understood the
meaning of the advice which Chando had given to the two men and acted
accordingly. And it is true that we see that avaricious men who
trespass across boundaries become poor.

XII. The Changed Calf.

There was once a cowherd named Sona who saved a few rupees and he
decided to buy a calf so as to have something to show for his labours;
and he went to a distant village and bought a bull calf and on the way
home he was benighted. So he turned into a Hindu village and went to an
oilman’s house and asked to be allowed to sleep there. When the
oilman saw such a fine calf he coveted it and he told Sona to put it in
the stable along with his own bullock and he gave him some supper and
let him sleep in the verandah. But in the [50]middle of the night the
oilman got up and moistened some oil cake and plastered it over the
calf; he then untied his own bullock and made it lick the oil cake off
the calf, and as the bullock was accustomed to eat oil cake it licked
it greedily; then the oilman raised a cry, “The bullock that
turns the oil mill has given birth to a calf.” And all the
villagers collected, and saw the bullock licking the calf and they
believed the oilman. Sona did not wake up and knew nothing of all this,
the next morning he got up and went to untie his calf and drive it
away, but the oilman would not let him and claimed the calf as his own.
Then Sona called the villagers to come and decide the matter: but they
said that they had seen him bring no calf to the village and he had not
called any of them to witness it, but they had seen the bullock
licking the calf; why should the bullock lick any but its own calf? No
one ever saw a bullock lick a strange bullock or cow and so they
awarded the calf to the oilman. Then Sona said that he would call
someone to argue the matter and he went away meaning to get some men
from the next village: but he lost his way in the jungle and as he went
along a night-jar flew up from under his feet; he called out to it to
stay as he was in great distress, and the bird alighted and asked what
was the matter, and Sona told it his trouble. Then the night-jar said
that it would argue the matter for him but it must have a colleague and
it told Sona to go on and ask the first living being he met to help; so
he went on and met a jackal and the jackal agreed to help the
night-jar, and they told him to call the villagers to the edge of the
jungle and not to let them bring any dogs with them. So Sona brought
all the villagers to the jungle and the night-jar and jackal sat side
by side on a stone.

Then Sona asked the villagers whether they would let him take away
the calf or no, and they persisted in [51]their previous opinion.
At last one man said, “What are your advocates doing? it seems to
me that they are asleep.” And at this the two woke up with a
start and looked about them, and the night-jar said “I have been
asleep and dreamed a dream: will you men please hear it and explain its
meaning?”

And the jackal said, “I too have had a dream, please explain
it for me. If you can explain the meaning you shall keep the calf and,
if not, the boy shall have it.” The villagers told them to speak
and the night-jar said, “I saw two night-jar’s eggs and one
egg was sitting on the other; no mother bird was sitting on them, tell
me what this means.” And the jackal said, “I saw that the
sea was on fire and the fishes were all being burnt up, and I was busy
eating them and that was why I did not wake up, what is the meaning of
this dream?” And the villagers said. “The two dreams are
both alike: neither has any meaning; an egg cannot sit on an egg, and
the sea cannot catch fire.” The jackal said, “Why cannot it
be? If you won’t believe that water can catch fire why do you say
that a bullock gave birth to a calf? Have you ever seen such a thing?
Speak,” And they admitted that they had never seen a bullock have
a calf, but only cows. “Then,” said the jackal,
“explain why you have given the oilman a decree.” And they
admitted that they were wrong and awarded the calf to Sona and fined
the oilman five rupees for having deceived them.

XIII. The Koeri and the Barber.

There was a well-to-do man of the Koeri (cultivating) caste and
opposite his house lived a barber who was very poor; and the barber
thought that if he carried on his cultivation just as the Koeri did he
might get better results; so every day he made some pretext to visit
the [52]Koeri’s house and hear what work he was
going to do the next day, and with the same object he would listen
outside his house at night; and he exactly imitated the Koeri: he yoked
his cattle and unyoked them, he ploughed and sowed and transplanted
just when the Koeri did and the result was good, for that year he got a
very fine crop. But he was not content with this and resolved to
continue to copy the Koeri; the Koeri suspected what the barber was
doing and did not like it. So he resolved to put the matter to the test
and at the same time teach the barber to mind his own business. In
January they both planted sugar cane, and one day when the crop was
half grown the barber was sitting at the Koeri’s house and the
Koeri gave orders to his servants to put the leveller over the crop the
next day and break it down; this was only a pretence of the
Koeri’s, but the barber went away and the next day crushed his
sugar cane crop with the leveller, the whole village laughed to see
what he had done; but it turned out that each root of the
barber’s sugar cane sent up a number of shoots and in the end he
had a much heavier crop than the Koeri.

Another day the Koeri announced that he was going to sow but
(pulse) and therefore ordered his servants to bring out the seed and
roast it well, that it might germinate quickly; and the barber hearing
this went off and had his seed but roasted and the next day he
sowed it, but only a very few seeds germinated, while the crop of the
Koeri which had not really been roasted sprouted finely. The barber
asked the Koeri why his crop had not come up well, and the Koeri told
him that it must be because he had not roasted the seed enough; the few
seeds that had come up must have been those which had been roasted
most. But in the end the laugh was against the Koeri, for the few seeds
of the barber’s which germinated, produced such fine plants that
when [53]he came to thresh them out he had more grain than
the Koeri, and so in 3 or 4 years the barber became the richer man of
the two.

XIV. The Prince Who Acquired Wisdom.

There was once a Raja who had an only son and the Raja was always
urging his son to learn to read and write in order that when he came to
his kingdom he might manage well and be able to decide disputes that
were brought to him for judgment; but the boy paid no heed to his
father’s advice and continued to neglect his lessons. At last
when he was grown up, the Prince saw that his father was right and he
resolved to go away to foreign countries to acquire wisdom; so he set
off without telling anyone but his wife, and he took with him a purse
of money and three pieces of gold. After travelling a long time, he one
day saw a man ploughing in a field and he went and got some tobacco
from him and asked him whether there were any wise men living in that
neighbourhood. “What do you want with wise men?”, asked the
ploughman. The Prince said that he was travelling to get wisdom. The
ploughman said that he would give him instruction if he were paid. Then
the Prince promised to give him one gold piece for each piece of
wisdom. The ploughman agreed and said. “Listen attentively! My
first maxim is this: You are the
son of a Raja; whenever you go to visit a friend or one of your
subjects and they offer you a bedstead, or stool, or mat to sit on, do
not sit down at once but move the stool or mat a little to one side;
this is one maxim: give me my gold coin.” So the Prince paid him.
Then the ploughman said. “The second maxim is this: You are the
son of a Raja; whenever you go to bathe, do not bathe at the common
bathing place, but at a place by yourself; give me my [54]coin,” and the Prince did so. Then he
continued, “My third maxim is this: You are the son of a Raja;
when men come to you for advice or to have a dispute decided, listen to
what the majority of those present say and do not follow your own
fancy, now pay me;” and the Prince gave him his last gold coin,
and said that he had no more. “Well,” said the ploughman,
“your lesson is finished but still I will give you one more piece
of advice free and it is this: You are the son of a Raja; Restrain your
anger, if anything you see or hear makes you angry, still do not at
once take action; hear the explanation and weigh it well, then if you
find cause you can give rein to your anger and if not, let the offender
off.”

After this the prince set his face homewards as he had spent all his
money; and he began to repent of having spent his gold pieces on advice
that seemed worthless. However on his way he turned into a bazar to buy
some food and the shopkeepers on all sides called out “Buy,
buy,” so he went to a shop and the shopkeeper invited him to sit
on a rug; he was just about to do so when he remembered the maxim of
his instructor and pulled the rug to one side; and when he did so he
saw that it had been spread over the mouth of a well and that if he had
sat on it he would have been killed1; so he began to believe in
the wisdom of his teacher. Then he went on his way and on the road he
turned aside to a tank to bathe, and remembering the maxim of his
teacher he did not bathe at the common place but went to a place apart;
then having eaten his lunch he continued his journey, but he had not
gone far when he found that he had left his purse behind, so he turned
back and found it lying at the place where he had put down his things
when he bathed; thereupon he applauded the [55]wisdom
of his teacher, for if he had bathed at the common bathing place
someone would have seen the purse and have taken it away. When evening
came on he turned into a village and asked the headman to let him sleep
in his verandah, and there was already one other traveller sleeping
there and in the morning it was found that the traveller had died in
his sleep. Then the headman consulted the villagers and they decided
that there was nothing to be done but to throw away the body, and that
as the Prince was also a traveller he should do it. At first he refused
to touch the corpse as he was the son of a Raja, but the villagers
insisted and then he bethought himself of the maxim that he should not
act contrary to the general opinion; so he yielded and dragged away the
body, and threw it into a ravine.

Before leaving it he remembered that it was proper to remove the
clothes, and when he began to do so he found round the waist of the
body a roll of coin; so he took this and was glad that he had followed
the advice of his teacher.

That evening he reached the boundary of his own territory and
decided to press on home although it was dark; at midnight he reached
the palace and without arousing anyone went to the door of his
wife’s room. Outside the door he saw a pair of shoes and a sword;
at the sight he became wild with rage and drawing the sword he called
out: “Who is in my room?”

As a matter of fact the Prince’s wife had got the
Prince’s little sister to sleep with her, and when the girl heard
the Prince’s voice she got up to leave; but when she opened the
door and saw the Prince standing with the drawn sword she drew back in
fear; she told him who she was and explained that they had put the
shoes and sword at the door to prevent anyone else from entering; but
in his wrath the Prince would not listen and called to her to come out
and be killed. [56]

Then she took off her cloth and showed it to him through the crack
of the door and at the sight of this he was convinced; then he
reflected on the advice of his teacher and repented, because he had
nearly killed his sister through not restraining his wrath.

XV. The Monkey Boy.

There was once a man who had six sons and two daughters and he died
leaving his wife pregnant of a ninth child.

And when the child was born it proved to be a monkey.

The villagers and relations advised the mother to make away with it,
but she refused saying “Chando knows why he has given me such a
child, but as he has done so I will rear it.”

All her relations said that if she chose to rear a monkey they would
turn her out of the family. However she persisted that she would do so
at all costs. So they sent her to live with her child in a hut outside
the village, and the monkey boy grew up and learned to talk like a
human being.

One day his elder brothers began to clear the jungle for cultivation
and the monkey boy took a hatchet and went with them; he asked where he
could clear land for himself and in fun they showed him the place where
the jungle was thickest. So he went there and drove his hatchet into
the trunk of a tree and then returned and watched his brothers working
hard clearing the scrub, and when they had finished their work he went
and fetched his hatchet and returned home with them. Every day he did
the same—and one day his brothers asked why he spent all his time
with them, but he said that he only came to them when he was tired of
cutting down trees; they laughed at this and said that they would like
to see his clearing, so he took them to the [57]place
and to their astonishment they saw a large clearing, bigger than they
had been able to make for themselves. Then the brothers burnt the
jungle they had cut down and began to plough the land.

But the monkey boy’s mother had no plough or cattle nor any
seed rice; the only thing in the house was a pumpkin, so he took the
seed out of the pumpkin and sowed it in his clearing. His brothers
asked what he had sown and he told them—Rice.

The brothers ploughed and sowed and used to go daily to watch the
growing crop, and one day they went to have a look at the monkey
boy’s crop and they saw that it was pumpkins and not rice and
they laughed at him. When their crop was ripe the brothers prepared to
offer the first fruits and the monkey boy watched them that he might
observe the same ceremonies as they. One day they brought home the
first fruits and offered them to the bongas, and they invited
the monkey boy and his mother to come to the feast which followed the
offering.

They both went and enjoyed themselves; and two or three days later
the monkey boy said that he would also have a feast of first fruits, so
he told his mother to clear the courtyard and invited his brothers and
he purified himself and went to his clearing and brought home the
biggest pumpkin that had grown there; this he offered to the spirits;
he sliced off the top of it as if it were the head of a fowl, and as he
did so he saw that the inside was full of rice; he called his mother
and they filled a winnowing fan with the rice and there was enough
besides to nearly fill a basket; they were delighted at this windfall
but kept the matter secret lest they should be robbed. The monkey boy
told his mother to be sure and cook enough rice so that his brothers
and their wives might have as much as ever they could eat, and not
merely a small helping such as [58]they had given him, and if
necessary he would go and fetch another pumpkin; so his mother boiled
the rice. When the time fixed for the feast came, nothing was to be
seen of the brothers because they did not expect that there would
really be anything for them to eat; so the monkey boy went and fetched
them, and when they came to the feast they were astonished to have as
much rice as they could eat. When the crop was quite ripe the monkey
boy gathered all the pumpkins and got sufficient rice from them to last
for the whole year. After this the brothers went out to buy horses, and
the monkey boy went with them and as he had no money he took nothing
but a coil of rope; his brothers were ashamed to have him with them and
drove him away, so he went on ahead and got first to the place where
the horsedealer lived. The brothers arrived late in the evening and
decided to make their purchases the following morning and ride their
horses home, so they camped for the night. The monkey boy spent the
night hiding on the rafters of the stable; and in the night the horses
began to talk to each other and discussed which could gallop farthest,
and one mare said “I can gallop twelve kos on the ground
and then twelve kos in the air.” When the monkey boy heard
this he got down and lamed the mare by running a splinter into her
hoof. The next morning the brothers bought the horses which pleased
them and rode off. Then the monkey boy went to the horsedealer and
asked why the mare was lame and advised him to apply remedies. But the
dealer said that that was useless: when horses got ill they always
died; then the monkey boy asked if he would sell the mare and offered
to give the coil of rope in exchange; the dealer, thinking that the
animal was useless, agreed, so the monkey boy led it away, but when he
was out of sight he took out the splinter and the lameness at once
ceased. Then he mounted [59]the mare and rode after his brothers,
and when he had nearly overtaken them he rose into the air and flew
past his brothers and arrived first at home. There he tied up the mare
outside his house and went and bathed and had his dinner and waited for
his brothers.

They did not arrive for a full hour afterwards and when they saw the
monkey boy and his mount they wanted to know how he had got home first.
He boasted of how swift his mare was and so they arranged to have a
race and match their horses against his. The race took place two or
three days later and the monkey boy’s mare easily beat all the
other horses, she gallopped twelve kos on the ground and twelve
kos in the air. Then they wanted to change their horses for his,
but he said they had had first choice and he was not going to
change.

In two or three years the monkey boy became rich and then he
announced that he wanted to marry; this puzzled his mother for she
thought that no human girl would marry him while a monkey would not be
able to talk; so she told him that he must find a bride for himself.
One day he set off to look for a wife and came to a tank in which some
girls were bathing, and he took up the cloth belonging to one of them
and ran up a tree with it, and when the girl missed it and saw it
hanging down from the tree she borrowed a cloth from her friends and
went and asked the monkey boy for her own; he told her that she could
only have it back if she consented to marry him; she was surprised to
find that he could talk and as he conversed she was bewitched by him
and let him pull her up into the tree by her hair, and she called out
to her friends to go home and leave her where she was. Then he took her
on his back and ran off home with her.

The girl’s father and relations turned out with bows and
arrows to look for the monkey who had carried [60]her off
but he had gone so far away that they never found him. When the monkey
boy appeared with his bride all the villagers were astonished that he
had found anyone to marry him, but everything was made ready for the
marriage as quickly as possible and all the relations were invited and
the wedding took place and the monkey boy and his wife lived happily
ever after.

XVI. The Miser’s Servant.

Once there was a rich man who was a miser. Although he kept farm
servants they would never stay out the year with him; but ran away in
the middle. When the villagers asked why they ran away and so lost
their year’s wages the servants answered. “You would do the
same in our place: at the busy time of the year he speaks us fair and
feeds us well, but directly the crops are gathered he begins to starve
us; this year we have had nothing to eat since September.”

And the villagers said “Well, that is a good reason, a man can
stand scolding but not starvation; we all work to fill our bellies,
hunger is the worst disease of all.” The news that the miser made
his servants work for nothing spread throughout the neighbourhood so he
could get no servants near by and when he brought them from a distance
they soon heard of his character and ran away. Men would only work for
him on daily wages and because of his miserliness they demanded higher
wages than usual from him and would not work without. Now there was a
young fellow named Kora who heard all this and he said “If I were
that man’s servant I would not run away. I would get the better
of him; ask him if he wants a servant and if he says, yes, take me to
him.” The man to whom Kora told this went to the miser and
informed him that Kora was willing to engage himself to him; so Kora
was fetched [61]and they had a drink of rice beer and then the
miser asked Kora whether he would work for the full year and not run
away in the middle. Kora said that he would stay if he were satisfied
with the wages. The master said “I will fix your wages when I see
your work; if you are handy at every thing I will give you 12
Kats of rice and if you are only a moderate worker then 9 or 10
Kats besides your clothes. How much do you ask for?”

And Kora said “Well, listen to me: I hear that your servants
run away in the middle of the year because you give them so little to
eat, all I ask for my wages is that you give me once a year one grain
of rice and I will sow it and you must give me low land to plant all
the seed that I get from it; and give me one seed of maize and I will
sow it for seed, and you must give me upland to sow all the seed I get
from it; and give me the customary quantity of clothes, and for food
give me one leaf full of rice three times a day. I only want what will
go on a single leaf, you need not sew several leaves together into a
plate. I will ask for no second helping but if you do not fill the leaf
full I shall have the right to abuse you, and if I do not do all the
work you give me properly, then you can abuse me and beat me. If I run
away from fear of hard work you may cut off the little finger of my
right hand, and if you do not give me the wages we have agreed upon
then I shall have the right to cut off the little finger of your hand.
What do you say to this proposal: consult your friends and give me your
answer.” Then the miser answered “I engage you on these
terms and if I turn you off without reason you may cut off my little
finger.” Then Kora turned to the man who had fetched him and said
“Listen to all this: if there is any dispute hereafter you will
be my witness.”

So Kora began to work and the first day they gave [62]him rice
on a single sal leaf and he ate it up in one mouthful: but the
next day he brought a plantain leaf (which is some three feet
long) and said “Give me my rice on this and mind you fill it
full.” And they refused: but he said “Why not? it is only a
single leaf” and they had to give in because he was within his
rights; so he ate as much as he wanted, and every day he brought a
plantain leaf till his master’s wife got tired and said to her
husband “Why have you got a servant like this—he takes a
whole pot of rice to himself every day,” but he answered
“Never mind: his wages are nothing, he is working for his keep
alone;” so the whole year Kora got his plantain leaf filled and
he was never lazy over his work so they could find no fault with him on
that score, and when the year was up they gave him one grain of rice
and one seed of maize for his wages for the year. Kora kept them
carefully, and his master’s sons laughed at him and said
“Mind you don’t drop them or let a mouse eat
them.”

Kora said nothing but when the time for sowing maize came he took
his grain of maize and sowed it by the dung heap, and he called them to
see where he sowed it; and at the time of sowing rice he sowed his
grain separately, and when the time for transplanting came he planted
his rice seedling in a hollow and bade them note it. When the maize
ripened it was found that his plant had two big cobs and one small one
on it, and his rice seedling sent up a number of ears; and when it
ripened he cut it and threshed it and got one pai of rice, and
he kept the maize and rice for seed. And the next year also he sowed
this seed separately and it produced a big basket of rice and another
one of maize, and he kept this also for seed; and in the course of five
or six years he had taken all their high lands to sow his seed in and
in a few years more he had taken all their rice lands too. Then his
master was very miserable but he [63]saw that it was useless to make
any complaint and the master became so poor that he had to work as a
servant to Kora. At last the miser called the heads of the village
together and wept before them, and they had pity on him and interceded
for him; but Kora said “It is God who has punished him and not I;
he made poor men work for nothing for so long and now he has to
suffer;” but they asked him to be merciful and give him some
land, and he agreed and said “Cut off his little finger and I
will let him off his bargain; and call all the servants whom he has
defrauded and I will pay them” but the miser would not have his
finger cut off; then Kora said “Let him keep his finger and I
will give him back half his land.” The miser agreed to this and
promised to treat his servants well in future, and in order to lessen
his shame he married his daughter to Kora; and he had to admit that it
was by his own folly that this trouble had befallen him.

XVII. Kuwar and the Raja’s Daughter.

There was once a rich merchant who lived in a Raja’s city; and
the Raja founded a school in order that his own children might have
some education, and the boys and the girls of the town used to go to
the school as well as the Raja’s sons and daughters and among
them the rich merchant’s son, whose name Was Kuwar. In the course
of time the children all learned to read and write. In the evenings all
the boys used to mount their horses and go for a ride.

Now it happened that Kuwar and the Raja’s daughter fell in
love with each other and she wrote him a letter saying that if he did
not marry her she would forcibly install herself in his house. He wrote
back and begged her not to come to his house as this would be the ruin
of his family; but he said that he would willingly run [64]away
with her to a distant country, and spend his whole life with her, if
she would overlook the fact that they were of different castes; and if
she agreed to this they must settle to what country to go. Somehow news
of their intention got about, and the Raja was told that his daughter
was in love with the merchant’s son. Then the Raja gave orders
that his daughter was not to be allowed to go outside the palace, and
the merchant spoke severely to Kuwar and neither of them was allowed to
go to the school any more. But one day the princess went to the place
where the Raja’s horses were tied up and among them was a mare
named Piyari and she went up to the mare and said “You have eaten
our salt for a long time, will you now requite me?” And Piyari
said “Certainly I will!”. Then the princess asked “If
I mount you, will you jump over all these horses and this wall and
escape?” And the mare said “Yes, but you will have to hold
on very tight.” The princess said “That is my look-out: it
is settled that on the day I want you you will jump over the wall and
escape.” Then she wrote a letter to Kuwar and gave it to her
maid-servant to deliver into Kuwar’s own hands, without letting
anyone know: and in the letter she fixed a day for their elopement and
told Kuwar to wait for her by a certain tree. So on the day fixed after
everyone was asleep Kuwar went to the tree and almost at once the
princess came to him riding on Piyari; he asked her how she had escaped
and whether she had been seen and she told him how the mare had jumped
over the wall without anyone knowing; then they both mounted Piyari and
drove her like the wind and in one night they passed through the
territory of two or three Rajas and in the morning were in a far
country.

Then they dismounted to cook their rice, and went to the house of an
old woman to ask for a light with which to light their fire. Now this
old woman had [65]seven sons and they were all robbers and
murderers; and six of them had killed travellers and carried off their
wives and married them. When Kuwar and the princess came asking for a
light the seven sons were away hunting and when the old woman saw the
princess she resolved to marry her to her youngest son, and made a plan
to delay them; so she asked them to cook their rice at her house and
offered them cooking pots and water pots and firewood and everything
necessary; they did not know that she meant to kill Kuwar and
unsuspiciously accepted her offer. When they had finished cooking Kuwar
asked the old woman whether she lived alone and she told him that she
was a widow but had seven sons and they were all away on a trading
expedition. The old woman kept on looking out to see if her sons were
returning, and she had made an arrangement with them that if she ever
wanted them she would set fire to a small hut and they would come home
at once when they saw the smoke rising. But before her sons came back
Kuwar and the princess finished their meal and paid the old woman and
mounted Piyari and gallopped off. Then the old woman set fire to the
hut and her sons, seeing the smoke hurried home. She told them that a
beautiful girl had just left who would make a suitable wife for the
youngest of the brothers. Then the brothers tied on their swords and
mounted their horses and went in pursuit. Kuwar and the princess knew
nothing of their danger and rode on happily, but presently they heard
horses neighing behind them and looking round, saw men riding after
them with drawn swords. Then the princess said to Kuwar “Our
enemies are upon us; do you sit in front and let me sit behind you,
then they will kill us both together. If I am in front they may kill
you alone and carry me off alive.” But while they were thinking
of this the seven brothers caught them up, and began to abuse
[66]them and charge them with having set fire to the
house in which they had eaten their rice, and told them to come back
with them at once. Kuwar and the princess were too frightened to answer
and they had no sword with which to defend themselves. Then the robbers
surrounded them and killed Kuwar, and they said to the princess
“You cannot stay here all alone; we will take you back and you
shall marry one of us.” The princess answered “Kill me here
at once, never will I go with you.” They said “We shall
take away your horse and all your food, will not that make you
go?” But the princess threw herself on the dead body of Kuwar and
for all they could do they could not drag her off it. Then the
murderers said to the youngest brother “She is to be your wife:
you must pull her away.” But he refused saying “No, if I
take her away she will not stay with me, she will probably hang herself
or drown herself; I do not want a wife like that, if any of you want
her, you can have her.” But they said that it would not be right
for one of them to take a second wife while their youngest brother was
unmarried, and that their mother intended him to marry this girl; if he
would not they would kill her there and then. But the youngest brother
had pity on her and asked them to spare her life, so they took away her
horse and her food and everything that she had and went away and left
her there.

For a day and a night the princess lay there weeping and lamenting
her dead Kuwar and never ceased for a moment. Then Chando said
“who is this who is weeping and what has happened to
her?” And he sent Bidhi and Bidha to see what
was the matter; they came and told him that a princess was weeping over
the body of her dead husband and would not leave him though she had
been robbed of everything she had.

Then Chando told them to go and frighten her, and [67]if they
could frighten her away from her husband’s dead body he would do
nothing, but if she would not leave him then they were to restore him
to life. So they went and found her holding the dead body of her
husband In her lap and weeping; and they first assumed the form of
tigers and began to circle round her roaring, but she only went on
weeping and sang—

She would not quit the body nor run away from fear of the tigers, so
they slunk away and came back in the form of two leopards, and prowled
round her growling; but she only sang

and as she would not fly from them they slunk away and came back in
the form of two bears, but the princess only sang the same song; then
they appeared as two elephants; and then as two huge snakes which
hissed terribly but still she only wept; and in many forms they tried
to frighten her away but she would not move nor leave the corpse of
Kuwar, so in the end they saw that all the heart of the princess was
with Kuwar and that even in death they could not be separated, so at
last they drew near to her in the form of human beings and asked her
why she was crying, as they had heard her weeping from a long way off,
and had been filled with pity for her lamentations. Then the princess
said “Alas, this youth and I are from such and such a country and
as we loved and our lives were bound up in each other we ran away
together hither, and here on the road he has been killed and the
murderers have left me without my horse or food; and this is why
[68]I weep.” Then Bidhi and Bidha said
“Daughter, rise up and we will take you to your home, or we will
find you another husband; this one is dead and cannot be restored to
you; you will find another; come arise, you have but one life,”
But the princess answered “No I will not go and leave him here. I
will not leave him while my life lasts; but I pray you if you know of
any medicine that might restore him to life, to try it.” Then
they answered “We know something of medicine and if you wish we
will try to cure him;” so saying, they ground up some simples and
told the princess to spread out a cloth and lay the dead body on it and
to put the head which had been cut off into position, and then to cover
it with the cloth and hold the head in position; so she did as they
bade, and they rubbed the medicine on the body and then they suddenly
disappeared from her sight.

Then in a few moments she saw Kuwar’s chest heave as if he
were breathing; thereupon she shook him violently and he rose up and
said “Oh, what a long time I have slept,” but the princess
said “Do not talk of sleep; you were killed and two men appeared
from somewhere and applied medicine and brought you to life
again;” then Kuwar asked where they were and she told him how
they had disappeared without her knowledge.

Then they rose up and went in search of food to a village where
there was a bazar, and they tried to get employment as servants; but
the people advised them to go to the capital city where the Raja lived,
and there if no one would take them as servants they could get
employment as coolies on a big tank which the Raja was excavating. So
they went there, and as they could not get employment as servants they
went to work at the tank with the common coolies and were paid their
wages at the end of the week and so [69]managed to live. Kuwar’s
desire was to somehow save five or six rupees and then build a little
house for themselves.

Now although the tank had been dug very deep there were no signs of
any water. Then the Raja ordered the centre post to be planted in hopes
that this would make the water rise; and he told the coolies not to run
away as he would make a feast to celebrate the making of the tank and
would distribute presents among them, and at this the labourers were
very pleased.

Now Kuwar’s wife was very fair to see and the Raja saw her and
fell in love with her and made a plot to get possession of her. So when
the centre post had been planted and still no water came he said
“We must see what sacrifice is required to make the water come. I
have animals of all kinds; one by one they shall be offered and you
shall sing and dedicate them.” So first an elephant was led down
into the bed of the tank and the people sang

but no water came.

Then they led down a horse and sang a similar song, but no water
came; and then in succession a camel, a donkey, a cow, a buffalo, a
goat and a sheep were offered but no water came; and so they stopped.
Then the Raja asked why they stopped and they said that they had no
more animals. Then the Raja bade them sing a song dedicating a man, to
see if that would bring the water; so they sang and as they sang water
bubbled up everywhere from the bottom of the tank and then the coolies
were stricken with fear for they did not know which of them would be
sacrificed.

But the Raja sent his soldiers and they seized Kuwar and bound him
to the post in the middle of the tank; [70]and then a song was sung
dedicating him to the tank and as the water rose around him the
princess wept bitterly; but the Raja said “Do not cry I will
arrange for your support and will give you part of my kingdom and you
shall live in my palace.” The princess said “Yes: hereafter
I may stay with you, but let me now watch Kuwar till he is
drowned;” so Kuwar fixed his eyes on the princess and tears
streamed down his face until the waters rose and covered him; and the
princess also gazed at him till he was drowned. Then the Raja’s
soldiers told her to come with them and she said “Yes, I am
coming, but let me first offer a libation of water to my dead
husband;” and on this pretext she went into the water and then
she darted to the place where Kuwar had been bound and sank beneath the
surface. The Raja bade men rescue her but all were afraid to enter the
water and she was seen no more. Then the Raja gave all the coolies a
feast and scattered money among the crowd and dismissed them. And this
is the end of the story.

XVIII. The Laughing Fish.

There was once a merchant who prospered in his business and in the
course of time became very rich. He had five sons but none of them was
married. In the village where he lived was an old tank which was half
silted up and he resolved to clean it out and deepen it, if the Raja
would give it to him; so he went to the Raja and the Raja said that he
could have the tank if he paid forty rupees. The merchant paid the
money and then went home and called his family together and said that
they would first improve the tank and then find wives for all his sons.
The sons agreed and they collected coolies and drained off the water
and began to dig out the silt. When they had [71]drained
off the water they found in the bed of the tank a number of big fish of
unknown age: which they caught and two of them they sent to the Raja as
a present. When the fish were carried into the presence of the Raja
they both began to laugh: then the Raja said “What is the meaning
of this? Here are two dead fish, why are they laughing?” And he
told the men who brought the fish to explain what was the matter or
else to take them away again. But they could give no explanation. Then
the Raja called all his officers and astrologers and asked them what
they thought it meant: but no one could give him any answer. Then the
Raja told the men to take the fish away again, and to tell the merchant
that, if he could not explain why the fish laughed, he would kill him
and all his descendants; and he wrote a letter to the same effect, and
fixed a day by which the merchant was to explain the matter. When the
merchant read the letter he fell into the greatest distress and for two
or three days he could not make up his mind whether to go on with the
work on the tank or no; but in the end he resolved to finish it so that
his name might be held in remembrance. So they finished the work and
then the merchant said to his sons: “My sons I cannot arrange for
your marriages, for the Raja has threatened to kill us all, if I cannot
explain why the fish laughed; you must all escape from here so that our
family may not die out;” but the younger sons all answered
“We are not able to take care of ourselves, either you come with
us to protect us or we will stay here.” Then the merchant told
his eldest son to escape alone so that their family might not become
extinct.

So the eldest son took a supply of money and went away into a far
country. After travelling a long time he came to a town where a Raja
lived and decided to stay there; so he first went to a tank and bathed
and sat [72]down on the bank to eat some refreshment; and as
he sat the daughter of the Raja came down to the tank to bathe and she
saw the merchant’s son and their eyes met. Then the princess sent
her maid-servants to ask him where he came from; and he told them where
he came from and that he meant to make a stay in that town, and he
promised them a rupee if they could persuade the princess to uncover
her face. They went and told their mistress all this and she answered
“Go and get your rupee from him, I will uncover my face; and ask
him what he wants.” And when they went, she drew aside the cloth
from her face; then he gave them the rupee, and they asked him whether
he had seen her and what his intention was; then he said that his wish
was to marry the princess and live with her in her father’s
house! When the princess heard this she said “Yes, my heart has
gone out to him also;” so then she bathed and went home and lay
down in her room and would not get up, and when her father asked her
what was the matter, she made no answer. Then they asked her maidens
what was the matter and they said that she had seen a stranger by the
tank and wished to marry him. The Rani asked whether the stranger was
still there and they said that they had left him by the tank. So two
men were sent to fetch the stranger or to find out where he had gone.
The two servants went and found the merchant’s son just ready to
continue his journey, and they asked him who he was and what he wanted.
He said that he was looking for employment but would like best to marry
and live in the house of his father-in-law. Then they told him not go
away and they would arrange such a marriage for him, so they took him
to a house in the town and left him there and went back to the Raja.
They told the Raja that the stranger had gone away but that they could
follow him and bring him back if [73]he gave them some money for
their journey. So the Raja gave them two rupees; then they went off but
only ate their dinner at home, and then they brought the
merchant’s son to the Raja, pretending that they had overtaken
him a long way off. He was questioned about himself and he told his
whole history except that the Raja had threatened to cut off his
family, and his account being satisfactory it was arranged that he
should marry the princess. Musicians were sent for and the marriage
took place at once. After his marriage the merchant’s son was
much depressed at the thought of his brothers’ fate and in the
middle of the night he used to rise up and weep till the bed was soaked
with his tears; the princess noticed this and one night she pretended
to go to sleep but really lay awake and watched her husband; and in the
middle of the night saw him rise quietly and begin to sob. She was
filled with sympathy and went to him and begged him to tell her what
was the matter and whether he was sorry that he had married her; and he
answered “I cry because I am in despair; in the daytime I
restrain my tears before others with difficulty but in the night they
cannot be kept back; but I am ashamed for you to see me and I wait till
you are asleep before I give way to my feelings.”

Then she asked what was the cause of his sorrow and he answered
“My father and mother and brothers and sisters are all doomed to
die; for our Raja has sworn to kill them by a certain day if he is not
told why two fish, which my father sent to him as a present, laughed
when they were brought before him. In consequence of this threat my
father sent me from home that one of the family might survive and
although I may be safe here the thought of them and their fate makes me
weep.” The princess asked him what was the day fixed for the
mystery to be explained; and he told [74]her that it was at the
full moon of a certain month. Then the princess said “Come take
me to your father’s house: I shall be able to explain why the
fishes laughed.” The merchant’s son joyfully agreed to
start off the next day; so in the morning they told the Raja why they
wished to go, and he said to his daughter “Go and do not be
afraid; go in confidence, I promise you that you will be able to
explain why the fishes laughed.”

So they made ready and journeyed to the merchant’s house; and
when they arrived they told the merchant to go to the Raja and ask him
to collect all the citizens on a certain day to hear the reason why the
fishes laughed. The merchant went to the Raja and the Raja gave him a
letter fixing the day and all the citizens were assembled in an open
plain; and the princess dressed herself as a man and went to the
assembly and stood before the Raja.

Then the Raja bade her explain why the fishes laughed, and the
princess answered “If you wish to know the reason order all your
Ranis to be brought here;” so the Ranis were summoned; then the
princess said “The reason why the fishes laughed was because
among all your wives it is only the eldest Rani who is a woman and all
the others are men. What will you give me if this is not proved to be
true?” Then the Raja wrote a bond promising to give the merchant
half his kingdom if this were proved to be true. When enquiry was made
it was found that the wives had really become men, and the Raja was put
to shame before all his people. Then the assembly broke up and the
merchant received half the Raja’s kingdom.

XIX. How the Cowherd Found a Bride.

There was once a Goala who was in charge of a herd of cattle and
every day he used to bring the herd for [75]their midday rest to the
foot of a peepul tree. One day the peepul tree spoke and said to him
“If you pour milk every day at my roots I will grant you a
boon.” So thenceforward the Goala every day poured milk at the
roots of the tree and after some days he saw a crack in the ground; he
thought that the roots of the tree were cracking the earth but the fact
was that a snake was buried there, and as it increased in size from
drinking the milk it cracked the ground and one day it issued forth; at
the sight of it the Goala was filled with fear and made sure that the
snake would devour him. But the snake said “Do not fear: I was
shut up in the nether world, and you by your kindness have rescued me,
I wish to show gratitude to you and will confer on you any boon for
which you ask.” The Goala answered that the snake should choose
what he would give him; then the snake called him near, and breathed on
his hair which was very long and it became glistening as gold, and the
snake said that his hair would obtain for him a wife and that he would
be very powerful; and that whatever he said would come to pass. The
Goala asked what sort of things would come to pass. The snake answered
“If you say a man shall die he will die and if you say he shall
come to life, he will come to life. But you must not tell this to
anyone; not even to your wife when you marry; if you do the power will
vanish.”

Some time afterwards it happened that the Goala was bathing in the
river; and as he bathed one of his hairs came out and the fancy took
him to wrap it in a leaf and set it to float down the stream. Lower
down the river a princess was bathing with her attendants and they saw
the packet come floating down and tried to stop it but it floated
straight to the princess and she caught it and opened it and found the
hair inside. It shone like gold and when they measured it, it was
twelve fathoms [76]long. So the princess tied it up in her cloth and
went home and shut herself up in her room, and would neither eat nor
drink nor speak. Her mother sent two of her companions to question her,
and at last she told them that she would not rise and eat until they
found the person to whom the golden hair belonged; if it were the hair
of a man he should be her husband and if it came from a girl she would
have that girl come and live with her.

When the Raja and Rani heard this and that the hair had come
floating down the river they went to their daughter and told her that
they would at once send messengers up the stream to find the owner of
the hair. Then she was comforted and rose up and ate her rice. That
very day the Raja ordered messengers to follow up the banks of the
stream and enquire in all the villages and question every one they met
to find trace of the owner of the golden hair; so the messengers set
out on both banks of the stream and followed it to its source but their
search was vain and they returned without news; then holy mendicants
were sent out to search and they also returned unsuccessful. Then the
princess said “If you cannot find the owner of the golden hair I
will hang myself!” At this a tame crow and a parrot which were
chained to a perch, said “You will never be able to find the man
with the golden hair; he is in the depths of the forest; if he had
lived in a village you would have found him, but as it is we alone can
fetch him; unfasten our chains and we will go in search of him.”
So the Raja ordered them to be unfastened and gave them a good meal
before starting, for they could not carry a bag of provisions with them
like a man. Then the crow and the parrot mounted into the air and flew
away up the river, and after long search they spied the Goala in the
jungle resting his cattle under the peepul tree; so they flew down and
perched on the peepul [77]tree and consulted how they could lure him
away. The parrot said that he was afraid to go near the cattle and
proposed that the crow should fly down and carry off the Goala’s
flute, from where it was lying with his stick and wrapper at the foot
of the tree. So the crow went flitting from one cow to another till it
suddenly pounced on the flute and carried it off in its beak; when the
Goala saw this he ran after the crow to recover his flute and the crow
tempted him on by just fluttering from tree to tree and the Goala kept
following; and when the crow was tired the parrot took the flute from
him and so between them they drew the Goala on right to the
Raja’s city, and they flew into the palace and the Goala followed
them in, and they flew to the room in which the princess was and
dropped the flute into the hand of the princess and the Goala followed
and the door was shut upon him. The Goala asked the princess to give
him the flute and she said that she would give it to him if he promised
to marry her and not otherwise. He asked how he could marry her all of
a sudden when they had never been betrothed; but the princess said
“We have been betrothed for a long time; do you remember one day
tying a hair up in a leaf and setting it to float downstream; well that
hair has been the go-between which arranged our betrothal.” Then
the Goala remembered how the snake had told him that his hair would
find him a wife and he asked to see the hair which the princess had
found, so she brought it out and they found that it was like his, as
long and as bright; then he said “We belong to each other”
and the princess called for the door to be opened and brought the Goala
to her father and mother and told them that her heart’s desire
was fulfilled and that if they did not allow the wedding to take place
in the palace she would run away with the Goala. So a day was fixed for
the wedding and invitations were [78]issued and it duly took place.
The Goala soon became so much in love with his bride that he forgot all
about his herd of cattle which he had left behind, without any one to
look after them; but after some time he bethought himself of them and
he told his bride that he must return to his cattle, whether she came
with him or no. She said that she would take leave of her parents and
go with him; then the Raja gave them a farewell feast and he made over
to the Goala half his kingdom, and gave him a son’s share of his
elephants and horses and flocks and herds and said to him “You
are free to do as you like: you can stay here or go to your own home;
but if you elect to stay here, I shall never turn you out.” The
Goala considered and said that he would live with his father-in-law but
that he must anyhow go and see the cattle which he had abandoned
without any one to look after them. So the next day he and his wife set
off and when they got to the jungle they found that all the cattle were
lying dead. At this the Goala was filled with grief and began to weep;
then he remembered the promise of the snake that he should be able to
restore the dead to life and he resolved to put it to the test.

So he told his wife that he would give the dead cows medicine and he
got some jungle roots as a blind and held them to the noses of the dead
animals and as he did so, he said “Come to life” and,
behold, one by one the cows all got up and began lowing to their
calves. Having thus proved the promises of the snake the Goala was loud
in his gratitude and he filled a large vessel with milk and poured it
all out at the foot of the peepul tree and the snake came and breathed
on the hair of the princess and it too became bright as gold.

The next day they collected all the cows and drove them back to the
princess’ home and there the Goala and his wife lived happily,
ruling half the kingdom. And [79]some years after the Goala reflected
that the snake was to him as his father and mother and yet he had come
away in a hurry without taking a proper farewell, so he went to see
whether it was still there; but he could not find it and he asked the
peepul tree and no answer came so he had to return home
disappointed.

XX. Kara and Guja.

Once upon a time there were two brothers named Kara and Guja who
were first class shots with the bow and arrow. In the country where
they lived, a pair of kites were doing great damage: they had young
ones in a nest in a tree and used to carry off children to feed their
nestlings until the whole country was desolated. So the whole
population went in a body to the Raja and told him that they would have
to leave the country if he could not have the kites killed. Then the
Raja made proclamation that any one who could kill the two kites should
receive a large tract of land as a reward, and thereupon many men tried
to kill them; but the kites had made their nest of ploughs and
clod-crushers so that the arrows could not hit them, and the shooters
had to give up the attempt. At last Kara and Guja thought that they
would try, so they made an ambush and waited till the birds came to the
nest to feed their young and then shot them both through the hole in a
clod-crusher into which the pole fits, and the two kites fell down
dead, at the source of the Ganges and Jumna, and where they fell they
made a great depression in the ground. Then Kara and Guja carried the
bodies to the Raja and he gave them a grant of land; and their grateful
neighbours made a large rice field of the depression which the kites
had made in the earth and this was given to Kara and Guja as service
land to their great delight. [80]

Kara and Guja used to spend their time in the forest, living on what
they could find there; they slept in a cave and at evening would cook
their rice there or roast jungle roots. One day a tiger spied them out
as they were roasting tubers and came up to them suddenly and said.
“What are you cooking? Give me some or I will eat you.” So
while they went on eating the roasted tubers, they threw the coals from
the fire to the tiger at the mouth of the cave and he crunched them up
and every now and then they threw him a bit of something good to eat;
the tiger would not go away but lay there expecting to be fed, and Kara
and Guja debated how to get rid of him. Then Guja suddenly jumped up
and dashed at the tiger and caught him by the tail and began to twist
the tail and he went on twisting until he twisted it right off and the
tiger ran roaring away. Kara and Guja roasted the tail and ate it, and
they found it so nice that they decided to hunt the tiger and eat the
rest of him. So the two brothers searched for him everywhere and when
they found him they chased him until they ran him down and killed him;
then they lit a fire and singed the hair off and roasted the flesh and
made a grand meal: but they did not eat the paunch. Kara wanted to eat
it but Guja would not let him, so Kara carried it away on his
shoulder.

Presently they sat down in the shade of a banyan tree by the side of
a road and along the road came a Raja’s wedding procession; when
Kara and Guja saw this they climbed into the tree and took the
tiger’s paunch up with them. The wedding party came to a halt at
the foot of the tree and some of them lay down to eat and the Raja got
out of his palki and lay down to sleep in the shade. After a time Kara
got tired of holding the tiger’s paunch in his arms and whispered
to Guja that he could hold it no longer, Guja told him on no account to
let it go [81]but at last Kara got so tired that he let it fall
right on the top of the Raja; then all the Raja’s attendants
raised a shout that the Raja’s stomach had burst and all ran away
in a panic leaving everything they had under the tree; but after they
had gone a little distance they thought of the goods they had left
behind and how they could not continue the journey without them, so
they made their way back to the banyan tree.

But meanwhile Kara and Guja had climbed down and gathered together
all the fine clothes and everything valuable and taken them up into the
tree. And Kara took up a large drum which he found and in one end of
the drum he made a number of little holes: and he caught a number of
wild bees which had a nest in the tree and put them one by one into the
drum. When the Raja’s attendants came back and saw that there
were two men in the tree, they called out: “Why have you
dishonoured our Raja? We will kill you.” Kara and Guja answered
“Come and see who will do the killing.” So they began to
fight and the Raja’s men fired their guns at Kara and Guja till
they were tired of shooting, and had used up all their powder and shot,
but they never hit them. Then Kara and Guja called out “Now it is
our turn!” And when the Raja’s men saw that Kara and Guja
had nothing but a drum they said “Yes, it is your turn.” So
Kara and Guja beat the drum and called “At them, my dears: at
them my dears.” And the wild bees flew out of the drum and stung
the Raja’s men and drove them right away. Then Kara and Guja took
all their belongings and went home and ever after were esteemed as
great Rajas because of the wealth which they had acquired.

XXI. The Magic Cow.

There was once a Raja who had an only son named Kara and in the
course of time the Raja fell into poverty [82]and was little better
than a beggar. One day when Kara was old enough to work as a cowherd
his father called him and said “My son, I am now poor but once I
was rich. I had a fine estate and herds of cattle and fine clothes; now
that is all gone and you have scarcely enough to eat. I am old and like
to die and before I leave you I wish to give you this advice: there are
many Rajas in the world, Raja above Raja; when I am dead do you seek
the protection of some powerful Raja.” As there was not enough to
eat at home Kara had to take service as goat-herd under a neighbouring
Raja; by which he earned his food and clothes and two rupees a year.
Some time afterwards his father died and Kara went to his master and
asked for a loan of money with which to perform his father’s
funeral ceremonies, and promised to continue in his service until he
had worked off the loan. So the Raja advanced him five rupees and five
rupees worth of rice, and with this money Kara gave the funeral feast.
Five or six days later his mother died, and he again went to the Raja
and asked for ten rupees more; at first the Raja refused but Kara
besought him and promised to serve him for his whole life if he could
not repay the loan. So at last the Raja lent him ten rupees more, and
he gave the funeral feast. But the Raja’s seven sons were very
angry with their father because he had lent twenty rupees to a man who
had no chance of paying, and they used to threaten and worry Kara
because he had taken the money. Then Kara remembered how his father had
said that there were many Rajas in the world, Raja above Raja, and he
resolved to run away and seek service with the greatest Raja in the
world. So he ran away and after travelling some distance he met a Raja
being carried in a palki and going with a large party to fetch a bride
for his son; and when he heard who it was he decided to follow the
Raja; so he went along behind the palki and at one place a she-jackal
ran [83]across the road; then the Raja got out of his
palki and made a salaam to the jackal. When Kara saw this he thought
“This cannot be the greatest Raja in the world or why should he
salaam to the jackal. The jackal must be more powerful than the Raja; I
will follow the jackal.” So he left the wedding party and went
after the jackal; now the jackal was hunting for food for her young
ones, and as Kara followed her wherever she went she could find no
opportunity of killing a goat or sheep; so at last she went back to the
cave in which she lived. Then her cubs came whining to meet her and she
told her husband that she had been able to catch nothing that day
because a man had followed her wherever she went, and had come right up
to their cave and was waiting outside.

Then the he-jackal told her to ask what the man wanted. So she went
out to Kara and asked him and Kara said “I have come to place
myself under your protection;” then she called the he-jackal and
they said to him, “We are jackals and you are a man. How can you
stay with us; what could we give you to eat and what work could we find
for you to do?” Kara said that he would not leave them as all his
hopes lay in them; and at last the jackals took pity on him and
consulted together and agreed to make him a gift as he had come to them
so full of hope; so they gave him a cow which was in the cave, and said
to him: “As you have believed in us we have made up our minds to
benefit you; take this cow, she will supply you with everything you
want; if you address her as mother she will give you whatever you ask,
but do not ask her before people for they would take her from you; and
do not give her away whatever inducements are offered you.”

Then Kara thanked them and called down blessings on their heads and
took the cow and led it away [84]homewards. When he came to a tank he
thought he would bathe and eat; while he bathed he saw a woman washing
clothes at the other side of the tank but he thought that she would not
notice him, so he went up to the cow and said “Mother, give me a
change of clothes.” Thereupon the cow vomited up some nice new
clothes and he put them on and looked very fine. Then he asked the cow
for some plates and dishes and she gave them; then he asked for some
bread and some dried rice, and he ate all he wanted and then asked the
cow to keep the plates and dishes for him; and the cow swallowed them
up again.

Now the woman by the tank had seen all that had happened and ran
home and told her husband what she had seen and begged him to get hold
of the wonderful cow by some means or other. Her husband could not
believe her but agreed to put it to the test, so they both went to Kara
and asked where he was going and offered to give him supper, and put
him up for the night and give grass for his cow. He accepted this
invitation and went with them to their house and they gave him the
guest-room to sleep in and asked what he would have to eat, but he said
that he did not want any supper,—for he intended to get a meal
from the cow after every one was asleep. Then the man and his wife made
a plot and pretended to have a violent quarrel and after abusing each
other for some time the man flung out of the house in a passion and
pretended to run away; but after going a short distance he crept back
quietly to the guest-room. Hanging from the roof was the body of a cart
and he climbed up into that and hid himself, without Kara knowing
anything about it. When Kara thought that every one was asleep, he
asked his cow for some food and having made a good meal went to
sleep.

The man watching up above saw everything and [85]found
that his wife had spoken the truth; so in the middle of the night he
climbed down and led away Kara’s magic cow and put in its place
one of his own cows of the same colour. Early the next morning Kara got
up and unfastened the cow and began to lead it away, but the cow would
not follow him; then he saw that it had been changed and he called his
host and charged him with the theft. The man denied it and told him to
call any villagers who had seen him bring his cow the day before; now
no one had seen him come but Kara insisted that the cow had been
changed and went to summon the village headman and the villagers to
decide the matter: but the thief managed to give a bribe of one hundred
rupees to the headman and one hundred rupees to the villagers and made
them promise to decide in his favour; so when they met together they
told Kara that he must take the cow which he had found tied up in the
morning.

Kara protested and said that he would fetch the person from whom he
had got the cow and take whichever cow he pointed out. Telling them
that they were responsible for his cow while he was away, he hastened
off to the cave where the jackals lived. The jackals somehow knew that
he had been swindled out of the cow, and they met him saying
“Well, man, have you lost your cow?” And he answered that
he had come to fetch them to judge between himself and the villagers:
so the jackals went with him and he went straight to the headman and
told him to collect all the villagers; meanwhile the jackals spread a
mat under a peepul tree and sat on it chewing pan and when the
villagers had assembled the jackal began to speak, and said: “If
a judge takes a bribe his descendants for several generations shall eat
filth, in this world and the next; but if he make public confession,
then he shall escape this punishment. This is what our forefathers have
[86]said; and the man who defrauds another shall be
thrust down into hell; this also they have said. Now all of you make
honest enquiry into this matter; we will swear before God to do justice
and the complainant and the accused shall also take oath and we will
decide fairly.” Then the village headman was conscience stricken
and admitted that he had taken a bribe of one hundred rupees, and the
villagers also confessed that they had been bribed; then the jackal
asked the accused what he had to say to this: but he persisted that he
had not changed the cow; the jackal asked him what penalty he would pay
if he were proved guilty and he said that he would pay double. Then the
jackal called the villagers to witness that the man had fixed his
punishment, and he proposed that he and his wife should go to the herd
of cattle, and if they could pick out the cow that Kara claimed it
would be sure proof that it was his. So the jackals went and at once
picked out the cow, and the villagers were astonished and cried.
“This is a just judgment! They have come from a distance and have
recognised the cow at once.” The man who had stolen it had no
answer to give; then the jackal said: “You yourself promised to
pay double; you gave a bribe of one hundred rupees to the headman and
one hundred rupees to the villagers and the cow you stole is worth two
hundred rupees that is four hundred rupees, therefore you must pay a
fine of eight hundred rupees;” and the man was made to produce eight
hundred rupees and the jackal gave all the money to the villagers
except ten rupees which he gave to Kara; and he kept nothing for
himself.

Then Kara and the jackals went away with the cow, and after getting
outside the village the jackals again warned Kara not to ask the cow
for anything when anyone was by and took their leave of him and went
home. Kara continued his journey and at evening [87]arrived
at a large mango orchard in which a number of carters were camping for
the night. So Kara stopped under a tree at a little distance from the
carters and tied his cow to the root. Soon a storm came up and the
carters all took shelter underneath their carts and Kara asked his cow
for a tent and he and the cow took shelter in it. It rained hard all
night and in the morning the carters saw the tent and wondered where it
came from, and came to the conclusion that the cow must have produced
it; so they resolved to steal the cow.

Kara did not dare to make the cow swallow the tent in the day time
while the carters were about, so he stayed there all the next day and
at night the cow put away the tent. Then when Kara was asleep some
carters came and took away the cow and put in its place a cow with a
calf, and they hid the magic cow within a wall of packs from their pack
bullocks. In the morning Kara at once saw what had happened and went to
the carters and charged them with the theft; they denied all knowledge
of the matter and told him he might look for his cow if he liked; so he
searched the encampment but could not see it.

Then he called the village headman and chowkidar and they searched
and could not find the cow and they advised Kara to keep the cow and
calf as it must be better than his own barren cow; but he refused and
said that he would complain to the magistrate and he made the headman
promise not to let the carters go until he came back. So he went to a
Mahommedan magistrate and it chanced that he was an honest man who gave
just judgments and took no bribes, and made no distinction between the
rich and the poor; he always listened to both sides carefully, not like
some rascally magistrates who always believe the story that is first
told them and pay no attention to what the other side say. So when Kara
made his complaint this magistrate [88]at once sent for the carters and
the carters swore that they had not stolen the cow: and offered to
forfeit all the property they had with them, if the cow were found in
their possession.

Then the magistrate sent police to search the encampment and the
police pulled down the pile of packs that had been put round the cow,
and found the cow inside and took it to the magistrate. Then the
magistrate ordered the carters to fulfil their promise and put them all
in prison and gave all their property to Kara. So Kara loaded all the
merchandise on the carts and pack bullocks and went home rejoicing. At
first the villagers did not recognise who it was who had come with so
much wealth but Kara made himself known to them and they were very
astonished and helped him to build a grand house. Then Kara went to the
Raja from whom he had borrowed the money for his parents’
funerals and paid back what he owed. The Raja was so pleased with him
that he gave him his daughter in marriage and afterwards Kara claimed
his father-in-law’s kingdom and got possession of it and lived
prosperously ever after.

And the seven sons of his first master who used to scold him were
excited by his success and thought that if they went to foreign parts
they also could gain great wealth; so they took some money from their
father and went off. But all they did was to squander their capital and
in the end they had to come back penniless to their father.

XXII. Lita and His Animals.

Once upon a time there was a man who had four sons: two of them were
married and two were unmarried and the youngest was named Lita. One day
Lita went to his father and asked for fifty or sixty rupees that
[89]he might go on a trading expedition and he
promised that if he lost the money he would not ask for any share in
the paternal property. As he was very urgent his father at last gave
him sixty rupees and he set out on his travels. After going some way he
came to a village in which all the inhabitants were chasing a cat; he
asked them what was the matter and they told him that the cat was
always stealing their Raja’s milk and the Raja had offered a
reward of twenty rupees to anyone who would kill it. Then Lita said to
them “Do not kill the cat; catch it alive and give it to me and I
will pay you twenty rupees for it; then you can go to the Raja and say
that you have killed it and ask for the reward; and if the Raja asks to
see the body tell him that a stranger came and asked for the body, for
he thought that a cat which had fed on milk should be good eating and
so you gave it to him.” The villagers thought that this would be
an excellent plan and promised to bring him the cat alive. They soon
managed to catch it hiding under a heap of firewood and brought it to
Lita and he paid them twenty rupees and then they went to the Raja and
got twenty rupees from him.

Then Lita went on, and by-and-bye came to a village where the
villagers were hunting an otter in a tank; they had made a cut in the
bank and had let out all the water. Lita went to them and asked what
they were doing; they said that they were hunting for an otter which
had been destroying the Raja’s fish and the Raja had promised
them a reward if they killed it, and they had driven it into the tank
and were draining off the water in order to catch it. Then Lita offered
to buy it of them if they brought it to him alive; so when they caught
it they brought it to him and he gave them money for it and continued
his journey with the cat and the otter. Presently he saw a crowd of men
and [90]he went up to them and asked what they were doing:
and they told him that they were hunting a rat which was always gnawing
the Raja’s pens and papers and the Raja had offered a reward for
it, and they had driven it out of the palace, but it had taken refuge
in a hole and they were going to dig it out Then Lita offered to buy it
from them as he had bought the other two animals and they dug it out
and sold it to him.

He went on and in the same way found a crowd of men hunting a snake
which had bitten many people: and he offered to buy it for twenty
rupees and when they had chased it till it was exhausted, they caught
it alive and sold it to Lita. As his money was all spent, he then set
off homewards; and on the way the snake began to speak and said:
“Lita, you have saved my life; had you not come by, those men
would certainly have had my life; come with me to my home, where my
father and mother are, and I will give you anything you ask for; we
have great possessions.” But Lita was afraid and said:
“When you get me there you will eat me, or if you don’t,
your father and mother will.” But the snake protested that it
could not be guilty of such ingratitude and at last Lita agreed to
accompany it when he had left the other animals at his home.

This he did and set off alone with the snake, and after some days
they reached the snake’s home. The snake told Lita to wait
outside while he went and apprized his parents and he told Lita that
when he was asked to choose his reward he should name nothing but the
ring which was on the father-snake’s finger, for the ring had
this property that if it were placed in a seer of milk and then
asked to produce anything whatever, that thing would immediately
appear. Then the snake went on to his home and when the father and
mother saw him they fell on his neck and kissed him and wept over him
saying that they had never expected to see him again; the snake told
them [91]how he had gone to the country of men and how a
reward had been set on his head and he had been hunted, and how Lita
had bought him from the men who would have killed him. The father snake
asked why he had not brought Lita to be rewarded and the snake said
that he was afraid that when they saw him they would eat him.

But the father and mother swore that they could not be guilty of
such ingratitude, and when he heard this the snake went and brought in
Lita, and they entertained him handsomely for two days; and on the
third day the father snake asked Lita what he would take as his reward.
Lita looked round at the shining palace in which they lived and at
first was afraid to speak but at last he said: “I do not want
money or anything but the ring on your finger: if you will not give me
that, I will take nothing; I saved your son from peril and that you
will remember all your lives, and if you give me the ring I will honour
you for it as long as I live.” Then the father and mother snake
consulted together and the mother said “Give it to him as he asks
for it” so the father snake drew it from his finger and gave it
to Lita and they gave him also some money for his journey back; and he
went home and found the other three animals safe and sound waiting for
him.

After a time his father said that Lita must marry; so marriage
go-betweens were sent out to look for a bride and they found a very
rich and beautiful girl whose parents were agreeable to the match. But
the girl herself said that she would only marry a man who would build a
covered passage from her house to his, so that she could walk to her
new home in the shade. The go-betweens reported this, and Lita’s
father and brothers consulted and agreed that they could never make
such a passage, but Lita said to his father: “Arrange the match;
it shall be my charge to arrange for making [92]the
covered passage; I will not let you be put to shame over it.” For
Lita had already put the ring to the test: he had dropped it into a
seer of milk and said “Let five bharias of parched
rice and two bharias of curds appear” and immediately the
parched rice and curds were before him; and thereupon he had called out
“The snake has worthily rewarded me for saving his life;”
and the cat and the otter and the rat overheard what he said.

So the go-between was told to arrange for the wedding to take place
that very month, as Lita’s birthday fell in the next month, which
therefore was not suitable for his wedding. Then the bride’s
family sent him back to say that they were prepared to send a string of
nine knots; and the next day the go-between told this to Lita’s
family and they said that they were willing to accept it; so the
go-between brought a string of nine knots to signify that the wedding
would take place in nine days. The days passed by and Lita’s
father and brothers became very anxious because they saw no sign of the
covered passage; but on the very night before the wedding, Lita took
his ring and ordered a covered passage to be made from the one house to
the other with a good path down the middle; and the next morning they
found it made; and the bridegroom’s party passed along it to the
bride’s house and the bride was escorted home along it.

Now the bride had been deeply in love with another young man who
lived in her village and had much wished to marry him but her wishes of
course were not consulted in the matter. Some time after the marriage
she one day in the course of conversation asked her husband Lita how
much he had spent on making the covered passage to her house and how he
had built it so quickly. He told her that he knew nothing about it;
that his father and mother had arranged for it and no doubt
[93]had spent a large sum of money. So the next day
she took an opportunity of asking her mother-in-law about it, but
Lita’s mother said that nothing had been spent at all; somehow
the passage had been made in one night, she knew not how.

Then Lita’s wife saw that Lita was keeping a secret from her,
and she began to reproach him for having any secrets from his wife: and
at last when she had faithfully promised never to reveal the matter to
anyone, he told her the secret of the ring. Now her former lover used
still to visit her and one day she sent for him and said that she would
no longer live with Lita, but wished to run away with him. The lover at
first objected that they would be pursued and killed while if they
escaped to a distance he would have nothing to support her with; but
the faithless woman said that there need be no anxiety about that and
she told him about the magic ring and how by means of it they could
provide themselves with a house and everything they wanted. So they
fixed a night for the elopement and on that night when Lita was asleep
his wife quietly drew the ring off his finger and went out to her lover
who was waiting outside and told him to get a goat from the pen; then
they beheaded the goat and went inside and poured all its blood on the
ground under the bed on which Lita was sleeping, and then having hid
the body and head of the goat, they ran away.

Towards morning Lita woke up and missed his wife, so he lit a lamp
to look for her and then saw the pool of blood under the bed. At this
sight he was terror stricken. Some enemy had killed and carried off his
wife and he would be charged with the murder. So he lay there wondering
what would happen to him. At last his mother came into the room to see
why he and his wife had not got up as usual and when she saw the blood
she raised a cry; the village headman and chowkidar [94]were
sent for and they questioned Lita, but he could only say that he knew
nothing of what had happened; he did not know what the blood was, he
did not know where his wife was. Thereupon they sent two men to the
house of the wife’s parents to see if by any chance she had run
away there and in any case to bring her relations to be present at the
enquiry into her disappearance. When her father and brothers heard what
had happened they at once went to Lita’s house in wrath and
abused him as a murderer. They asked why, if his wife had not done her
duty to him, he had not sent her back to them to be chastised and
taught better, instead of murdering her and they went straight to the
magistrate and complained: the magistrate sent police who arrested Lita
and took him before the magistrate.

Meanwhile it had become known that not only was Lita’s wife
missing but also her lover; and Lita’s father presented a
petition to the magistrate bringing this to notice and asserting that
the two must have run away together. Then the magistrate ordered every
search to be made for the missing couple but said that Lita must remain
in custody till they were found, so he was shut up in prison. From
prison he made an application to the magistrate that his three tame
animals, the cat and the otter and the rat might be brought to the
place where he was; the magistrate kindly consented but the animals
were not allowed into the prison. However at night the rat being small
made its way inside and found out Lita, and asked what was to be done.
Lita said that he wanted the three animals to save him from his great
danger as he had saved them; he wanted them to trace his wife and her
lover and recover the ring; they would doubtless find them living in
some gorgeous palace, the gift of the ring.

The rat went out and gave the other two Lita’s message and
they readily undertook to do their best; [95]so the next morning the
three animals set off. In vain they hunted all over the country, till
one day they came to the bank of the Ganges and there on the other side
they saw a palace shining like gold. At this their hopes revived, for
this might be a palace made by the magic ring. But the cat and the rat
objected that they could not cross the river. The otter said that he
would easily manage that and he took the cat on his back and the rat
climbed on to the back of the cat and so the otter ferried them both
across the river; then they consulted and decided that it would be
safest to wait till the evening before they went to the palace to see
who lived in it. When they looked in in the evening, they at once
recognised Lita’s wife and her lover; but these two were in
constant terror of being pursued and when they had had their evening
meal they fastened and bolted every entrance so securely that no one
could gain admittance. Then the cat and the otter told the rat that he
must collect all the rats of the neighbourhood and they must burrow
through the wall and find some way of abstracting the magic ring.

So the rat collected a crowd of his friends and in no time they
bored a hole through the wall; then they all began to look for the
ring; they hunted high and low but could not find it; however the cat
sat at the entrance of the hole which they had made and vowed that they
should not come out, unless they got the ring. Then the first rat
climbed on to the bed in which the couple were sleeping and searched
their clothes and examined their fingers and toes but in vain; then he
thought that the woman might have it in her mouth so he climbed on to
her chest and tickled her nose with the tip of his tail; this made her
sneeze and behold she sneezed out the ring which she had hidden in her
mouth. The rat seized it and ran off with it and when the cat was
satisfied that he had really got it, she let him out [96]and the
three friends set off rejoicing on their homeward journey. They crossed
the river in the same way as when they came with the cat riding on the
otter and the rat on the cat: and the rat held the ring in its mouth.
Unfortunately when they were halfway across, a kite swooped down to try
and carry off the rat. Twice it swooped and missed its grasp but the
second time it struck the rat with its wing and the rat in terror let
the ring fall into the river.

When they reached the bank the three friends consulted what they
were to do in this fresh misfortune. As the otter was the only one who
could swim it volunteered to look for the ring, so it plunged into the
water and searched the bottom of the river in vain; then it guessed
that a fish must have swallowed the ring and it set to work to catch
every fish it saw and tore them open; at last in the stomach of a big
fish it found the ring, so it brought the fish to the bank and while
they were all rejoicing and eating a little of the fish a kite swooped
down and carried off the fish, ring and all.

The three animals watched the kite flying away with the fish; but
some women who were gathering firewood ran after the kite and took the
fish from it and putting it in their basket went home. Then the otter
and the rat said to the cat “Now it is your turn: we have both
recovered the ring once, but we cannot go into the house of these
humans. They will let you go near them easily enough; the ring is in
the fish’s stomach, you must watch whether they throw away the
stomach or clean it, and find an opportunity for carrying off the
ring.”

So the cat ran after the women and when they began to cut up the
fish, it kept mewing round them. They threw one or two scraps to it,
but it only sniffed at them and would not eat them; then they began to
wonder what on earth the cat wanted, and at last they threw the stomach
to it. This it seized on gladly and [97]carried it off and tore it open
and found the ring and ran off with it to where the otter and the rat
were waiting. Then the three friends travelled hard for a day and a
night and reached the prison in which Lita was confined.

When Lita got the ring he begged his jailer to get him a seer
of milk and when it was brought he dropped the ring in it, and said
“I wish the bed on which my faithless wife and her lover are
sleeping to be brought here with them in it this very night” and
before morning the bed was brought to the prison. Then the magistrate
was called and when he saw that the wife was alive he released Lita,
and the lover who had run away with her had to pay Lita double the
expenditure which had been incurred on his marriage, and was fined
beside.

But Lita married another wife and lived happily with her. And some
time afterwards he called the otter and the cat and the rat to him and
said that he purposed to let them go and before they parted he would
give them anything they wished for. They said that he owed them
nothing, and they made Lita promise to let them know if ever he lost
the ring or fell into trouble, and he promised to help them if ever
their lives were in danger, and one morning he took them to a bazar,
near which was a tank full of fish, and he turned the otter into the
tank and left the cat and the rat to support themselves in the bazar.
The next day he went to see them and the otter came out of the tank and
gave him a fish which it had caught, and the cat brought him some milk
it had stolen, and that was the last he saw of them.

XXIII. The Boy Who Found His Father.

There was once a boy who used always to cheat when playing
Kati (pitch and toss) and for this the village [98]boys
with whom he played used to quarrel with him, saying “Fatherless
orphan, why do you cheat?” So one day he asked his mother why
they called him that name and whether his father was really dead.
“He is alive” said she “but a long time ago a
rhinoceros carried him off on its horn.” Then the boy vowed that
he would go in search of his father and made his mother put him up
provisions for the journey; and he started off taking with him an iron
bow and a big bundle of arrows.

He journeyed on all day and at nightfall he came to a village; there
he went up to the house of an old woman to ask for a bed. He stood at
the threshhold and called out to her “Grannie, grannie, open the
door.” “I have no son, and no grandchildren to call me
grannie,” grumbled the old woman and went to open the door to see
who was there, and when she opened the door and saw him, she said
“Ho, you are my grandson.” “Yes,” answered he,
“I am your grandchild.” So she called him inside and gave
him a bed to sleep on. The old woman was called Hutibudi; and she and
the boy sat up late talking together and then they lay down to sleep;
but in the middle of the night he heard the old woman crunching away
trying to bite his bow to pieces. He asked her what she was eating:
“Some pulse I got from the village headman,” “Give me
a little to try” he begged. “I am sorry my child, I have
finished it all.” But really she had none to give, however she
only hurt her jaws biting so that she began to groan with pain:
“What are you groaning for, Grannie?” said the boy;
“Because I have toothache” she answered: and in truth her
cheeks were badly swollen. Then he told her that a good cure for
toothache was to bite on a white stone and she believed him and the
next morning got a piece of white quartz and began to bite on it; but
this only broke her teeth and made her mouth bleed [99]so that
the pain was worse than before: then the boy jeered at her and said.
“Did you think, Grannie, that you could bite my iron bow and
arrows?”

So saying he left her and continued the search for his father and
his road led him to a dense jungle which seemed to have no end, and in
the middle of the jungle he came to a lake and he sat down by it to eat
what was left of the provisions he had brought: as he sat, he suddenly
saw some cow-bison coming down to the lake: at this he caught up his
bow and arrows in a hurry and climbed up a tall sal tree: from
the tree he watched the bison go down to the water to drink and then go
back into the jungle. And after them tigers and bears came down to the
water: the sight of them frightened him and he sang:—

and they drank and went away. Then various kinds of birds came and
after them a great herd of rhinoceroses and among them was one which
had the dried up body of the boy’s father stuck on its horn. The
boy was rather frightened and sang

and when the giant rhinoceros with the body of his father stooped
its head to drink from the lake, he put an arrow through it and it
turned a somersault and fell over dead: while all the other
rhinoceroses turned tail and ran away. Then the boy climbed down from
the tree and pulled the dead body of his father off the horn of the
dead animal and laid it down at the foot of a tree and began to weep
over it. As he wept a man suddenly stood before him and asked what was
the matter, and when [100]he heard, said “Cry no more: take a
cloth and wet it in the lake and cover your father’s body with
it: and then whip the body with a meral twig and he will come to
life.” So saying the stranger suddenly disappeared; and the boy
obeyed his instructions and behold his father sat up alive and rubbing
his eyes said “I must have been asleep a very long time.”
Then his son explained to him all that had happened and gave him some
food and took him home.

XXIV. The Oilman’s Bullock.

There was once a poor but industrious oilman; he got a log of wood
and carved out an oil mill and, borrowing some money as capital, he
bought mustard and sesame seed and set to work to press it; as he had
no bullock he had to turn the mill himself. He was so industrious that
he soon began to prosper and was able to buy a bullock for his mill. By
and bye he got so rich that he was able to buy some land and a cart and
pair of bullocks and was quite a considerable man in the village. One
day one of his cart bullocks died and this loss was a sad blow to the
oilman. However he tied up the surviving bullock in the stable along
with the old oil mill bullock and fed them well. One night it chanced
that one of the villagers passed by the stable and hear the
two animals talking and this is what he heard.

The young bullock said “You came to this house first, friend;
what sort of treatment does one get here?”

“Why do you ask me?” said the other. “Oh, I see
your shoulder is galled and your neck shows mark of the yoke.”
The old bullock answered “Whether my master treats me well or ill
I owe him money and have to stay here until I have paid him off. When I
have paid him five hundred rupees I shall go.” “How will
[101]you ever pay back such a sum?” “If
my master would only match me to fight the Raja’s elephant for
five hundred rupees I should win the fight and my debt would be
cleared; and if he does not do that I shall probably have to work for
him all my life. How long do you intend to stay?” “My debt
will be cleared if I work for him two years” answered the new
comer.

The man who overheard this conversation was much astonished and went
off to the oilman and told him all about it. Next day the whole village
had heard of it and they were all anxious for the oilman to match his
bullock against the Raja’s elephant; but the oilman was very
frightened, for he feared that if he sent such a challenge, the Raja
would be angry with him and drive him out of the country. But the
leading villagers urged him and undertook to find the money if he lost,
and to persuade the Raja that the oilman was mad, if he became angry
with him. At last the oilman consented, provided that some of the
villagers went to the Raja and proposed the match; he was too
frightened to go himself. So two of the village elders went to the Raja
and asked him to match his elephant against the oilman’s bullock
for five hundred rupees; the Raja was very much amused and at once
fixed a day for the fight. So they returned and told the oilman to be
ready and raised a subscription of five hundred rupees.

The evening before the contest the oilman gave the bullock a big
feed of meal and oilcake; and on the eventful morning the villagers all
collected and watched him oiling its horns and tying a bell round its
neck. Then the oilman gave the bullock a slap on its back and said
“Take care: you are going to fight an elephant; if you owe me so
much money you will win, and if not, then you will be defeated.”
When he said this the bullock pawed the ground and snorted and put down
its head. [102]

Then they all set out with the five hundred rupees to a level field
near the Raja’s palace; a great crowd collected to see the fun
and the Raja went there expecting easily to win five hundred rupees.
The elephant was brought forward with vermilion on its cheeks, and a
pad on its back, and a big bell round its neck, and a mahout riding it.
The crowd called out “Put down the stakes:” so each side
produced the money and publicly announced that the owner of the animal
which should be victorious should take all the stakes. But the oilman
objected to the mahout’s riding the elephant; no one was going to
ride his bullock. This was seen to be fair and the mahout had to get
off; then the fight began. The bullock snorted and blew through its
nose, and ran at the elephant with its head lowered. Then the elephant
also rushed forward but the bullock stood its ground and stamped; at
this the elephant turned tail and ran away; the bullock ran after it
and gored it from behind until it trumpeted with pain. The crowd
shouted “The Raja’s elephant is beaten.” And the
oilman took the five hundred rupees and they all went home. From that
day the oilman no longer put the bullock to work the oil mill but fed
it well and left it free to go where it liked. But the bullock only
stayed on with him for one month and then died.

XXV. How Sabai Grass Grew.

Once upon a time there were seven brothers who had an only sister.
These brothers undertook the excavation of a large tank; but although
they spent large sums and dug very deep they could not reach water and
the tank remained dry.

One day as they were consulting what to do to get the tank to fill,
they saw a Jogi corning towards them with a lota in his hand; they at
once called to him to come and advise them, for they thought that, as
he spent [103]his time wandering from country to country, he
might somewhere have learned some thing which would be of use to them.
All the Jogi said to them was “You have a sister: if you
sacrifice her, the tank will fill with water.” The brothers were
fond of the girl, but in their despair at seeing their labour wasted
they agreed to give the advice of the Jogi a trial. So they told their
mother the next day that, when their sister brought them out their
midday meal, she was to be dressed in her best and carry the rice in a
new basket and must bring a new water pot to draw their water in. At
midday the girl went down to her brothers with her best cloth and all
her jewellery on; and when they saw their victim
coming they could not keep from tears. She asked them what they were
grieving for; they told her that nothing was the matter and sent her to
draw water in her new water-pot from the dry tank. Directly the girl
drew near to the bank the water began to bubble up from the bottom; and
when she went down to the water’s edge it rose to her instep. She
bent down to fill her pot but the pot would not fill though the water
rose higher and higher; then she sang:—

But the water rose to her knees and the pot would not fill, and she
sang:—

Then the water rose to her waist and the pot would not fill, and she
sang:—

Then the water reached her neck and the pot would not fill; and she
sang:—

At last it flowed over her head and the water-pot was filled, but
the girl was drowned. The tank however remained brimful of sparkling
water.

Now the unhappy girl had been betrothed and her wedding day was just
at hand. On the day fixed the marriage broker came to announce the
approach of the bridegroom; who shortly afterwards arrived at the
outskirts of the village in his palki. The seven brothers met him, and
the usual dancing began.

The bridegroom’s party however wished to know why the bride
did not appear. The brothers put them off with various excuses, saying
that the girl had gone with her friends to gather firewood or to the
river to draw water. At last the bridegroom’s party got tired of
waiting and turned to go home in great wrath at the way in which they
had been treated. On their way they passed by the tank in which the
girl had been sacrificed and, growing in the middle of it, they saw a
most beautiful flower. The bridegroom at once determined to possess
this, and he told his drummers to pick it for him; but whenever one of
them tried to pick it, the flower moved out of his reach and a voice
came from the flower saying:—

and when they told him what the flower sang the bridegroom said that
he would try and pick it himself; no [105]sooner had he reached
the bank than the flower of its own accord floated towards him and he
pulled it up by the roots and took it with him into the palki. After
they had gone a little way the palki bearers felt the palki strangely
heavy: and when they looked in they found the bride also sitting in it,
dressed in yellow garments; for the flower was really the girl who had
been drowned.

So they joyfully took the happy couple with drumming and music to
the bridegroom’s house.

In a short time misfortune befel the seven brothers; they fell into
the deepest poverty and were forced to earn what they could by selling
leaves and sticks which they gathered in the jungle. As they went about
selling these, they one day came to the village where their sister was
living and as they cried their wares through the streets they were told
to go to the house where the marriage had taken place. They went there,
and as they were selling their leaf plates their sister saw and
recognised them; they had only ragged loincloths on, and their skins
were black and cracked like a crocodile’s.

At the sight their sister began to cry. Her friends asked what was
the matter and she said a straw from the thatch had run into her eye,
so they pulled down some of the thatch; she still went on crying and
they again asked what was wrong; she said that she had knocked her foot
against a stone in the ground; so they dug up the stone and threw it
away. But she still went on weeping and at last confessed that the
miserable-looking leaf-sellers were her brothers. Then her
husband’s parents told her to be comforted, and they gave the
brothers oil and bade them go and bathe and oil their bodies: but the
brothers were so hungry that when they got to the bathing place they
drank the oil and ate the oil cake that had been given to them; and
came back with their skins as rough as when [106]they
went. So then they were given more oil and some of the household went
with them and made them bathe and oil themselves properly and then
brought them to the house and gave them new clothes and made them a
feast of meat and rice. According to the custom of the country they
were made to sit down in order of age and were helped in that order;
when they had all been helped and had eaten, their sister said to them
“Now brothers you come running to me for food, and yet you
sacrificed me in the tank.” Then they were overwhelmed with
shame: they looked up at the sky but there was no escape there; they
looked down at the earth; and the earth split open and they all ran
into the chasm. The sister tried to catch the youngest brother by the
hair and pull him out, calling “Come back, brother, come back
brother, you shall carry my baby about for me!” but his hair came
off in her hand and the earth swallowed them all up. Their sister
planted the hair in a corner of the garden and it is said that from
that human hair, sabai grass originated.

XXVI. The Merchant’s Son and the Raja’s Daughter.

Once a merchant’s wife and a Raja’s wife were both with
child and one day as they bathed together they fell into conversation,
and they agreed that if they both bore daughters then the girls should
be “flower friends” while if one had a son and one a
daughter then the children should marry: and they committed the
agreement to writing. A month or two later the Raja’s wife bore a
daughter and the merchant’s wife a son. When the children grew up
a bit they were sent to school, and as they were both very intelligent
they soon learnt to read and write. At the school the boys used to be
taught in an upstairs room and the girls on the ground [107]floor. One day the boy wrote out a copy of the
agreement which their mothers had made and threw It down to the girl
who was below.

She read it and from that day they began to correspond with each
other; love soon followed and they decided to elope. They fixed a day
and they arranged that the boy should wait for the girl under a
turu tree outside the town. When the evening came the girl made
haste to cook her parents’ supper and then, when they went to
bed, she had as usual to soothe them to sleep by rubbing their limbs;
all this took a long time and the merchant’s son soon got tired
of waiting, so he sang to the tree:—

and so singing he tied his horse to the roots of the tree and
himself climbed up into the branches, and sitting in the tree he pulled
off and threw down a number of twigs. Late at night the Raja’s
daughter came; she saw the horse tied and the twigs scattered on the
ground, but no other sign of her lover. And at last she got tired of
waiting and called the Turu tree to witness, singing:—

As she finished her song the merchant’s son threw down a large
branch to her, so she looked up and saw him sitting in the tree. Then
she climbed up to him and began to scold him for putting her to the
pain of waiting so long. He retorted “It was you who made me
anxious by keeping me waiting.” “That was not my fault: you
know how much work a woman has to do. I had to cook the supper and put
my parents to bed and rub them to sleep. Climb down and let us be
off.” So they climbed down from the tree and [108]mounted the horse and rode off to a far country.
On the road the girl became very thirsty but in the dense jungle they
could find no water, at last the merchant’s son threw a stone at
hazard and they heard it splash in a pool; so they went in the
direction of the sound and there they found water but it was foul and
full of worms and the girl refused to drink it. She said that she would
only drink water “which had a father and mother.”

So they went on their way, and after a time they came to a number of
crows holding a meeting and in the midst was an owl with its head
nodding drowsily; it was seeing dreams for them; every now and then a
crow would give it a shove and ask what it had dreamt, but the owl only
murmured that it had not finished and went off to sleep again. At last
it said “I have seen a gander and a goose go down into a river
and swim about in it.”

The merchant’s son and his companion went on and presently
came to a river in full flood, which was quite uncrossable; on the far
bank was a cow lowing to a calf which had been left on the bank where
they were. When she saw them the girl began to sing:—

When he heard her lament like this the merchant’s son
exclaimed

“You women are all alike, come let us go back.”

“How can we go back now?” answered the girl “You
of course can pretend that you have been hunting; but we women lose our
character if we are hidden by a bush for a minute.”

So as they could not cross the river by themselves, a goose and
gander carried them across on their backs. As they went on the
merchant’s son asked the girl [109]how far she would
like to go, a six days’ journey or a six months’ journey.
He told her that in the six months’ journey they would only have
fruits and roots and such like to eat and water to drink, but the six
days’ journey was easy and free from hardship.

The girl chose the six days’ journey, so they went on for six
days and came to a stream on the banks of which stood a cottage in
which lived an old woman. Before they went up to it the girl told her
lover not to eat any rice given to him by the old woman but to throw it
to the fowls; then they went and asked to be allowed to cook their food
there; now the old woman had seven unmarried sons, who were away
hunting at the time, and when she saw the Raja’s daughter she
wished to detain her and marry her to one of her sons. So in order to
delay them she gave them a damp stove and green firewood to cook with;
she also offered the merchant’s son some poisoned rice but he
threw it to the fowls, and when they ate it they fell down dead.

The girl could not make the fire burn with the green wood, so they
hurried away as fast as they could without waiting to cook any food.
Before they started however the old woman managed to tie up some
mustard seed in a cloth and fasten it to their horse’s tail, so
that as they rode, the seed was spilt along the road they took. When
the old woman’s sons came back from hunting she greeted them by
saying: “Why did you not come back sooner? I have just found a
pretty wife for you; but I have tied mustard seed to their
horse’s tail and it is being scattered along the road: in one
place it is sprouting in another it is flowering; in another it is
seeding and in another it is ripe; when you get to the place where it
is ripe you will catch them.” So the seven brothers pursued the
two lovers and caught them up, but the merchant’s son cut down
six of them with his sword; the seventh however hid under the
[110]horse’s belly and begged for mercy and
offered to serve them as groom to their horse. This man’s name
was Damagurguria; they spared his life and he followed them running
behind the horse; but he watched his opportunity and caught the
merchant’s son unawares and killed him with his sword.

Then he told the girl that she belonged to him and she admitted it
and asked that she might ride behind him on the horse, so Damagurguria
mounted and took her up behind him and turned homewards. He could not
see what the girl was doing and they had not gone far when she drew his
sword and killed him with it.

Then she rode back to where the body of her lover lay and began to
weep over it. As she sat there a man in shining white clothing appeared
and asked what was the matter; she told him Damagurguria had killed her
lover. Then he bade her stop crying and go and wet a gamcha he
gave her and come straight back with it without looking behind her and
then pick a meral twig and beat the corpse with it. So the girl
took the gamcha and went and dipped it in a pool but, as she was
bringing it back, she heard a loud roaring behind her and she looked
back to see what it was; so the stranger sent her back again to the
pool and this time she did not look round though she heard the same
roaring. Then the stranger told her to join the severed head to the
body and cover it with the wet gamcha; and then, after waiting a
little, to beat the body with the meral twig. So saying he
disappeared. The girl carefully complied with these instructions and to
her joy saw the merchant’s son sit up and rub his eyes, remarking
that he must have been asleep for a long time. Great was his
astonishment when he heard how Damagurguria had killed him and how he
had been restored to life by the help of the stranger in white. This
was the end of the lovers’ troubles and they lived happily ever
after. [111]

XXVII. The Flycatcher’s Egg.

One day a herd boy found a flycatcher’s egg and he brought it
home and asked his mother to cook it for him, but she put it on a shelf
and forgot about it. His mother was a poor woman and had to go out all
day to work; so before she started she used always to cook her
son’s dinner and leave it covered up all ready for him. No sooner
had she gone to work than a bonga girl used to come out of the
flycatcher’s egg and first eat up the rice that had been left for
the herd boy and then quickly put water on to boil and cook some rice
with pulse; and, having eaten part of it, cover up the rest, ready for
the herd boy on his return. Then she used to comb and dress her hair
and go back into the egg. This happened every day and at last the boy
asked his mother why she gave him rice cooked with pulse every day, as
he was tired of it. His mother was much astonished and said that some
one must have been changing his food, because she always cooked his
rice with vegetables. At this the boy resolved to watch and see who was
touching his food; so one day he climbed up on to the rafters and lay
in wait. Presently out of the egg came the bonga girl and cooked
the food and combed her hair as usual. Just as she was going back into
the egg, the herd boy sprang down and caught her. “Fi, Fi,”
cried she “is it a Dome or a Hadi who is clasping
me?” “No Dome or Hadi,” said he:
“we are husband and wife:” so he took her to wife and they
lived happily together.

He strictly forbade her ever to go outside the house and he said
incantations over some mustard seed and gave it to her, and told her
that, if any beggars came, she was to give them alms through the window
and, if they refused to take them in that [112]way, then she was to
throw the mustard seed at them; but on no account to go outside the
house. One day when her husband was away a jugi came begging; the
bonga girl offered him alms through the window but the jugi
flatly refused to take them; he insisted on her coming out of the house
and giving them. Then she threw the mustard seed at him and he turned
into ashes. By superior magic however he at once recovered his own form
and again insisted on her coming outside to give him alms, so she went
out to him and he saw how beautiful she was.

The jugi went away and one day he went to beg at the Raja’s
palace and, talking to the Raja, he told him how he had seen a girl of
more than human beauty. The Raja resolved to possess her, and one day
he took the form of a fly and flew to the house and saw the beautiful
bonga; a second day he came back in the same form and suddenly
caught her up and flew off with her on his back to his palace, and in
spite of her weeping shut her up in a beautifully furnished room on the
roof of his palace. There she had to stay and her food was brought to
her there. When the herd boy came home and found that his beautiful
wife was missing he filled the air with lamentations and leaving his
home he put on the garb of a jugi and went about begging. One day he
came to the palace of the Raja who had carried off his wife; as he
begged he heard his wife’s voice, so he sang:—

Then they offered him a jar full of money to pacify him, but he
threw the rupees away one by one and continued his lament. Then the
Raja called for his two dogs Rauta and Paika and set them on the man
and they tore him to death. At this his wife wept grievously
[113]and begged them to let her out since there was
no one to carry her away, now that her husband was dead.

They prepared to take away the corpse to burn it and the
bonga girl asked to be allowed to go with them as she had never
seen the funeral rites of a jugi: so they let her go.

Before starting she tied a little salt in the corner of her cloth.
When she reached the burning place, she sang to the two
dogs:—

So the two dogs built the pyre and lay the body on it. Then she
ordered them to split more wood, singing:—

So they split more wood and then she told them to apply the fire,
singing:—

When the pyre was in full blaze she suddenly said to the dogs
“Look up, Rauta and Paika, see the stars are shining in the day
time.” When the two dogs looked up, she threw the salt into their
eyes, and, while they were blinded, she sprang into the flames and died
as a sati on the body of her husband.

XXVIII. The Wife Who Would Not Be Beaten.

There was once a Raja’s son who announced that he would marry
no woman who would not allow him to beat her every morning and evening.
The Raja’s servants hunted high and low in vain for a bride who
[114]would consent to these terms, at long last, they
found a maiden who agreed to be beaten morning and evening if the
prince would marry her. So the wedding took place and for two or three
days the prince hesitated to begin the beating; but one morning he got
up and, taking a stick from the corner, went to his bride and told her
that she must have her beating. “Wait a minute” said she
“there is one thing I want to point out to you before you beat
me. It is only on the strength of your father’s position that you
play the fine gentleman like this: your wealth is all your
father’s and it is on his wealth that you are relying. When you
have earned something for yourself, and made a position for yourself,
then I am willing that you should beat me and not before.”

The prince saw that what his bride said was true and held his hand.
Then, in order to earn wealth for himself, he set out on a trading
expedition, taking quantities of merchandise loaded in sacks; and he
had a large band of retainers with him, mounted on horses and
elephants, and altogether made a fine show. The princess sent one of
her own servants with the prince and gave him secret instructions to
watch his opportunity and if ever, when the prince was bathing, he
should throw away a loin cloth, to take possession of it without the
prince knowing anything about it and bring it to her. The prince
journeyed on till he came to the country called Lutia.

The Raja of Lutia was walking on the roof of his palace and he saw
the cavalcade approaching, and he sent a sipahi to meet the
prince and ask him this question, “Have you the secret of
prosperity for ever or of prosperity for a day?” When this
question was put to the prince he answered that he had the secret of
prosperity for ever. When the Lutia Raja was told of this answer, he
ordered his men to stop the prince’s [115]train; so they surrounded them and seized all
the merchandise and the prince’s retainers fled on their horses
and elephants and left him alone and penniless. In his distress the
prince was forced to take service with a rich Hindu, and he had nothing
to live on but what his master chose to give him, and all he had to
wear was a loin cloth like the poorest labourer.

The only man who did not desert him was the servant whom the
Princess had sent; and one day he saw that the prince had thrown away
an old loin cloth while bathing; this he picked up and took home to his
mistress, who put it away. When she heard all that had happened to her
husband, she set out in her turn to the Lutia country and all she took
with her was a mouse and a shawl. When she reached the Lutia country
the Raja as before sent a messenger to ask whether she knew the secret
of prosperity for ever or of prosperity for a day.

She answered “prosperity for a day.” Thereupon the Raja
had her sent for and also all the retainers who had deserted the Prince
and who had collected together in the neighbourhood. When they had all
come the Raja said that he would now decide who should have all the
wealth which had been taken from the prince: he produced a cat and said
that the person towards whom the cat jumped should have all the wealth.
So they all sat round the Raja and the Princess had her mouse hidden
under her shawl and every now and then she kept uncovering its head and
covering it up again. The cat soon caught sight of the mouse and, when
the Raja let it go, it jumped straight to the Princess in hopes of
catching the mouse. The Raja at once adjudged all the merchandise to
her, and she loaded it on the horses and elephants and took it home
accompanied by her husband’s retainers.

A few days afterwards her husband came home, having got tired of
working as a servant, and, putting a bold [116]face on it, he went
up to her and said that now he was going to beat her; all the retainers
who had accompanied him when he set out to trade and also the servant
whom the princess had sent with him were present. Then, before them
all, the princess took up the old loin cloth and asked him if he knew
to whom it had belonged; at this reminder of his poverty the prince was
dumb with shame. “Ask your retainers” continued the
princess “to whom all the merchandise with which you set out now
rightfully belongs, ask them whether it is yours or mine, and then say
whether you will beat me.”

The prince had no answer to give her and after this lesson gave up
all idea of beating his bride.

XXIX. Sahde Goala.

Once a marriage was arranged between Sahde Goala and Princess
Chandaini and on the wedding day when it began to get dusk Sahde Goala
ordered the sun to stand still. “How,” said he, “can
the people see the wedding of a mighty man like myself in the
dark?” So at his behest the sun delayed its setting for an hour,
and the great crowd which had assembled saw all the grand
ceremonies.

The next day Sahde and his bride set off home and it took them three
days to reach the place where he lived. Before they left they had
invited the princess’s father to come and see them; accordingly a
day or two later he set out, but it took him three months to accomplish
the distance which Sahde Goala had traversed in three days. When the
old Raja reached his son-in-law’s house they welcomed him and
washed his feet and offered him refreshments; and when he had eaten, he
asked his son-in-law to take him out for a stroll. So they went out,
Sahde Goala in front and the old Raja following behind him and as they
walked Sahde Goala struck his foot against a stone, and the stone
[117]was shattered to pieces. When the Raja saw this
proof of his son-in-law’s superhuman strength, he became alarmed
for his daughter’s safety. If Sahde ever lost his temper with her
he might clearly smash her to atoms, so he made up his mind that he
could not leave her in such keeping. When he told his daughter what he
had seen she was as frightened as her father and begged him to take her
home, so they agreed to escape together some time when Sahde Goala was
out of the way.

One morning Sahde Goala went out to watch his men working in the
fields and the old Raja and his daughter seized this opportunity to
escape. Sahde Goala had a sister named Lorokini and she ran to the
field to tell her brother that his wife was running away. “Let
her go” said Sahde Goala. The old Raja travelled faster than his
daughter and left her behind and as she travelled along alone Sahde
Goala made a flooded river flow across her path. It was quite
unfordable so the Princess stood on the bank and sang:—

But no such thing happened and she had to go back to her
husband’s house.

When she arrived her mother-in-law gave her a large basket of cooked
rice and a pot of relish and told her to take them to the labourers in
the field. Her mother-in-law helped her to lift the basket on to her
head and she set off. When she reached the field she called to her
sister-in-law:—

[118]

But Lorokini was angry with her for trying to run away and refused
to help, singing:—

Then Chandaini Rani propped it against the trunk of a murup
tree, and so set it on the ground.

Then she sang to her husband:—

But Sahde Goala was ploughing at the head of his men and paid no
attention to her: then she sang again:—

But still Sahde Goala paid no attention. Then Chandaini Rani got
angry and by leaning the basket against the murup tree managed
to get it on to her head again and carried it home, and from that time
murup trees grow slanting. Directly she had taken the rice and relish
to the house she set off again to run away to her mother. As before
Sahde Goala caused a flooded river to flow across her path and as
before she sang:—

And this time the water did stand still and the water below all
flowed away and she crossed over. As she crossed she said “If I
am really chaste no one will be [119]able to touch me.” And
as she reached the opposite bank she saw a young man sitting waiting
for her; his name was Bosomunda, he had been sitting waiting for her on
the bank for days without moving. When he saw Chandaini Rani mount the
bank he rose and said “Come: I have been waiting for you, you are
to be my mistress.” “Fie, fie!” answered she
“Am I to belong to any Dome or Hari?” Bosomunda swore that
she should be his. “If so, then follow a little behind me so as
not to tread on my shadow.” So they went on, the Rani in front
and Bosomunda behind. Presently they came to a tamarind tree on which
grew two enormous fruits; the Rani pointed to them saying “If I
am to belong to you, you must pick me those fruits.” So Bosomunda
began to climb the tree, and as he climbed she prayed that the tree
might grow and touch the sky; and in fact as fast as Bosomunda climbed
so the tree grew and he got no nearer to the fruit.

Then the Chandaini Rani picked up the weapons which he had laid on
the ground and threw them away one to the north and one to the south,
one to the east and one to the west, and ran off as fast as she could.
Bosomunda at first did not see her because his eyes were fixed on the
tamarind fruit, but after she had gone a long way he caught sight of
her and came down as fast as he could and, gathering up his weapons,
went in pursuit. But Chandaini Rani had got a long start, and as she
hurried along she passed a thorn tree standing by the side of the road
and she called to it “Thorn tree, Bosomunda is coming after me,
do your best to detain him for a little.” As she spoke it seemed
as if a weight descended on the tree and swayed it to and fro so that
its branches swept the ground, and it answered her “I will do
like this to him.” Then she went on and met a goat on the road,
and she asked it to do its best to delay Bosomunda, and the goat pawed
the ground and dug [120]its horns into the earth and said that it
would do the same to Bosomunda. Then she went on and met a ram and made
the same request; the ram charged a tree and butted it right over and
promised to treat Bosomunda in the same way. Afterwards she came to a
bull and the bull drove its horns into a bank and brought down a
quantity of earth and said that that was the way he would treat
Bosomunda. Next she came to a buffalo and the buffalo charged a bank of
earth to show what he would do to Bosomunda. Then she came to an
elephant and the elephant trampled a clod of earth to dust and said
that he would treat Bosomunda so. Then she went on and saw a paddy bird
feeding by the roadside and she asked it to do its best to delay
Bosomunda; the paddy bird drove its bill into the earth and said that
it would treat Bosomunda in the same way.

Meanwhile Bosomunda was in hot pursuit. When he came to the thorn
tree, the tree swayed its branches and caught him with its thorns, but
he cut down the tree and freed himself; he went on a little way and met
the goat which ran at him with its horns, but Bosomunda
sang:—

So saying, he killed the goat and cut off its head and tied it to
his waist and went on. Next the ram charged him but he sang:

So saying he killed the Ram and took its head. Then in succession he
was attacked by the bull and the buffalo and the elephant, but he
killed them all and cut [121]off their heads. Then he came to
the paddy bird, which pretended to be busily engaged in picking up
insects and gradually worked its way nearer and nearer. Bosomunda let
it get quite close and then suddenly seized it and gave its neck a pull
which lengthened it out considerably; “Thank you” said the
paddy bird, as he put it down “now I shall be able to catch all
the fish in a pool without moving.” Thereupon Bosomunda caught it
again and gave its neck a jerk and that is why paddy birds have necks
shaped like a letter S.

Bosomunda continued his pursuit and caught up Chandaini Rani just as
she was entering her father’s house; he seized her by her hair
and managed to cut off the edge of her cloth and pull off one of her
golden anklets, and then had to let her go.

He took up his abode at the ghat of a tank and began to kill
every one who came down to the water. The citizens complained to the
Raja of the destruction he was causing and the Raja ordered some
valiant man to be searched for, fit to do battle with the murderer; so
they sent for a Birbanta (giant) and the Raja promised to give him half
his kingdom and his daughter in marriage if he could slay Bosomunda. So
the Birbanta made ready for the fight and advanced brandishing his
weapons against Bosomunda. Three days and three nights they fought, and
in the end the Birbanta was defeated and killed.

Then the Raja ordered his subjects to find another champion and a
Birburi was found willing to undertake the fight in hope of the
promised reward; and as he was being taken to the field of battle his
mother met him with a ladle full of curds and told him to do a war
dance, and as he was dancing round she threw the curds at him; he
caught the whole of it on his shield except one drop which fell on his
thigh; from this his mother foresaw that he would bleed to [122]death In the fight, so she took some rice and
ran on ahead and again met her son and told him to do the war dance and
show how he was going to fight; and as he danced his sword shivered to
atoms. His mother said, “Is this the way in which you intended to
fight, of a surety you would have met your death.” Then she made
him gather together the pieces of his sword and cover them with a wet
cloth, and in a few minutes the pieces joined together; then she
allowed him to go to the fight.

When the battle began the Birburi’s mother kept calling out
“Well, Bosomunda, have you killed my son?” This enraged
Bosomunda and he kept running after the old woman to drive her away,
and this gave the opportunity to the Birburi to get in a good blow; in
this way they fought for seven days and nights and at the end Bosomunda
was defeated and killed. Then the Raja gave half his kingdom to the
Birburi and married him to his daughter Chandaini Rani.

After their marriage they set out for their new home and on the way
they met Sahde Goala who had come in search of his missing wife.
“Hulloa” cried Sahde Goala “where are you taking my
wife to?” “I know nothing about your wife” said the
Birburi “this is the Raja’s daughter whom I have married as
a reward for killing Bosomunda; he has given me half his kingdom from
Sir Sikar to the field of the cotton tree.” Then Sahde Goala told
him to go his way, so the Birburi and the Rani went on and Sahde Goala
caused a flooded river with the water flowing bank high to cross their
path. As they waited on the bank Sahde Goala made the Birburi an offer
that, if he could carry the woman across the river without getting the
sole of her foot wet, then she should belong to him and if not Sahde
Goala should take her. The Birburi agreed and tried and tried again to
get the Rani across without wetting her, but the [123]flood was too strong, so at last he gave in and
Sahde Goala took her back with him to their former home. There they
lived and in the course of time Chandaini Rani bore a son and she named
him Dhonontori, and after the birth of their son the family became so
wealthy (dhon) that the Hindus revered Dhonontori as a god. And so ends
the story.

XXX. The Raja’s Son and the Merchant’s Son.

Once upon a time the son of a Raja and the son of a merchant were
great friends; they neither of them had any taste for lessons but would
play truant from school and waste their time running about the town.
The Raja was much vexed at his son’s behaviour; he wished him to
grow up a worthy successor to himself, and with this object did all he
could to break off his friendship with the merchant’s son, as the
two boys only led each other into mischief; but all his efforts failed
and at last he offered a reward of one hundred rupees to any one who
could separate them. One of the Raja’s concubines made up her
mind to earn the reward, and one day she met the two boys as they were
going out to bathe. The Raja’s son was walking ahead and the
merchant’s son a little way behind; the woman ran after the
merchant’s son and threw her arms round him and putting her lips
to his ear pretended to whisper to him and then ran away. When they met
at the river the Prince asked the merchant’s son what the woman
had told him, his friend denied that she had said anything but for all
his protestations the Prince would not believe this. They quarrelled
about it for a long time and at last the Prince went home in a rage and
shut himself up in his room and refused to eat or be comforted. His
father sent to enquire what was the [124]matter with him and
the Prince replied that food should not pass his lips until the
merchant’s son had been put to death.

Thereupon the Raja sent for some soldiers and told them to devise
some means of killing the merchant’s son. So they bound the youth
and showed him to the Prince and said that they would take him to the
jungle and kill and bury him there. They then led him off, but on the
road they caught a lamb and when they got to the jungle they killed the
lamb and steeped the clothes of the merchant’s son in the blood
that they might have something to show to the Prince and then went back
leaving the boy in the jungle. They took the bloody cloth to the Prince
and told him to rise and eat, but when he saw the blood, all his old
friendship revived and he was filled with remorse and could not eat for
sorrow. Then the Raja told his soldiers to find out some friend to
comfort the Prince, and they told him that they would soon set things
straight and going off to the jungle brought back the merchant’s
son and took him to the Prince; and the two youths forgot their
differences and were as friendly as before.

Time passed and one day the Prince proposed to his friend that they
should run away and seek their fortunes in the world. So they fixed a
day and stole away without telling anyone, and, as they had not taken
any money, they soon had to look about for employment. They found work
and the arrangement their masters made with them was this: their wages
were to be as much rice each day as would go on a leaf; and if they
threw up their work they were to forfeit one hand and one ear; on the
other hand if their masters discharged them so long as they were
willing to work for this wage the master was to lose one hand and one
ear. The merchant’s son was cunning enough to turn this agreement
[125]to his advantage, for every day he brought a
large lotus leaf to be filled with rice; this gave him more than he
could eat and he soon grew fat and flourishing, but the Raja’s
son only took an ordinary sal leaf to his master and the rice
that he got on this was not enough to keep him alive, so he soon wasted
away and died.

Now the merchant’s son had told his master that his name was
Ujar: one day his master said “Ujar, go and hoe that sugar cane
and look sharp about it.” So Ujar went and instead of hoeing the
ground dug up all the sugar cane and piled it in a heap. When the
master saw his fine crop destroyed he was very angry and called the
villagers to punish Ujar, but when they questioned him, Ujar protested
that he was bound to obey his master’s orders; he had been
ordered to hoe the sugar cane, not the ground, and he had done as he
was told, and so they had to let him off.

Another day a Hindu neighbour came to Ujar’s master and asked
him to lend him his servant for a day. So Ujar went to the
Hindu’s house and there was told to scrape and spin some hemp,
but Ujar did not understand the Hindu language and when he got the
knife to scrape the hemp with, he proceeded to chop it all up into
little pieces; when the Hindu saw what had happened he was very angry
and called in the neighbours, but Ujar protested that he had been told
to cut the hemp and had done so; and so he got off.

Ujar’s master had an only child and one day he told Ujar to
take the child to a tank and give him a good washing, so Ujar took the
child to a tank and there proceeded to dash the child against a stone
in the way that washermen wash clothes; he knocked the child about
until he knocked the life out of him and then carefully washed him in
the tank and brought the body home and put it on the bed. Next morning
the father was surprised not to hear the child running about and,
[126]going to look, found the dead body. The
villagers assembled but Ujar protested that his master had told him to
wash the child thoroughly and he had only obeyed orders; so they had to
let him off again.

After this the master made up his mind to get rid of Ujar, but he
was in a fix: he could not dismiss him because of the agreement that if
he did not continue to employ him so long as he was willing to serve
for one leaf full of rice a day he was to lose a hand and an ear. So he
decided to kill him, but he was afraid to do so himself for fear of
being found out; so he decided to send Ujar to his
father-in-law’s house and get them to do the job. He wrote a
letter to his father-in-law asking him to kill the bearer directly he
arrived before many people knew of his coming and this letter he gave
to Ujar to deliver.

On the way however Ujar had some misgivings and he opened the letter
and read it; thereupon he tore it in pieces and instead of it wrote a
letter to his master’s father-in-law in which his master was made
to say that Ujar was a most valuable servant and they should give him
their youngest daughter in marriage as soon as possible. The fraud was
not found out and directly Ujar arrived he was married to the youngest
daughter of his master’s father-in-law. A few days later the
master went to see how his plan had worked and was disgusted to find
Ujar not only alive but happily married.

So he thought that he would entice him into the jungle and kill him
there; with this object he one day invited Ujar to come out hunting
with him, but Ujar suspected what was up and took a hatchet with him;
and directly they got to the jungle he fell behind his master and cut
him down with his hatchet and then went home and told his wife’s
relations that his master had got tired of hunting and had gone back
[127]to his own home; no doubts were raised about his
story and he lived on happily with his wife till he died at a ripe old
age.

XXXI. The Poor Widow.

Once there was a poor widow who had two children; she lived by daily
labour and if she got no work any day, then that day they had to go
without food. One morning she went out to look for work and a rich
woman called her and asked if she wanted a job; she said “Yes,
that is what I am looking for,” then the rich woman said
“Stay here and pick the lice out of my hair, and I will pay you
your usual wages and give you your dinner as well.” So the poor
widow agreed and spent the day picking out the lice and at evening the
rich woman brought out a measure of rice to give her as her wages and,
as she was measuring it, she felt her head itch and she put up her hand
and scratched and pulled out a large louse.

Then she got very angry and scolded the widow and said that she
would pay her nothing as she had not done her work properly and she
turned her out. Then the widow was very unhappy for she had nothing to
give her starving children and she wished that she had stuck to her
usual work. When she got home and her children began to cry for food,
she remembered that she had seen some wild saru (vegetable)
growing in a certain place; so she took a basket and a sickle and
telling her children not to cry went out to gather it. It was dark and
lonely and she felt frightened but then she thought of her children and
went on and gathered the saru, and returned home crying because
she had nothing better to give her offspring. On the way she met an old
man who asked her why she was crying and she told him all her story.
Then he told her to take the [128]herbs home and chop them all up
and to put some in every basket and pot she had and to cook the rest
for supper. So when she got home she did as she had been directed and
when she came to take the herbs which she had cooked out of the pot,
she found that they had turned into rice, and she and her children ate
it with joy. The next morning she found that every pot and basket into
which she had put the herbs was full of rice; and from that time she
prospered and bought goats and pigs and cattle and lived happily ever
after.

But no one knew where the old man came from, as she had forgotten to
ask him.

XXXII. The Monkey and the Girl.

Once upon a time the boys and girls of a village used to watch the
crops of but growing by a river, and there was a Hanuman monkey
who wished to eat the but, but they drove him away. So he made a
plan: he used to make a garland of flowers and go with it to the field
and, when he was driven away, he would leave the flowers behind; and
the children were pleased with the flowers and ended by making friends
with the monkey and did not drive him away. There was one of the young
girls who was fascinated by the monkey and promised to marry him. Some
of the other children told this in the village and the girl’s
father and mother came to hear of it and were angry and the father took
some of the villagers and went and shot the monkey. Then they decided
not to throw away the body, but to burn it like the corpse of a man. So
they made a pyre and put the body on it and set fire to it; just then
the girl came and they told her to go away, but she said that she
wished to see whether they really burned him like a man. So she stood
by and when the pyre was in full blaze, she called out “Oh look,
what is happening [129]to the stars in the sky!” at this
every one looked up at the sky; then she took some sand which she had
in the fold of her cloth and threw it into the air and it fell into
their eyes and blinded them.

While they were rubbing the sand out of their eyes the girl leapt on
to the pyre, and was burned along with the monkey and died a
sati. Her father and brothers were very angry at this and said
that the girl must have had a monkey’s soul and so she was
fascinated by him; and so saying they bathed and went home.

XXXIII. Ramai and the Animals.

Once there was a blacksmith who had five sons and the sons were
always quarrelling. Their father used to scold them, but they paid no
heed; so he got angry and one day he sent for them and said: “You
waste your time quarrelling. I have brought you up and have amassed
wealth; I should like to see what you are worth. I will put it to the
test: I will give you each one hundred rupees, and I will see how you
employ the money; if any of you puts it to profitable use, I will call
him my son; but if any of you squander it, I shall call him a
girl.” So they went forth with the money and one bought buffaloes
and one bought horses and another cattle, each according to his
judgement, and brought them home. But the youngest son, who was named
Ramai, soon after he started, found some men killing a cat and he
begged them not to kill the cat, but let him have it and he bought it
of them, and going on he found some men killing a dog which they had
caught stealing and he bought it of them to save its life. By and bye
he came to some men hunting an otter and he asked what they were doing,
and they said that the otter ate the fish in a Raja’s tank and so
they were going to kill it; and he asked them to catch [130]it
and sell it to him, and promised to take it away where it could do no
harm; and they did so. Then he went on and came to some men who were
killing a young black snake and he saved that also, and then returned
home with his four animals, and he tethered the cat and the dog and the
otter in the yard and he put the snake into a pot with a lid on and
hung it in the cow shed.

When his father saw Ramai’s animals, he was very angry and
jeered at him and said that he had no more mind than a woman; and
especially he told him to throw away the snake at once, if he did not
want it killed. So Ramai took down the pot with the snake in it, and
the snake said: “Take me to my father and mother and they will
reward you, and when they ask what you would like, take nothing but the
ring which is on my father’s hand: it is a magic ring and has the
property that it will give you whatever you ask.”

So Ramai took the young snake to its home and its father and mother
were very grateful and asked what reward he would accept: and he said
he would take nothing but the ring, so they gave it to him. On the way
home he thought that he would test its virtues: so he bathed and spread
out a cloth and then prayed: “Oh ring, give me some
luncheon,” and behold he saw a nice lunch heaped up in the middle
of the cloth. He ate it joyfully and went back home, and there he found
that his father had killed the other animals and he reproached him; but
his father said: “They were useless and were only eating their
heads off, why should not I kill them?” Ramai answered:
“These were not useless, they were most valuable animals, much
better than those my brothers bought; if you asked my brothers for a
gold palace they could not make you one, but I could do so at once,
thanks to the snake, and I could marry a princess and get anything else
I want.” [131]

His father said that he would like to see him try: so Ramai asked
the ring for a gold palace and immediately one appeared in their
garden. Then his father was very repentant about having killed the
other animals. But Ramai’s boast that he could marry a princess
got abroad and the Raja heard of it and as he was glad to have so rich
a son-in-law, he gave him his daughter in marriage. And with his
daughter the Raja sent elephants and horses, but Ramai sent them back
again, lest it should be said that he had become rich through the
bounty of the Raja; and by virtue of the ring they lived in wealthy and
prosperity.

XXXIV. The Magic Bedstead.

Once upon a time a carpenter made a bedstead, and when it was ready
he put it in his verandah. At night he heard the four legs of the
bedstead talking together and saying: “We will save the life of
anyone who sleeps on this bedstead and protect him from his
enemies.” When the carpenter heard this, he decided not to part
with the bed for less than a hundred rupees. So next day he went out to
try and get this price for the bed, but people laughed at him and said
that no one could pay such a price but the Raja; so he went to the Raja
and the Raja asked why he wanted one hundred rupees for a bedstead that
was apparently worth only five or six annas. The carpenter answered
that the bed would protect its owner from all enemies; the Raja doubted
at first but as the man persisted in his story, he agreed to buy the
bed, but he stipulated that if he found the story about it not to be
true, he should take back his money.

One night the king lay awake on the bed and he heard the legs of the
bed talking, so he lay still and listened: and they said that the Raja
was in danger and that they [132]must try to save him. So one leg
loosened itself from the bed and went away outside and it found a tiger
which had come to eat the Raja, and it beat the tiger to death, and
then came back and fixed itself into its place again. Soon a second leg
said that it would go outside; so it went and that leg met a leopard
and a bear and it beat them to death and returned. Then the third leg
said that it was its turn, and it went outside and it found four
burglars digging a hole through the wall of the palace, and it set upon
them and broke their legs and left them lying there. When this one
returned, the fourth leg went out and it heard a voice in the sky
saying: “The Raja is very cunning, I will send a snake which
shall hide in his shoe and when he puts the shoe on in the morning, it
will bite him and he will die.” When this leg came back, each one
told the others what it had seen and done, and the Raja heard them and
lay awake till morning, and at dawn he called his servants and sent
them outside the palace and there they found the tiger and leopard and
bear lying dead, and the four thieves with their legs broken. Then the
Raja believed what the legs had said and he would not get up but first
ordered his servants to make a fire in the courtyard and he had all his
shoes thrown into the fire and then he got up.

After this the Raja ordered that great care was to be taken of the
bedstead and that anyone who sat on it should be put to death; and he
himself used not to sleep in it anymore but he kept it in his bedroom
that it might protect him.

XXXV. The Ghormuhas.

Ghormuhas have heads like horses and bodies and arms like men and
their legs are shaped like men’s but they have only one leg each,
and they eat human beings. [133]

One day a young man named Somai was hunting a deer and the deer ran
away to the country of the Ghormuhas and Somai pursued it, and the
Ghormuhas caught him and took him home to eat. First they smoked him
for two or three days so that all the vermin were driven out of his
body and clothes and then they proceeded to fatten him; they fed him
well every day on rice cooked with turmeric.

Somai saw how they dealt with their other victims: they tied them
hand and foot and threw them alive into a pot of boiling oil and when
they were cooked they hung the bodies up in the doorway and would take
a bite as they passed in and out; the liver and heart and brains they
cooked separately. They used to eat their own parents also: for when a
father or mother grew old they would throw them on to the roof of the
house and when they rolled down and were killed they would say to their
friends, “The pumpkin growing on our roof has got ripe and fallen
off and burst, let us come and eat it;” and then they had a
feast.

Somai saw all this and was very frightened. The Ghormuhas could run
very fast and they made Somai run a race with them every day and their
plan was that they would eat him when he was strong enough to beat them
in the race. In the course of time he came to beat them in running on
the road; then they said that they would make him run in the fields
and, if he beat them there, they meant to eat him.

Somai found out their plan and he decided to try and run away; if he
stayed he would be eaten, so if they caught him when he tried to run
away he would be no worse off. So the first day they raced in the
fields Somai was winning but he remembered and stopped himself and let
himself be beaten that day. But he resolved to try and escape the next
day and the Ghorarahas had decided to eat him that day whatever
happened. So when the [134]race began, Somai set off towards
the lower lands where the rice fields were embanked and he jumped the
embankments, but the Ghormuhas who pursued him could not jump well and
tumbled and fell; and thus he ran away to his own country and made good
his escape. And it was he who told men what Ghormuhas are like and how
they live.

XXXVI. The Boy Who Learnt Magic.

Once upon a time there was a Raja who had seven wives and they were
all childless, and he was very unhappy at having no heir. One day a
Jogi came to the palace begging, and the Raja and his Ranis asked him
whether he could say what should be done in order that they might have
children; the Jogi asked what they would give him if he told them and
they said that they would give him anything that he asked for and gave
him a written bond to this effect. Then the Jogi said “I will not
take elephants or horses or money, but you shall give me the child
which is born first and any born afterwards shall be yours, do you
agree?” And the Ranis consulted together and agreed.
“Then,” said the Jogi, “this is what you must do: you
must all go and bathe, and after bathing you must go to a mango orchard
and the Raja must choose a bunch of seven mangoes and knock it down
with his left hand and catch it in a cloth, without letting it touch
the ground; then you must go home and the Ranis must sit in a row
according to their seniority and the Raja must give them each one of
the mangoes to eat, and he must himself eat the rinds which the Ranis
throw away; and then you will have children.” And so saying the
Jogi went away promising to return the next year.

A few days later the Raja decided to give a trial to the
Jogi’s prescription and he and the Ranis did as they [135]had
been told; but the Raja did not eat the rind of the youngest
Rani’s mango; he did not love her very much. However five or six
months after it was seen that the youngest Rani was with child and then
she became the Raja’s favourite; but the other Ranis were jealous
of her and reminded the Raja that he would not be able to keep her
child. But when her time was full she gave birth to twin sons, and the
Raja was delighted to think that he would be able to keep the younger
of the two and he loved it much.

When the year was up the Jogi came and saw the boys and he said that
he would return when they could walk; and when they could run about, he
came again, and asked whether the Raja would fulfil his promise.

The Raja said that he would not break his bond. Then the Jogi said
that he would take the two boys and when the Raja objected that he was
only entitled to one, he said that he claimed both as they were born at
the same time; but he promised that if he took both he would teach them
magic and then let one come back; and he promised also that all the
Ranis should have children. So the Raja agreed and sent away the boys
with the Jogi and with them he sent goats and sheep and donkeys and
horses and camels and elephants and furniture of all sorts.

The Jogi was called Sitari Jogi and he was a Raja in his own
country. But before they reached his country all the animals died,
first the goats, then the sheep and the donkeys and the horses and the
camels and the elephants. And when the goats died the boys
lamented:

and so they sang when the other animals died.

At last they reached the Jogi’s palace and every day
[136]he taught them incantations and spells. He
bought them each a water pot and sent them every morning to fill it
with dew, but before they collected enough, the sun came out and dried
up the dew; one day they got a cupful, another day half a cupful, but
they never were able to fill the pots. In the course of time they
learnt all the spells the Jogi knew and one day when they went out to
gather dew, the younger boy secretly took with him a rag and he soaked
this in the dew and then squeezed it into the pot and so he soon filled
it; and the elder boy seeing his brother’s pot full, filled his
pot at a pool of water and they took them to the Jogi; but the Jogi was
not deceived by the elder boy and told him that he would never learn
magic thoroughly; but the younger boy having learned all that the Jogi
knew, learnt more still from his friends, for all the people of that
country knew magic.

Then one day the Jogi took the two boys back to their home and he
told the Raja that he would leave the elder boy at home. The Raja
wanted to keep the younger one, but the Jogi insisted and the younger
boy whispered to his mother not to mind as he would soon come back by
himself; so they let him go.

The Jogi and the boy used to practise magic: the Jogi would take the
form of a young man and the boy would turn into a bullock and the Jogi
would go to a village and sell the bullock for a good price; but he
would not give up the tethering rope and then he would go away and do
something with the tethering rope and the boy would resume his shape
again and run off to the Jogi and when the purchasers looked for their
bullock they found nothing, and when they went to look for the seller
the Jogi would change his shape again so that he could not be
recognised; and in this way they deceived many people and amassed
wealth.

Then the Jogi taught the boy the spell he used with [137]the
rope, and when he had learnt this, he asked to be taught the spell by
which he could change his own shape without having a second person to
work the spell with the rope. The Jogi said that he would teach him
that later but he must wait. Then the boy reproached the Jogi and said
that he did not love him; and he went away to his friends in the town
and learnt the spell he wanted from them, so that he was able to change
his shape at will.

Two or three days after the boy again went to the Jogi and said
“Teach me the spell about which I spoke to you the other
day,” and the Jogi refused. “Then,” said the boy,
“I shall go back to my father, for I see that you do not love
me.”

At this the Jogi grew wrathful and said that if the away he would
kill him, so the boy at this ran away in terror, and the Jogi became a
leopard and pursued him: then the boy turned himself into a pigeon and
the Jogi became a hawk and pursued him; so the boy turned himself into
a fly and the Jogi became a paddy bird and pursued him; the fly
alighted on the plate of a Rani who was eating rice, and the Jogi took
on his natural shape and told the Rani to scatter the rice which she
was eating on the ground and she did so; but the boy turned himself
into a bead of coral on the necklace which the Rani was wearing; and
the Jogi did not notice this but became a pigeon and ate up the rice
which the Rani had thrown down. When he did not find the boy among the
rice he turned himself into a Jogi again and saw him in the necklace;
then he told the Rani to break her necklace and scatter the beads on
the ground and she did so; then the Jogi again became a pigeon and
began to pick up the beads, but the boy turned himself into a cat and
hid under the verandah and when the pigeon came near, he pounced on it
and killed it, and ran outside with it. Then he [138]became a boy again and twisted off the
bird’s head and wrapped it in his cloth and went off home; and
looking behind he saw the Jogi’s head come rolling after him, so
when he came to a blacksmith’s fire by the side of the road he
threw the pigeon’s head into it, and then the Jogi’s head
also ran into the fire and was consumed.

And the boy went home to his parents.

XXXVII. The Charitable Jogi.

Once there was a very poor man with a large family; and when his
eldest son grew up he tried to arrange a marriage for him. He selected
a bride and arranged matters with her relations but then he found that
he had no money to pay for the performance of the marriage ceremonies.
So he tried to borrow from his friends and from money lenders, but no
one would lend him anything. So he proposed to the bride’s
relatives to only have the betrothal that year and the marriage the
year after, but they would not agree and said that the marriage must be
then or never.

Just then a Jogi came to his house to beg and he told the Jogi all
about his difficulties and asked for help; the Jogi took pity on him
and gave him twenty rupees which was all that he had collected by
begging.

Now this Jogi had two wives at home and he thought that he would get
a poor reception from them if he returned empty handed, so he picked up
two stones and wrapped them up in two pieces of cloth. And when he
reached home his wives welcomed him and brought out a bed for him to
sit on and asked about his adventures and when they saw the bundles
they wished to know what was inside and they opened them before him and
behold the stones had turned into gold. When the Jogi saw this he
wished that he had picked up three or four stones instead of only two
and he understood that [139]Chando had given him the gold
because he helped the poor man.

This is why no money lender will refuse a loan if one is asked for
for the performance of a marriage and money so borrowed is always paid
back punctually. When the Jogi came back the next year the poor man
paid him the twenty rupees.

XXXVIII. Chote and Mote.

Once upon a time there were two brothers Chote and Mote; they were
poor but very industrious and they got tired of working as hired
labourers in their own village so they decided to try their luck
elsewhere. They went to a distant village and Chote took service with
an oilman and Mote with a potter on a yearly agreement. Chote had to
drive the oil mill in the morning and then after having his dinner to
feed the mill bullock and take it out to graze. But the bullock having
had a good meal of oilcake would not settle down to graze alone but
kept running after all the herds of cattle it saw, and Chote had to
spend his whole time running after it till he was worn out and he was
very soon sorry that he had taken up such hard service; and was quite
resolved not to stay on after his year was up.

Mote was no better off; the potter overworked him, making him carry
water and dig earth from morn to night and for all he did he got
nothing but abuse.

One day the brothers, met and Mote asked Chote how he was getting
on. Chote answered “Oh I have got a capital place; all the
morning I sit at my ease on the oil mill, then I have a good dinner and
take the bullock out to graze and as it has had a good meal of oilcake
it lies down without giving any trouble and I sit in the shade and
enjoy myself.” Then Mote [140]said “I am pretty lucky
too. I have to fetch three or four pots of water, then I have my dinner
and a rest and then I have to dig earth and knead it. Still I cannot
say that I have so little work as you; will you change with me for
three or four days, so that I may have a rest?”

Chote gladly agreed and each brother thought that he had got the
better of the other. In the morning while Mote was driving the oil mill
he was very pleased with his new job and when he had to take the
bullock out to graze he took a bedstead with him to lie on. But
directly the bullock got outside the village it rushed off bellowing
towards some other cattle and Mote had to run after it with his
bedstead on his head, and all the afternoon the bullock kept him
running about till he was worn out.

Meanwhile Chote was no better off; his unaccustomed shoulders were
quite bruised with constantly carrying water. At the potter’s
house was a custard apple tree and it was believed that there was money
buried at the foot of the tree; so as Chote was a stranger, the potter
told him to water the earth by the tree to soften it, as it was to be
used for pottery. Chote softened the earth and dug it and as he dug he
uncovered pots of rupees; so he covered them up again and dug the earth
elsewhere. And at evening he went and proposed to Mote to run away with
the money. So at midnight, they went and dug it up and ran off home. As
they were not pursued, they felt safe after a month or two, so they
spent the money in buying land and cattle, and their cultivation
prospered, and they became quickly rich.

XXXIX. The Daydreamer.

Once an oil man was going to market with his pots of oil arranged on
a flat basket and he engaged a [141]Santal for two annas to carry
the basket; and as he went along, the Santal thought “With one
anna I will buy food and with the other I will buy chickens, and the
chickens will grow up and multiply and then I will sell some of the
fowls and eggs and with the money I will buy goats; and when the goats
increase, I will sell some and buy cows, and then I will exchange some
of the calves for she-buffaloes, and when the buffaloes breed, I will
sell some and buy land and start cultivation and then I will marry and
have children and I will hurry back from my work in the fields and my
wife will bring me water and I will have a rest and my children will
say to me ‘Father, be quick and wash your hands for
dinner,’ but I will shake my head and say ‘No, no, not
yet!’”—and as he thought about it he really shook his
head and the basket fell to the ground and all the pots of oil were
smashed.

Then the oilman abused him and said that he must pay two rupees for
the oil and one anna for the pots: but the Santal said that he had lost
much more than that and the oilman asked him how that could be: and the
Santal explained how with his wages he was going to get fowls and then
goats and then oxen and buffaloes and land and how he came to spill the
basket and at that the oilman roared with laughter and said “Well
I have made up the account and I find that our losses are equal, so we
will cry quits;” and so saying they went their ways laughing.

XL. The Extortionate Sentry.

There was once a sentry outside a Raja’s palace who would let
no one go in to sell anything to the Raja until they first promised to
give him half the price they received from the Raja, and the poor
traders had to promise, for their livelihood depended on selling their
[142]goods. One day a fisherman caught an enormous
fish and he thought that if he took it to the Raja he would get a big
price for it.

So he went off to the palace, but when he came to the gate the
sentry stopped him and would not let him go in, until he promised to
give him half of what he got, and after some argument he had to
promise. So he was admitted to the Raja’s presence and when the
Raja asked what was the price of the fish, the fisherman said “A
hundred blows with a stick.”

The Raja was very astonished and asked the meaning of such a
request. Then the fisherman said that the sentry had extorted a promise
that he should get half the price and he wanted him to get fifty blows.
At this the Raja was very angry and he had the sentry beaten with one
hundred stripes and dismissed him.

XLI. The Broken Friendship.

Once upon a time there was a Raja and his Dewan and they each had
one son, and the two boys were great friends, and, when they grew old
enough, they took to hunting and when they became young men they were
so devoted to the sport that they spent their whole time in pursuit of
game; they followed every animal they could find until they killed it,
and they shot every bird in the town.

Their parents were much distressed at this, for they thought that if
their boys spent all their time together hunting they would grow up
unruly and ignorant; so they made up their minds that they must
separate the young men so that they would not be tempted to spend so
much time in sport, but would be able to learn something useful; they
scolded the youths and told them to give up their friendship and their
hunting, but this had no effect. Then the Raja told the villagers that
[143]he would reward any one who would break up the
friendship, and the villagers tried their best but effected
nothing.

There was however an old woman in the village who one day said,
“If the Raja gave me ten rupees I would soon put a stop to their
friendship.” This came to the ears of the Raja and he exclaimed
“What is ten rupees to me! bring the old woman to me and I will
give her ten rupees, if she can put an end to this friendship.”
So the old woman was brought trembling before the Raja and on being
questioned undertook to break up the friendship if she were properly
rewarded; and when this was promised she asked for two men to be given
to her and she took them to her house and there she made them sling a
bed on a pole, such as is used for carrying a man on a journey and she
hung curtains all round it and drew them close and inside, on an old
winnowing fan, they put some rotten manure from a dung hill.

Then she made the two men take up the bed and she fetched a drum and
she paraded all through the bazar beating the drum with the bed
following behind her. She told the two carriers not to answer any
questions as to what was in the bed. Thus they passed out of the town
and went in the direction in which the two young men had gone hunting.
When these heard the sound of the drum and saw the two men carrying the
bed they ran up to see what it was and told the carriers to put It down
that they might look inside; so the bed was put on the ground and the
Raja’s son peeped inside the curtain, but as he caught the smell
he jumped back and the Dewan’s son asked what was the matter and
he said “it stinks: it is dung.” The Dewan’s son
would not believe him and also looked to convince himself; then they
both asked what the meaning of this was: the old woman said that she
would explain the meaning of [144]it but only to one of them, and
the one who had heard could tell the other.

So she made the carriers take away the bed and she called the
Raja’s son aside saying “Come I will tell you what it
means” then she put her arms round the neck of the Raja’s
son and put her lips to his ear and pretended to whisper to him, but
really she said nothing; then she let him go and followed the carriers.
The Dewan’s son at once ran to his friend and asked what the old
woman had told him; the Raja’s son answered “She told me
nothing at all, she only pretended to whisper.” The Dewan’s
son would not believe this and pressed him to tell, saying “We
have been friends for so long and have had no secrets from each other,
why won’t you tell me this? if you refuse to tell me there is an
end of our friendship,” but the Raja’s son persisted that
he had been told nothing and proposed that they should go and ask the
old woman if it were not so; but the Dewan’s son said that that
was no good because the old woman and the Raja’s son had plainly
made a plot to keep him in the dark. The quarrel grew hotter and hotter, till at last they
parted in anger and each went to his own home and from that time their
friendship was broken off.

And being separated they gave up hunting and took to useful
pursuits. Thus the old woman earned her reward from the Raja.

XLII. A Story Told by a Hindu.

Once upon a time there was a Raja who had two sons and after their
father’s death they divided the kingdom between them. The two
brothers were inveterate gamblers and spent their time playing cards
with each other; for a long time fortune was equal, but one day it
turned against the elder brother and he lost and [145]lost
until his money and his jewellery, his horses and his elephants and
every thing that he had, had been won by his younger brother. Then in
desperation he staked his share in the kingdom and that too he
lost.

Then the younger brother sent drummers through the city to proclaim
that the whole kingdom was his; the shame of this was more than the
elder prince could bear, so he resolved to quit the country and he told
his wife of his intention and bade her stay behind. But his faithful
wife refused to be parted from him; she vowed that he had married her
not for one day nor for two but for good and all, and that where he
went, there she would go, and whatever troubles he met, she would
share. So he allowed her to come with him and the two set off to
foreign parts. After sometime their path led them through an extensive
jungle and after travelling through it for two days they at last lost
their way completely; their food gave out, they were faint with
starvation and torn with briars.

The prince urged his wife to return but she would not hear of it, so
they pushed on, supporting life on jungle fruits; sometimes the prince
would go far ahead, for his faithful wife could only travel slowly, and
then he would return and wait for her; at last he got tired of leading
her on and made up his mind to abandon her. At night they lay down at
the foot of a tree and the prince thought “If wild animals would
come and eat us it would be the best that could happen. I cannot bear
to see my wife suffer any more; although her flesh is torn with thorns,
she will not leave me. I will leave her here; may wild beasts kill both
her and me, but I cannot see her die before my eyes.” So thinking
he got up quietly and went off as quickly as he could.

When the princess woke and found that she had been abandoned, she
began to weep and wept from dawn to noon without ceasing; at noon a
being, in the guise of [146]an old woman appeared and asked
her why she wept, and comforted her and promised to lead her out of the
wood and told her that Chando had had compassion on her and would allow
her to find her husband again if they both lived.

So saying the old woman led the princess from the forest and showed
her the way to a great city where a Raja lived. The princess went
begging her way through the city to the Raja’s palace and there
they engaged her as a servant.

Now her husband had also escaped from the jungle and sought
employment as a labourer but no one would give him work for more than a
day or two, and at last his search for work brought him to the city in
which the princess was; and there he was engaged as a groom in the
palace stables. The prince had changed his name and he had no chance of
knowing that his wife was in the palace, because she was confined to
the women’s apartments; so some years passed without their having
news of each other.

At last one day the princess happened to go on to the roof and
looking down at the stables saw and thought she recognised her husband;
then she leaned over and listened till she heard his voice and at that
she was sure that it was he, so she hastened to the Raja and begged to
be allowed to meet her husband, and the Raja sent to call the syce with
the name which the princess had given but no one came, for the prince
would not reveal himself. Then the princess told their story and how
her husband had gambled away his half of the kingdom. The Raja ordered
any one with such a history to come forward, as his wife was in the
palace; but the prince did not reveal himself.

Then the princess said “Let all the syces cook rice and bring
me a bit of each man’s cooking to taste.” They did so, and
when she tasted the rice cooked by [147]her husband, she at once said
that it was his; her husband was unable to deny it and admitted
everything. Then they took him away from his work in the stables and
let him live with his wife.

After a time the Raja wrote to the younger brother asking whether he
would restore the half of the kingdom which he had won; and the younger
brother answered that he would gladly do so, if his brother would sign
an agreement never to gamble any more; it was with this object in view
and to teach him the folly of his ways that he had dispossessed him.
The elder brother gladly gave the required promise and returned to his
kingdom with his faithful wife and lived happily ever afterwards.

XLIII. The Raibar and the Leopard.

Once upon a time a Raibar was going backwards and forwards
between two families arranging a marriage and part of the road which he
used to travel ran through a forest.

One day as he was going to the bride’s house he took a sack
with him intending to try and get the loan of some Indian corn from the
bride’s relations; but as he was passing through the piece of
jungle he suddenly met a leopard; he was terribly frightened but
collecting his wits he addressed the animal thus “Leopard; I beg
you not to eat me; I am engaged on a work of great merit, I am making
two men out of one.” This address amazed the leopard and he at
once asked the raibar whether he could make him into two, and
promised that if he could his life should be spared. The raibar
answered readily “Seeing that in pursuit of my profession I have
made two men out of one all over the country, of course I can make you
into two leopards if I try; all you have to do is to get into
[148]this sack and keep quiet; if you utter a sound
you will spoil the charm.”

“Well,” said the leopard, “I will try and see; I
undertake to keep quite quiet, and if you are successful I promise to
tell the whole race of leopards to spare the lives of
raibars.” So saying the leopard jumped into the sack and
allowed the man to tie him up tightly in it. No sooner was this done
than the raibar took the sack on his head and carried it to the
bank of a river and having given it two or three hearty whacks with his
stick threw it into the water. The sack went floating down the stream
and it happened that lower down a leopardess sat watching the water and
when she saw the sack coming along she thought that it was a dead cow
floating down. So when it came near she jumped into the water and
pulled it ashore.

She then proceeded to tear open the sack, when out jumped the first
leopard; he soon explained how he came to be in the sack, and declared
that the raibar’s promise had been fulfilled and that she
was his destined mate. The leopardess agreed and the two set to work to
tell all the other leopards what had happened and what a kindness the
raibar had done them; and so it came to pass that to the present
day leopards never interfere with raibars when they are going
about arranging a marriage; no one ever heard of one being injured.

Meanwhile the raibar went on his way rejoicing at having rid
himself of the leopard. But the next year, while engaged on the
business of another marriage, the raibar was passing through the
same jungle when he came face to face with the very leopard that he
thought he had safely disposed of; he at once took to his heels, but
the leopard called out to him not to be afraid and to wait, as he had
something to say to him. So the raibar stopped and the leopard
asked whether he did not recognise him; the raibar stoutly
denied all knowledge [149]of him. “Well,” said the
leopard “I am the leopard of whom you made two out of one, and to
show my gratitude I will give you any reward you like; would you like a
cow or a deer or any other animal? I will kill you one and bring it to
you.”

When the raibar saw the turn that things had taken he thought
that he had better take advantage of it, so he asked for a good large
nilgai. The leopard told him to come to a certain tree at noon the next
day and he would find the animal there. So they separated and the next
day at noon the raibar went to the tree and found a fine nilgai
waiting for him, which he and his friends took home and ate with
joy.

XLIV. The Ungrateful Snake.

There was once a Raja and his dewan and they each had one son; these
sons were married in infancy but as they grew up they never heard
anything about their having been married. When the boys reached manhood
and found no arrangements being made for their weddings they began to
wonder at the delay and often talked about it, and in the end they
agreed to run away to another country. Soon after this resolve of
theirs some horse dealers came to their home with horses to sell; the
two youths at once saw that if they could each have a horse and learn
to ride it, it would be easy for them to run away from home. So they
hurried to their fathers and begged them to buy them each one of the
beautiful horses which the dealers had brought. The Raja and the dewan
did not like to disappoint their sons so they bought the horses, to the
great delight of the boys, who used to ride them every day.

One day the Raja’s son was out riding by himself and he passed
by a tank where a number of women and girls were bathing and drawing
water; as he came [150]galloping along the women ran back in a
fright; and as they could not draw their water while he was there, an
old woman came up to him and told him to go away and not stay making
eyes at the girls as if he had no wife of his own: “What wife
have I?”, said the prince, “I know nothing of having been
married.” “You were married sure enough when you were an
infant,” replied the old woman: “your wife is still in her
father’s house, but now that you have grown up they will probably
bring her home to you this year.”

Then the prince asked where his wife lived and having learnt the
name of the village he galloped off home and at once began to question
his mother about his marriage; his mother told him that they intended
to have the bride brought home that year, but the prince was impatient
and proposed that he should go off at once to his father-in-law’s
and see his wife, and try to persuade them to let her come back with
him without any ceremony; his mother made no objection, so he got ready
for the journey and started off on horseback. He had not gone far when
he saw a field of thatching grass on fire, and in the middle,
surrounded by the flames, was a huge poisonous snake, unable to
escape.

As the prince rode by, the snake called out to him “Prince,
you are going joyously to bring home your bride, and here am I in
danger of being burned alive; will you not have pity on me and save me?
If you do I will confer a boon on you.” “But if I save
you,” objected the prince, “you will only eat me: snakes do
not know what gratitude is.” “I am not of that kind,”
answered the snake: “here I am in danger of death, I beseech you
to have pity on me.” These pleadings prevailed and the prince got
off his horse and beat out the fire and then spread a cloth over the
embers so that the snake could crawl out. When the snake was safe the
prince asked for the boon that had been promised [151]him:
“No boon will you get” said the snake: “you did a
foolhardy thing in saving me, for now I am going to eat you, and you
cannot escape from me.”

The prince saw that there was little hope for him but he begged the
snake to allow two or three judges to decide whether it was fair that
he should be killed, after what he had done. The snake agreed to this
provided that the judges were not human beings; he was willing to be
bound by the opinions of any one else.

They set out together to look for judges and soon saw a herd of
cattle resting under a banyan tree by a pool of water, so they agreed
to make these their judges; then the prince explained to one of the
cows and the banyan tree and the water what they were to decide,
whether it was fair for the snake, whose life he had saved, now to want
to kill him. The banyan tree was the first to answer: it said
“You did good to the snake and your wages for doing good are
evil; you saved his life and he will now kill you, this is fair, this
is the justice we have learnt from human beings; you enjoy the shade of
us trees and in return you lop off our branches and sit on them, and do
us all manner of injury; it is right that the snake should eat
you.”

Then the prince turned to the cow: “He may eat you,”
answered the cow: “the tree is right, see how men treat cattle;
you drive away our calves from us and take our milk and you beat us and
make us work hard; for all this ill treatment the snake shall eat
you.”

Then the prince asked the water what it had to say: “I agree
with the other two” said the water: “to return evil for
good is the justice of mankind, it is by drinking water that your very
lives are preserved; yet you spit into it and wash dirty things in it;
shall not the snake return you evil for good?” So judgment was
delivered, and the snake wanted to eat the prince; but the prince asked
the tree and the cow and the [152]water to listen while he made one
prayer; he told them how he had been married when he was too young to
know anything about it, and how he was going for the first time to see
his wife, when this misfortune befell him; so he begged that he might
be allowed to go and see his bride and then be eaten on his way back;
the banyan tree asked what the snake thought about this proposal and
the snake said that it would make no objection if the tree and the cow
and the water would be sureties for the return of the prince within
three days. So the prince promised them faithfully that he would return
and they let him go.

The prince rode on to his father-in-law’s house, and when he
arrived, a bed was brought out for him to sit on and he was asked where
he came from. When he explained who he was, they at once brought water
and washed his feet and then gave him oil and a tooth stick and took
him to bathe; then they brought him curds and dried rice to eat and
afterwards killed a goat and made a feast and showed him every
honour.

That evening as his wife was rubbing his arms and legs, the prince
remained silent and downcast and showed none of the joy of a
bridegroom; and when his bride asked what was the matter, he told her
that he had only come to see her for one day and that afterwards she
must try and forget all about him. At first he would not tell her more,
but when she urged him, he told her how he had to go and surrender
himself to the snake on the next day. When she heard this she vowed
that she would go with him and die with him.

The next morning came and the prince said that he must return, and
his wife said that she was going with him; so they made everything
ready and set out on their way. When they came within sight of the
banyan tree where the prince was to be killed, he tried to turn his
wife back but though he used force she refused to [153]leave him and said that she would first see him
killed and then go home; so at last he let her accompany him.

When they reached the tree she asked to be allowed to go in front
and be the first to meet the snake; to this the prince assented. They
had not gone far when they saw the snake awaiting them in the path with
its crest raised, and when they drew near, the prince’s bride
begged the snake to eat her first, as she had nowhere to live if she
survived her husband. The snake refused and bade her go home to her
parents; she said that that was impossible; they had sold her and the
prince had bought her, in life and in death, bones and ashes. But the
snake would not listen and made for the prince to eat him. His wife
however kept in front of the snake and would not let it pass; she
called the banyan tree to witness that the snake should not eat her
husband without first killing her; without her husband she would have
no one to support her.

Then the snake promised to teach her an incantation by means of
which she could support herself, so saying, the snake conferred some
magic power upon and taught her an incantation; and promised her that
if she took some dust in her hand and repeated the incantation and then
blew on the dust, any person on whom she sprinkled the dust would at
once be burnt to ashes. Then the prince’s wife asked how she
should restore the people to life and the snake taught her that also,
but she was not satisfied and said that she must try at once to see
whether the snake was deceiving her or no; so the snake bade her
experiment on a tarop tree which grew near. Thereupon she
gathered up some dust and repeated the incantation and blew on it and
suddenly threw it over the snake, which at once turned to ashes, and
that was the end of the snake.

Then the prince and his wife went on their way [154]rejoicing, and he was filled with wonder at the
way in which his bride had saved him by persisting in going with
him.

XLV. The Tiger’s Bride.

One day a woman went to cut thatching grass and she cut such a
quantity that when she tied it up, the bundle was too big for her to
lift on to her head; so she stood and called for some one to help her,
but no one was within hearing and no one came. She called and called
and at last began to promise that she would give her daughter in
marriage to any one who would help her.

After she had called out this a few times, a tiger suddenly appeared
and asked what she wanted; she explained her difficulty and the tiger
undertook to lift the load on to her head, if she would really give him
her daughter in marriage. She promised and with the help of the tiger
took up the bundle and went home.

Two or three days after, the tiger presented himself at her house
and was duly married to the daughter. After the wedding the couple
started for the tiger’s home; all the way the unhappy bride wept
and sang:—

“You can just see the mouth of the cave” answered the
tiger and in a short time they came to a large cave. Then the tiger
told her to set to work and cook a feast while he went off and invited
his friends to come and share it. But the bride when left alone caught
a cat and killed it and hung it over the fire, so that its blood
dropped slowly into the pan and made a fizzling noise, as if cooking
were going on; and then she ran off to her [155]mother’s house and climbed a tree which
grew near it and began to sing:—

Meanwhile the tiger returned with his friends and sat down outside
the cave and told his wife to be quick with the cooking of the cakes
for he heard the hissing over the fire and thought that she was
cooking. At last as she did not come out, he got tired of waiting and
went in to fetch her: then he saw that she had disappeared and had to
go and tell his friends. They were very angry at being cheated out of a
feast, and fell upon the tiger and beat him, till he ran away and was
seen no more: but his bride was left to flit from tree to tree
singing:—

XLVI. The Killing of the Tiger.

They say that there was a time when all living things had a common
speech and animals and men could understand each other, and in those
days there was a man-eating tiger which infested a jungle through which
a highroad ran; it preyed on people passing along the road till no one
ventured to travel, and as the country was so unsafe, the people went
in a body to the Raja and told him of the ravages of the tiger and
asked him to send a force of soldiers to hunt and shoot it.

So the Raja called together all his soldiers and promised to give
half his kingdom to any one of them [156]who would kill the
tiger, but not one of them was brave enough to make the attempt; they
said that their business was to fight men and not tigers and leopards;
then the Raja extended his offer to all his subjects and the
petitioners went home to consult about it; and the news was published
that the Raja would give half his kingdom to the slayer of the
tiger.

Now there was a poor man who was a very brave shikari of big game,
and cunning into the bargain, and he offered to go and kill the tiger.
They questioned him carefully, and when they saw that he was in earnest
they took him to the Raja to hear from the Raja’s lips what his
reward should be; and the Raja promised him half his kingdom, and wrote
a bond to that effect, for he thought that the tiger would surely kill
the man. Then the shikari said that he would start the next morning and
return the next day either with the dead tiger or with bits of its ears
and claws to show that he had killed it. The Raja told the people to
watch carefully and see that the shikari did not cheat by taking the
claws and ears of a tiger with him.

The next morning the shikari started off and all he took with him
was a looking-glass and three pictures of a tiger drawn on three pieces
of paper and a hatchet; he went to the road which the tiger frequented
and climbed a banyan tree and spent the night in it. The tiger did not
pass by at all that night but in the morning it appeared and called out
“Who is up in the tree?” The shikari said “It is
I.” “Come down quickly,” said the tiger, “I
have been looking for you.” “Wait a minute,” answered
the shikari, “I have been looking for you also.”

“What for?” said the tiger: “Tell me first why you
are looking for me,” said the man: “To eat you,”
answered the tiger; then the man said, “Well I have been hunting
for you to catch you and take you away. I [157]have caught three or
four like you and if you don’t believe me, let me get down and I
will show you”. The tiger got into a fright and said: “Come
down and show me.” So the shikari climbed down and uncovered his
looking glass and told the tiger to look and he reflected in the glass
the pictures of the tigers which he had brought and said, “Now I
am going to catch you and put you in here also.” The tiger asked
why he was to be caught and the shikari said that it was because he had
made the road unsafe by killing travellers; then the tiger begged and
prayed to be let off and promised that he would never kill any
travellers again. At last the shikari said that he would let him go, if
he would allow him to cut off his claws and the tips of his ears and
the tip of his tongue as a pledge of his good faith. The tiger said,
“Well, you may cut off one claw from each foot and the very tip
of my ears and tongue.” So the shikari cut them off with his
hatchet and, after again warning the tiger, went back home; and then
presented himself with all his friends before the Raja and the Raja
gave him the promised reward, But the tiger’s tongue festered
and, after roaring with pain for a whole day, it died.

XLVII. The Dream.

One night as a man and his wife lay talking in bed, the woman told
her husband that she had dreamt that in a certain place she had dug up
a pot full of rupees, and she proposed that they should go and look for
it and see whether the dream was true. While they talked, it chanced
that some thieves, who had climbed on to the roof, overheard the
conversation and at once decided to forestall the others. So they went
off to the place which the woman had described and began to dig, and
after digging a little they were delighted to come on a pot with a lid
on. But when they took off the lid an enormous [158]snake raised its head and hissed at them. At
this the thieves cursed the woman who had misled them and agreed to
take the snake and drop it through the roof on to the man and his wife
as they lay in bed. So they shut the snake up again and carried it off
to the house and, making a hole in the thatch, dropped it through. But
as it fell the snake changed into a stream of money, which came
rattling down on the couple below; the thieves found a snake, but it
was not a real snake, it was Thakur; and it was his will to give the
money to the man and his wife. When these two had recovered from their
astonishment, they gathered up the money, and lived in wealth ever
afterwards.

XLVIII. The King of the Bhuyans.

There was once a king of the Bhuyans and near his palace was a
village of Santals; he was a kind ruler and both Santals and Bhuyans
were very happy under his sway. But when he died, he was succeeded by
his son, who was a very severe master and soon fell out with the
Santals. If he found any cattle or buffaloes grazing anywhere near his
crops, he had the cowherds beaten severely: so that no one dared to
take the cattle in that direction.

The Santals were very angry at this and longed to get even with the
Raja; they planned to turn the cattle into the Raja’s crops at
night when no one could see them or catch them, but in the end their
courage failed them.

One year after the rice had been cut, but before the millet crop was
gathered, the youths and maidens of the Santal village had a dance and
danced all night till nearly morning; then they agreed that it was not
worth while to go to bed and they had better take the cattle out to
graze at once. [159]

After grazing their fill, the cattle all collected at the midday
resting place and the cowherds were so sleepy after their night’s
dancing, that they fell fast asleep on the bare ground. After a time
the buffaloes began to move again and seeing a nice field of millet
belonging to the Raja soon made their way to it and grazed the whole
field down. The Raja happened to pass that way and was filled with
wrath at the sight; he at once ordered his sipahis to go and
beat the cowherds within an inch of their lives and so the
sipahis ran to the place with sticks. Their approach roused the
sleeping cowherds who jumped up and ran off home as hard as they could;
all but the servant of the village paramanik (assistant headman)
he did not run away but went to drive the cattle out of the field; he
knew that this was his duty to his master and he was resolved to do his
duty even at the cost of his life.

As all the other boys had got away the sipahis turned their
attention to him, but as they aimed blows at him with the sticks, he
caught the blows on his arms and the sticks shivered to atoms without
harming him; so then they went to kick him but a great cibei
snake came rustling up behind them; so they saw it was no use to
contend with him and desisted: whereupon he drove all the village
cattle home in triumph.

The sipahis reported to the Raja how the cowherds had all made good
their escape, and how the paramanik’s herd boy had driven off the
cattle. Then the Raja told them to go that afternoon at the time the
cattle were brought home for the night and wait at the end of the
village street and then give the cowherds the thrashing they deserved;
The sipahis did as they were ordered and that evening waited for the
returning herd boys; and caught them as they came home and thrashed
them within an inch of their lives. The others were all left senseless
on the ground: but the [160]sipahis did not dare to lay hands
on the paramanik’s herd boy, he drove the cattle back into the
village, and told the villagers what had been done to their sons. So
the villagers went out with beds and carried the wounded boys home;
then they assembled and resolved to go and punish the Raja, so they
went to him and asked what he meant by killing their children.
“Dear me,” said the Raja, “are they really
dead?” “Well, if not not quite dead, they are very
ill,” was the answer. “I am sorry,” said the Raja:
“I admit that I have done wrong, but if you will forgive me this
time, I will undertake to cure them in a minute and make them as well
as ever; go and fetch them here.”

So the Santals went off to fetch the wounded cowherds and carried
them to the Raja, all lying senseless on beds and put them down before
him. While they were away the Raja had told his sipahis to grind some
good hot chilis; and when the cowherds were brought to him he
told the sipahis to thrust the chili paste up their noses; this was
done and the smarting soon made the cowherds jump up and run away in a
very lively fashion, and that was the way the Raja kept his word and
cured them.

XLIX. The Foolish Sons.

There was once a man of the blacksmith caste who had six sons; the
sons were all married and the whole family lived together. But the
sons’ wives took to quarrelling and at last the sons went to
their parents and proposed that they should set up separate households,
as the women folk could not live in peace.

The blacksmith and his wife did not like the idea at all and pointed
out that it would be most inadvisable; while, so far, there was plenty
of food and clothing for all, they would find it much more expensive to
have [161]seven separate households and split up what was
quite enough so long as they lived together, and what was to become of
their old parents who were now too old to work? The sons protested that
they would support their father and mother as long as they lived, even
though the family separated.

At last the old man said that he would put them to the test and see
whether they were clever enough to manage their own affairs and smart
enough to cheat people into giving them what they wanted. “I will
see,” said he, “how you would manage to support the family
in time of famine or if we fell into poverty. I and your mother have
managed to bring up a large family, and you know nothing of the anxiety
that it has cost us; you have merely had to enjoy yourselves and eat
your meals; if you insist on it, I will let you separate, but
don’t blame me afterwards. However to-morrow I will take you on a
journey and find some means of testing your cleverness.”

So the next morning they made ready for the journey; their father
only allowed them to take one meal of rice tied up in their cloths and
he gave each of them one pice, which he said was their inheritance.
They set off and after travelling some way they sat down and ate up
their rice and then went on again. By the middle of the afternoon they
began to feel hungry, so the father proposed their going to a bazar
which was in sight; but between them and the bazar was a channel of
stagnant water, very deep, and with its surface covered by a coating of
weeds. They tried to cross, but directly they set foot on it they sank
through the weeds, and it was too deep for wading. So their father said
they would all camp on the bank and he would see whether they were
clever enough to get across the channel and bring food for a meal; if
they could do that he would believe that they could support their
families in time of famine. [162]

So the old man spread his cloth on the ground and set down and
watched them try their luck one by one. The eldest brother first jumped
up to try but he could not cross the channel; everytime he tried, he
sank through the weeds, at last he gave up in despair and admitted that
he could not feed the party. Then the other brothers all tried in turn
and failed. At last it came to the turn of the youngest; he modestly
said that he was not likely to succeed where his elders had failed but
he would have a try, so he went to the edge of the water and spreading
out his cloth on the weeds lay down on it so that his weight was
distributed; in this position the weeds supported him and he managed to
wriggle himself across on his face to the other side.

Once across, he went to the bazar, and going to a shop began to talk
with the shopkeeper; after a little he asked for the loan of an anna;
the shopkeeper said that he could not lend to a stranger; the
blacksmith’s son gave the name of some village as his home and
pressed for the loan, promising to pay him one anna as interest within
a week and pulling out his pice he said “See here, I will pay you
this pice as part of the interest in advance.” At this the
shopkeeper suffered himself to be persuaded and lent him the anna.

With this the blacksmith’s son went off to a second shop and
begged for the loan of four annas, as he had pressing need of it; he
promised to pay an anna a week interest, and to pay down at once the
interest for the first week. After some hesitation the shopkeeper was
deceived into lending the four annas. Then he went off to another shop
and borrowed a rupee by promising to pay eight annas a month as
interest and putting down four annas as advance.

Then he went to a Marwari’s shop and asked for the loan of ten
rupees; the Marwari asked for interest at the rate of one rupee a day;
the blacksmith’s son protested [163]that that was too
high but offered to pay one rupee every two days and to pay one rupee
of interest in advance; the Marwari hesitated, but after being given a
name and address—which were however false—he gave way and
took his signature to a bond and lent him the ten rupees. At this the
blacksmith’s son set off in triumph to rejoin his brothers; he
crossed the water in the same way as before and took the ten rupees to
his father.

Then they all went on to another bazar and bought dried rice and
sweetmeats and curds and had a grand feast. Then their father proceeded
to point out to his sons how, except the youngest, they were all
useless; they had been unable to cross the channel or to make anything
of their own pice of capital; they had nothing to answer, and all went
home and from that day nothing was heard of any proposal to divide the
family until the old father and mother died.

L. Kora and His Sister.

There were once seven brothers and they had one sister who was the
youngest of the family. The six eldest brothers were married but no
wife had been found for the youngest; for three years enquiries were
made to try and find a suitable bride for him, but all in vain. At last
the young man, whose name was Kora, told his parents and brothers not
to trouble any more, as he would find a wife for himself; he intended
to bring a flowering plant from the forest and plant it by the stand on
which the watering pots were kept, and then he would marry any maiden
who picked one of the flowers and put it in her hair.

His father and mother approved of this proposal, so the next day he
brought some sort of flowering plant and planted it by the water-pot
stand. He charged all his family to be most careful that no one of his
own [164]relations picked the flower and also to warn any
of the village girls who wanted to pick it, that if she did so and put
it in her hair, she would thereby become his wife; but if, knowing
this, anyone wished to do so, they were not to prevent her.

The neighbours soon got to hear what the plant meant and used often
to come and look at it, and Kora watched it growing, till after a time
it produced a bud and then a beautiful and sweet-scented flower. All
the village girls came to see the beautiful flower; and one day
Kora’s sister when she went to the water-stand to get some water
to drink, caught hold of it and longed to pick it, it looked so pretty.
Her mother saw what she was doing and scolded her for touching the
forbidden flower, but the girl begged to see what it would look like in
her hair; there could be no harm done if she pulled the whole plant up
by its roots and put it in her hair and then replanted it; no one would
know what had happened. In spite of her mother’s remonstrances
she insisted on doing this and having seen how the flower looked in her
hair carefully replanted it.

Soon afterwards Kora came home and went to see his flower; he knew
at once that some one had worn it and called to his mother and asked
who it was. She protested that she knew nothing about the matter, but
Kora said that he could tell by the smell that it had been worn and
then he showed that there was also a hair sticking to the flower. Then
his mother admitted that in spite of all she could say, his sister had
worn the flower and planted it again in the ground.

When she saw that she was found out, the girl began to cry, but her
father said that it was clearly fated that she and Kora should marry
and this was the reason why they had been unable to find any other
bride; so they must now arrange for the wedding. Accordingly rice was
got ready and all the usual preparations made for [165]a
marriage. The unfortunate girl saw that flight was her only means of
escape from such a fate, so one day she ran away; all she took with her
was a pet parrot.

For many days she travelled on and one day she stopped by a pool to
bathe and as she rubbed her limbs she collected the scurf that she
rubbed off her skin and put in on the ground in one place; then she
went on with her bathing; but at the place where she had put the scurf
of her skin, a palm tree sprang up and grew so rapidly, that, by the
time she came out of the water, it had become a large tree.

The girl was struck by this strange sight and at once thought that
the tree would afford her a safe refuge; so she climbed up it with her
parrot in her hand and when safely seated among the leaves she begged
the palm tree to grow so tall that no one would be able to find her,
and the tree grew till it reached an unusual height. So the girl stayed
in the tree top and the parrot used to go every day and bring her food.
Meanwhile her parents and brothers searched high and low for her for
two or three days, for the wedding day was close at hand, but their
search was of course in vain; and they concluded that the girl must
have drowned herself in some river.

Time passed and one day at noon, a Mahuli girl, who was taking her
basket-ware to market, stopped to rest in the shade of the palm tree:
and as she sat there, Kora’s sister called to her from the top of
the tree and asked her to give her a small winnowing fan in exchange
for a bracelet The Mahuli girl told her to throw the bracelet down
first. Kora’s sister made no objection to this, and when she had
got the bracelet, the Mahuli girl threw up a winnowing fan which soared
right up to where Kora’s sister was sitting. Before the Mahuli
girl went on her way, Kora’s sister made her promise never to let
anyone see the bracelet whew she went about selling her baskets
[166]as otherwise it would be stolen from her; and
secondly on no account to let it be known that there was anyone in the
palm tree, on pain of death. The Mahuli girl kept her promise and
whenever she went out selling baskets she used to keep her bracelet
covered with her cloth.

One day it chanced that she went to the house where Kora lived to
sell her wares and they asked her why it was that she kept her arm
covered; she told them that she had a sore on it; they wanted to see
how big the sore was, but she refused to show it, saying that if she
showed it she would die. They laughed at such a ridiculous story and at
last forced her to show her arm, which of course was quite well; but
they at once recognised the bracelet and asked where she had got it
from. The Mahuli girl refused to tell them and said that if she did,
she would die. “What a foolish girl you are” they objected
“first you say you will die if you show us your arm and then if
you tell us where you got this bracelet from; it belonged to our
daughter whom we have lost, and so you must tell us! Come, we will give
you a basket full of rice if you tell us.” The Mahuli girl could
not resist this offer, and when the basket of rice was produced, she
told them where the palm tree was, in which Kora’s sister was
hiding. In all haste the father and mother went to the tree and found
that it was much too high for them to climb: so they begged their
daughter to come down and promised not to marry her to her brother; but
she would not come down: then they sang:—

But she only answered:—

[167]

So they went home in despair.

Then her sisters-in-law came in their turn and sang:—

But she would not answer them nor come down from the tree, so they
had to go home without her.

Then all her other relations came and besought her to come down, but
she would not listen to them. So they went away and invoked a storm to
come to their aid. And a storm arose and cold rain fell, till the girl
in the palm tree was soaked and shivering, and the wind blew and swayed
the palm tree so that its top kept touching the ground. At last she
could bear the cold and wet no more and, seizing an opportunity when
the tree touched the ground, she slipped off. Her relations had made
all the villagers promise on no account to let her into their houses;
so when she went into the village and called out at house after house
no one answered her or opened to her. Then she went to her own home and
there also they refused to open to her.

But Kora had lit a big fire in the cow house and sat by it warming
himself, knowing that the girl would have to come to him; and as she
could find no shelter elsewhere she had to go to his fire, and then she
sat and warmed herself and thought “I fled for fear of this man
and now I have come back to him; this is the end, I can no longer stay
in this world; the people will not even let me into their houses. I
have no wish to see them again.”

So she sat and thought, and when she was warmed, she lay down by the
side of Kora; and he wore tied to his waist a nail-cutter; she
unfastened this and cut her throat with it as she lay. Her death
struggles aroused Kora, and he got up and saw the ground covered with
her blood and he saw that she had [168]killed herself with his
nail-cutter; then he took counsel with himself and also cut his throat
in the same way. In the morning the two corpses were found lying side
by side, and it was seen that their blood refused to mingle but had
flowed in opposite directions.

So they took the bodies away to burn them and laid them on one pyre;
and when the fire was lit, it was seen that the smoke from the two
bodies rose separately into the air. Then all who saw it, said
“We wished to marry brother and sister but Chando would not
approve of it; see how their blood would not mingle though spilt on the
same floor, and how the smoke from the pyre rises in two separate
columns; it is plain that the marriage of brother and sister is
wrong.” From that time such manages have been discontinued.

LI. A Story on Caste.

There was once a village inhabited only by Musahars. Among them was
one girl who was so beautiful that she seemed more than human. Her
father and mother were so proud of her looks that they determined not
to marry her to a man of their own caste. They were constantly
discussing whom they should choose as a son-in-law; one day they began
to consider who were the greatest persons in the world. The old woman
was of opinion that there was no one greater than Chando, the Sun God,
and suggested that they should marry the girl to him. Her husband
agreed and off they set and presented themselves before Chando. Chando
asked why they had come. “O Chando, we understand that you are
the greatest being in the world and we have come to marry our daughter
to you,” Chando answered “I fancy there is some one greater
than I,” “Who is he?” asked the parents. “The
cloud is greater than I, for it can hide my face and quench my
rays.” [169]

At this the father and mother hurried off with their daughter in
search of the Cloud, and when they found him, told him that they had
brought their daughter to give him to wife, as he was the greatest
being in the world. “I may be great,” said the Cloud,
“but there is a greater than I, the Wind. The Wind rises and
blows me away in a minute.” So they went in search of the Wind
and when they found him, explained to him why they had brought him
their daughter. The Wind said “I am strong but there are stronger
than I: the Mountains are stronger. I can blow things down or whirl
them away, but I cannot move the mountains.”

So on they went to the Mountain and explained their errand. The
Mountain said “I am great but there are more powerful than I. The
ground-rat is more powerful, for however high I may be the ground-rats
burrow holes in me and I cannot resist them.”

The poor parents by this time began to feel rather discouraged, but
still they made up their minds to persevere and went on to look for the
ground-rat. They found him and offered him their daughter in marriage,
but the ground-rat denied that he was the most powerful being on earth,
the Musahars were more powerful for they lived by digging out
ground-rats and eating them.

The hapless couple went home very dejectedly, reflecting that they
had begun by despising their own caste and had gone in search of
something greater and had ended where they begun. So they arranged to
marry their daughter to a man of their own caste after all.

Moral You should not despise your own caste or race; you
cannot help what caste you are born into. A Santal may learn to read
and write and associate with men of good position and thereby his mind
may be perverted. He may wish to change his caste [170]become a Sadhu, or a Kherwar, or a Boistab, or a
Mussulman, or a Christian or anything else; but people will still know
him for a beef-eating Santal. If he becomes a Christian, no one will
think him the equal of a Saheb or a Brahman; no Saheb will marry his
daughter or give him his daughter in marriage. Remember what happened
to the Musahar, who despised his own caste. God caused you to be born
in a certain caste. He and not we made the different castes and He
knows what is good and bad for us.

LII. Tipi and Tepa.

Tipi and Tepa dwelt together and lived on baked cakes. One day they
met a bear in the jungle. “Now I will eat you” growled the
bear. “Spare us,” said Tipi and Tepa “and to-morrow
we will beg some food and bake it into cakes and give it to you,”
So the bear let them go away to beg; but when they came back they ate
the food which they had procured and then hid themselves inside a
hollow gourd. The bear came and looked about for them but could not
find them and went away.

The next day Tipi and Tepa again went out begging and as luck would
have it again met the bear. “Now I will eat you” said the
bear. “No” said they “let us go and beg some food for
you.” So they went off begging and came back and baked cakes and
ate them and then hid inside the gourd. The bear came and carried off
the gourd on its shoulder and began to pick plums and other fruit and
put them into the gourd. As fast as the fruit was put in Tipi and Tepa
ate it up. “It is a very funny thing that the gourd does not
become full” thought the bear. But Tepa ate so much that at last
he burst, with such a noise that the bear threw down the gourd and ran
away. [171]

LIII. The Child with the Ears of an Ox.

Once upon a time a son was born to a certain Raja and the child had
the ears of an ox. The Raja was very much ashamed and let no one know.
But the secret could not be kept from the barber who had to perform the
ceremony of shaving the child’s head. However the Raja made the
barber vow not to tell anyone of what he had seen.

So the barber went away, but the secret which he might not tell had
an unfortunate effect; it made his stomach swell to an enormous size.
As the barber went along in this unhappy condition he met a Dom who
asked why his stomach was so swollen. The barber said that it was
because he had shaved the Raja’s child and had seen that it had
the ears of an ox. Directly he had broken his vow and blurted out the
secret, his stomach returned to its usual size.

The Dom went his way and cut down a tree and made a drum out of the
wood, and went about playing on the drum and begging. He came to the
Raja’s palace and there he drummed and sang:—

When the Raja heard this, he was very angry, and swore to punish the
barber who must have broken his vow. But the Dom assured the Raja that
he knew nothing about the matter; that it was the drum that sang the
words and not he and that he had no idea what they meant. So the Raja
was pacified and gave the Dom a present and sent him away and the
barber was not punished. [172]

LIV. The Child Who Knew His Father.

Once upon a time there was a girl whose parents took the greatest
care that she should not be familiar with any of the young men of the
village. But in spite of their precautions she formed an intimacy with
a young man and was presently found to be with child. When this became
known the villagers held a panchayat to enquire into the matter, but
the girl flatly declined to give any information and her father and
brothers were unable to point out the offender. So the village elders
decided to let the matter stand over till the child was born.

When the birth took place the question arose in whose name its head
should be shaved; as its father was still unknown, the villagers
decided that this should be settled when the child was old enough to
talk. So when the child was two or three years old and could prattle a
little, the girl’s father went to the headman and paranic
and asked them what was to be done. They said that he must pay a fine
to them and another to the villagers, because he had made the village
unclean for so long, and give a feast to the villagers and then they
would find out the father of the child and make him marry the girl; and
if he refused to do this, he would be outcasted. The unfortunate man
agreed and then the jog manjhi and godet were sent to
call all the men of the neighbourhood to a meeting.

They assembled in their best clothes and pagris and sat down in
rows, and in the middle a circle was drawn on the ground; then prayers
were offered to Chando and the child was set in the circle and told to
find its father. The child began to walk slowly along the lines of men
but it did not stop till it came to its real father, who was sitting a
little apart, and then it threw itself into [173]his
arms. Thus the truth was discovered and the man married the girl and,
as he was very poor, went to live in his father-in-law’s
house.

LV. Jogeshwar’s Marriage.

Once upon a time there was a young man of the weaver caste, named
Jogeshwar. He was an orphan and lived all alone. One summer he planted
a field of pumpkins on the sandy bed of a river. The plants grew well
and bore plenty of fruit: but when the pumpkins were ripe, a jackal
found them out and went every night and feasted on them. Jogeshwar soon
found out from the foot-marks who was doing the damage; so he set a
snare and a few days later found the jackal caught in it. He took a
stick to beat its life out, but the jackal cried: “Spare me and I
will find you a wife.” So Jogeshwar stayed his hand and released
the jackal who promised at once to set off about the business.

The jackal kept his word and went to a city where a Raja lived.
There he sat down on the bank of one of the Raja’s tanks. To this
tank the servants from the palace brought the pots and dishes to be
washed, and to this tank also came the Rani and princesses to bathe.
Whenever the servants came to wash their dishes, the jackal kept on
repeating: “What sort of a Raja is this whose plates are washed
in water in which people have bathed? there is no Raja like Raja
Jogeshwar: he eats of golden plates and yet he never uses them a second
time but throws them away directly he has eaten off them
once.”

The servants soon carried word to the Raja of the jackal who sat by
the tank and of his story of Raja Jogeshwar. Then the Raja sent for the
jackal and asked why he had come: the jackal answered that he was
looking for a bride for Raja Jogeshwar. Now [174]the
Raja had three or four daughters and he thought that he saw his way to
a fine match for one of them. So he sent for the young women and asked
the jackal to say whether one of them would be a suitable bride for
Raja Jogeshwar. The jackal chose the second sister and said that he
would go and get the consent of Raja Jogeshwar.

The jackal hurried back and told the astonished weaver that he had
found a Raja’s daughter for him to marry. Jogeshwar had nothing
to delay him and only asked that an early day might be fixed for the
wedding. So the jackal went back to the Raja and received from him the
knotted string that fixed the date of the wedding.

The jackal had now to devise some means by which Jogeshwar could go
through the wedding ceremonies without his poverty being found out. He
first went to the Raja and asked how many attendants Raja Jogeshwar
should bring with him, as he did not want to bring more than the
bride’s father could entertain. The Raja was too proud to fix any
number and said they could bring as many as they liked.

Jogeshwar having no relations and no money, was quite unable to
arrange for a grand procession to escort him; he could only just afford
to hire a palki in which to be carried to the bride’s house; so
the jackal sent word to all the jackals and paddy birds of the
neighbourhood to come to a feast at the palace of the bride, an
invitation which was eagerly accepted. At the time fixed they started
off, with all the paddy birds riding on the backs of the jackals. When
they came within sight of the palace, the jackal ran on ahead and
invited the Raja to come out and look at the procession as there was
still time to send them back, if they were too many, but it would be a
great disgrace if they were allowed to arrive and find no
entertainment. The Raja went out to look and when he saw the procession
[175]stretching away for a distance of two miles or
more with all the paddy birds looking like white horsemen as they rode
on the backs of the jackals, his heart failed him and he begged the
jackal to send them away, as he could not entertain such a host.

So then the jackal hurried back and turned them all away and
Jogeshwar reached the palace, accompanied only by his palki
bearers.

Before the wedding feast, the jackal gave Jogeshwar some hints as to
his behaviour. He warned him that three of four kinds of meat and
vegetables would be handed round with the rice, and bade him to be sure
to help himself from each dish—of course in his own house the
poor weaver had never had more than one dish to eat with his
rice—and when pan was handed to him after the feast he was
not to take any until he had a handful of money given him; by such
behaviour he would lead every one to think that he was really a prince.
Jogeshwar did exactly as he was told and was thought a very grand
personage.

The next evening Jogeshwar set off homewards with his bride, the
bride’s brothers and attendants accompanying them. They travelled
on and on till the bride’s party began to grow tired and kept
asking the jackal how much further they had to go. The jackal kept on
putting them off, till at last they came in sight of a grove of palm
trees, and he told them that Raja Jogeshwar’s palace stood among
the palm trees but was so old and weather worn that it could not be
seen from a distance.

When they reached the palm grove and found nothing but
Jogeshwar’s humble hut, the bride’s brothers turned on the
jackal and asked what he meant by deceiving them. The jackal protested
that he had told no lies: the weaver ate every day off plates made of
dry leaves and threw them away when done with and that was all he meant
when he talked of golden plates. At this [176]excuse they turned on
him and wanted to beat him, but he ran away and escaped.

The bride’s friends went back and told the Raja how things had
turned out and as divorce was not lawful for them, the Raja could only
send for his daughter and her husband and give them an estate to live
on.

LVI. The Strong Man.

There was once a Strong man but no one knew of his strength. He was
in the service of a farmer who made him headman over all his
labourers. In those days much of the country
was still covered with jungle. One day the farmer chose a piece of
forest land which he thought suitable for cultivation and told his
labourers to set to work and clear it, and as usual after giving his
orders he troubled himself no more about the matter, as he could fully
rely on the Strong man.

The next morning, the Strong man set the other labourers to work
ploughing a field and then said that he would go and have a look at the
jungle which his master wanted cleared. So he went off alone with only
a stick in his hand. When he reached the place, he walked all round it,
and saw how much could be made into good arable land, and then he began
to clear it. He pulled up the trees by the roots and piled them into a
heap and he took the rocks and threw them to one side and made the
ground quite clear and smooth, and then went back to the house. On
being asked why he had been so long away, he answered that he had been
pulling up a few bushes at the place which was to be cleared.

The following morning the Strong man told the farm labourers to take
their ploughs to the clearing and begin to plough it. When the farmer
heard this, he was puzzled to think how the land could be ready for
ploughing so [177]soon, and went to see it and to his amazement
found the whole land cleared, every tree pulled up by the roots and all
the rocks removed.

Then he asked the Strong man whether he had done the work by
himself. The Strong man answered “no,” a number of people
had volunteered to help him and so the work had been finished in a
day.

The farmer said nothing but he did not believe the story and saw
that his servant must really be a man of marvellous strength. Neither
he nor the farm labourers let any one else know what had happened, they
kept it to themselves.

Now the Strong man’s wages were twelve measures of rice a
year. After working for four years he made up his mind to leave his
master and start farming on his own account. So he told the farmer that
he wished to leave but offered to finish any work there was to do
before he went, that no one might be able to say that he had gone away,
leaving his work half done. The farmer assured him that there was
nothing for him to do and gave him rice equal to his four years’
wages. The rice made two big bandis, each more than an ordinary
man could lift, but the Strong man slung them on to a bamboo and
carried them off over his shoulder.

After he had gone a little way, it struck the farmer that it would
not do to let him display his strength in this way and that it would be
better if he took the rice away at night. So he had the Strong man
called back and told him that there was one job which he had forgotten
to finish; he had put two bundles of sahai grass into the trough to
steep and had forgotten to twist it into string. Without a word the
Strong man wait and picked the sabai out of the water and began
to twist it, but he could tell at once by the feel that the
sabai had only just been placed in the water and he charged the
farmer with playing a trick on him. The farmer swore [178]that
there was no trick and, rather than quarrel, the Strong man went on
with the work.

While he was so engaged the farmer offered him some tobacco, and the
Strong man took it without washing and wiping his hands. Now no one
should prepare or chew tobacco while twisting sabai; if one does not
first wash and dry one’s hands one’s strength will go. The
Strong man knew this, but he was so angry at being called back on false
pretences that he forgot all about it.

But when he had finished the string and the farmer said that he
might go, he essayed to take up the two bandis of rice as
before. To his sorrow he found that he could not lift them. Then he saw
the mistake that he had made. He had to leave one bandi behind
and divide the other into two halves and sling them on the bamboo and
carry them off with him.

The Strong man’s cultivation did not prosper, and after three
or four years he found himself at the end of his means and had again to
take service with a farmer.

One day when field work was in full swing the Strong man had a
quarrel with his new master. So when he had finished the
morning’s ploughing he pulled the iron point of the ploughshare
out of its socket and snapped it in two. Then he took the pieces to his
master and explained that it had caught on the stump of a tree and got
broken. The master took the broken share to the blacksmith and had it
mended. The next day the Strong man went through the same performance
and his master had again to go the blacksmith. The same thing happened
several days running, till at last the farmer decided to keep watch and
see what really happened. So he hid himself and saw the Strong man snap
the ploughshare in two; but in view of such a display of strength he
was much too frightened to let his servant know that he had found out
the trick that was being played on [179]him. He took the pieces to
the blacksmith as usual and at the smithy he found some of his friends
and told them what had happened. They advised him to set the Strong man
to twisting sabai string and then by some pretext induce him to take
tobacco. The farmer did as they advised and in about a fortnight the
Strong man lost all his strength and became as other men. Then his
master dismissed him and he had to go back to his house and his
strength never returned to him.

LVII. The Raja’s Advice.

Once upon a time an aged Raja lay dying. Before he breathed his last
he sent for his only son and gave him the following advice. “My
son,” he said, “never go on a journey alone; do not
associate with low people, for if you do no one will respect you; never
confide a secret to your wife; do not tell outsiders the affairs of
your house; do not let village affairs go beyond the village street,
and never get into a rage.”

The son succeeded to the Raja and shortly afterwards set out to pay
a visit to his wife’s relations. He started alone and after going
some distance he remembered his father’s injunctions never to go
on a journey alone. He had gone too far to go back and he saw no one
within call, so he looked about and presently found a crab hole. He set
to work and dug out the crab and fixing it in his pagri
continued his journey.

By-and-bye he came to a river. Now in this river lived a crocodile,
which had leagued with a crow to destroy travellers crossing the river.
Whenever the crow saw anyone coming, it gave warning to the crocodile,
and the crocodile then seized the traveller as he entered the river,
while the crow pecked out his eyes. In this way they had been the death
of many travellers. So [180]when the crow saw the young Raja
coming, it cawed to the crocodile, which hastened to the ford and
seized the Raja as he stepped into the water, while the crow flew at
his head. But the crab caught the crow by the leg and nipped it so hard
that the crow, in agony, called out to the crocodile to let the man go,
as it was being killed. So the crocodile released its hold and the Raja
struggled to the bank, and then caught the crow which was held fast by
the crab and wrung its neck. Then he went back home with the crab,
reflecting on the wisdom of his father’s advice.

Later on, the Raja thought that he would put another of his
father’s maxims to the proof and see what would happen if he told
his wife a secret. So he took a spade and buried an old earthen pot in
the corner of his garden. He let his wife see him and she promptly
asked what he was burying; he put her off, but that night she insisted
so much on knowing, that, after swearing her to secrecy, he told her
that a child had come straying to his house and he had killed it to
obtain good luck and had buried the body.

Time passed, and one day the Raja had a quarrel with his wife, he
began to beat her and she in return abused him and kept on calling out
that he was a murderer, who had buried a child in his garden. Their
next door neighbour heard all this and, directly she found the
Raja’s wife alone, asked whether what she said was true. The
Raja’s wife, being still in a passion, asserted that it was quite
true. The story was soon all over the town, and the townspeople rose
and seized the Raja and charged him with the murder. Then he took them
to the garden and made them dig up what he had buried and they found
only an old pot.

So they had to pay him compensation for making a false charge, and
the Raja valued more than ever the advice given him by his father.
[181]

LVIII. The Four Jogis.

Once four Jogis were out on a begging expedition and came to a city
were a Raja lived. As they went along they discussed how they should
beg of the Raja; and while they were discussing the point, they saw a
field rat and one of them exclaimed “I know how I shall beg of
him! I shall say ‘See, he throws up the earth, scrapety
scrape!’” This did not help the other
three, but, further on, some frogs jumped into a pond as they passed
by, and one of the others at once said “I know what I shall say!
I shall say ‘plumpety plump! down he has sat.’” A little
later, they saw a pig wallowing in the mud, and the third Jogi called
out “I have it! I shall say ‘Rub away, rub away! Now some
more water! Rub away, rub away! I know, my boys, what you are going to
do.’” The fourth Jogi was still in
perplexity but, when they came in sight of the Raja’s city, he
exclaimed “I know what I shall say ‘Highways and byeways,
what a big city! The kotwal is going his rounds, his
rounds.’”

Then they got a man to write down these four forms of address on a
sheet of paper and presented it to the Raja. The Raja took it, and read
it, and could not make head or tail of it. And when the four Jogis saw
him looking so puzzled, they got frightened and took to their heels,
for they could not read themselves and were not sure of what the paper
really contained.

Now the Raja’s chief officer was a Tehsildar, and he had also
a Barber, who shaved him every day, And that evening after the Jogis
had run away, the Tehsildar proposed to the Barber that, when shaving
the Raja the next morning, he should cut the Raja’s throat and
they could then divide the kingdom between them, and the Barber
consented. Not content with this, the Tehsildar [182]and
the palace chowkidar that same night tried to break into the
Raja’s palace and steal his money and jewellery. They began to cut
a hole through the mud wall of the Raja’s room, but it chanced
that the Raja was so puzzled by the paper which the Jogis had put into
his hand, that he kept on reading it over and over again, and just as
the Tehsildar and chowkidar had half cut their way through the wall,
they heard the Raja saying “See, he throws up the earth,
scrapety, scrape!” At once they concluded that they had been
heard and they crouched down; the Raja went on “Plumpety, plump!
down he has sat.” This made them think that they had been seen
and the chowkidar crept to the door to listen: he heard the Raja saying
“Highways and byeways, what a big city! The kotwal is going his
rounds, his rounds!” Then the chowkidar felt sure that he was
discovered and he ran off with the Tehsildar, without completing their
burglary.

The next morning the Barber went to shave the Raja, and, while he
was sharpening the razor, the Raja again began to study the mysterious
paper, murmuring “Rub away, rub away, now some more water: Rub
away, rub away! I know my boy what you are going to do.” The
Barber thought that the Raja referred to his rubbing water over his
face for shaving, and concluded that the Tehsildar had revealed the
plot; so he threw himself at the Raja’s feet and confessed
everything, swearing that the Tehsildar and not he was to blame. The
Raja at once sent for the chowkidar to take the Tehsildar and Barber to
prison. When the chowkidar came in he found the Raja repeating
“See he throws up the earth, scrapety, scrape!” He at once
concluded that the Raja was referring to the burglary and he fell on
his knees and confessed all that had happened. This was news to the
Raja, but he went and saw the place where the wall had been partly cut
through, and then he sent all the [183]guilty men to prison and
despatched messengers to look for the Jogis who had been the means of
saving his life and property; but the Jogis had been so frightened and
had run away so far, that they were never found.

LIX. The Charitable Raja.

There was once a Raja who was very charitable; he used to give a new
cloth and a good meal to every one who came and begged of him. But one
day a Jogi came and refused to take what was offered to him: he
demanded that the Raja should give him his kingdom and everything that
he had. The Raja thought it wrong to refuse the request, and went out
into the world with his wife and his two young children, a beggar. For
a long time they wandered about living on charity, till their clothes
were worn to rags, and then they chanced to hear of a rich merchant who
gave a cloth to any beggar who asked it of him; so they resolved to go
to him for help. When they reached the village where the merchant
lived, the Rani left the Raja with the two children to cook some dinner
and went to the merchant’s house to beg for some clothes; but
when the merchant saw her he fell in love with her and shut her up and
would not let her go. To be saved from the merchant’s designs the
Rani prayed that she might be smitten with disease and at once she
became very ill.

After waiting in vain for her return the Raja set off with his two
sons to look for her and presently came to a flooded river. He carried
one child across first but, as he was returning for the other, he was
swept away by the current and the children were left alone. A Goala
woman, going to the river for water, found them, and as she was
childless took them home with her and brought them up.

Meanwhile the Raja was carried down stream by the [184]flood and was washed ashore, bruised and
wounded, a long way down. At the place where he landed a large crowd
was collected; for the Raja of the country had lately died leaving no
heir, and the widow had ordered all the people to assemble in order
that two elephants, belonging to the late Raja, might choose his
successor. The half-drowned Raja joined the crowd and as he sat looking
on, one elephant, passing by all its own people, came to him and put
the golden necklace on his neck and the other elephant lifted him on to
its back and carried him off and seated him on the Raja’s throne;
and as he sat on the throne all his wounds and bruises were healed.
Years passed and the Raja’s two sons grew up, and as the Goala
woman who had adopted them was very poor, they went out into the world
to earn their living. As it chanced, they took service as sipahis with
the Raja their father, whom of course they did not recognise. Just
after their arrival the Raja arranged a great festival at which people
from all parts assembled; and among others the merchant went there with
the Raja’s wife, in hopes that among the crowd he might find some
physician able to cure the woman. When he arrived, he went to the Raja
and asked that two sipahis might be deputed to keep watch over the
woman he had brought. The Raja sent his two newly enlisted sipahis, and
thus the sons were set to guard their own mother, and it was not long
before they found out their relationship. The Rani was delighted to
recover her long lost children, but when she heard that her husband had
been washed away by the river and drowned, she began to weep and wail.
The merchant went to the Raja and complained that the sipahis who had
been sent, had thrown the woman into great distress and the Raja
thereupon sent for all the parties in order that he might enquire into
the matter. When he heard their story, he at once recognised that it
was his own wife and sons who stood before [185]him
and thus the whole family was happily united. Then his wife prayed to
Thakur that if she were really the wife he had lost and had been
faithful to him, she might be restored to health; water was poured over
her and she was at once cured of her disease, and they all lived
happily ever afterwards.

LX. A Variant.—The Wandering Raja.

Once there was a Raja who was very prosperous; but his wife found
their life of wealth and ease monotonous, and she continually urged him
to travel into other countries and to see whether other modes of life
were pleasant or distressful; she pestered her husband so much that at
last he gave way. He put his kingdom in charge of his father’s
sister and her husband and set off with his wife and his two sons as an
ordinary traveller.

After travelling some days they got tired of eating the parched rice
which they had brought with them and thought they would boil some rice
for their dinner. So the Rani went into a bazar to get cooking pots,
and a light for the fire. She went to the house of a rich merchant for
these, but he was attracted by her beauty and seized her and shut her
up and would not let her go back, but kept her as his wife. The Raja
and his sons soon got tired of waiting for her; he concluded that the
journey was merely a pretext of his wife’s to escape from him, as
she had disappeared the first time that he let her out of his
sight.

So he turned to go home and soon came to a river which had to be
crossed, he left his sons on the bank and went into the water to see
how deep it was and as he was wading in, a large fish came and
swallowed him. The fish swam away down stream and was caught in the net
of some fishermen. When they saw how big [186]a fish they had
caught, they decided to take it to the Raja of that country. The Raja
bought it at a high price, but when it was cut open at the palace the
man it had swallowed was found alive inside; so the Raja of the country
appointed him one of his retainers.

Meanwhile the two boys had been found abandoned on the bank of the
river by a cowherd, who was too poor to bring them up, so he took them
also to the Raja; and they rejoiced to meet their father and when they
grew up, were also appointed retainers.

They had to travel all over the country on the Raja’s business
and it happened that they one day came to the village where their
mother was and they met and recognised her; she told them how she had
been seized and confined and begged them to bring her husband to her.
So the sons fetched their father and the Rani told her husband how
unhappy she was and begged him to get her released, and he promised to
ask the help of his master. When the Raja of the country heard the
story he took pity on them and went with a body of soldiers and seized
the wicked merchant and ordered him to give up all his wealth and as
the merchant tried to conceal where some of his money was buried, the
Raja cut him down with his sword. He also laid a heavy fine on the
villagers, because they had not sent word to him of the capture of the
Rani.

Then he took home the Raja who had been swallowed by the fish and
his wife and sons, and entertained them for some days, and then gave
them elephants and horses and men and all the merchant’s property
and sent them to their own country. The uncle and aunt who had been
appointed Regents came out to meet them and escorted them home.

Two or three days after the aunt asked the Raja how he had got his
elephants and horses and money, and he said “They are the profits
of my wife’s sin; [187]I will not tell you the whole
story for if you heard it you also might be led astray; my wife induced
me to travel by false pretences. It is not good to follow the advice of
a woman; it is by mere chance that you see me alive to-day.” His
wife heard what he said, and she went out and cut her throat from
remorse; and they went and burned her body.

LXI. The Two Wives.

There were once a Raja and his Dewan who had each one son, and the
two boys were great friends. Both had been married in their infancy and
when they grew up and heard that they had wives, they agreed to go
together and visit them. So they set out, and they arranged that on
account of the superior rank of the Raja’s son they would go
first and visit his wife; and they also agreed that, as they were going
to a strange place, they would keep together day and night.

When they reached the house of the Prince’s father-in-law they
were received with great honour and when night came they lay down with
their beds side by side. Presently the Prince’s wife came to him
and began to rub his arms and legs, until she had soothed him off to
sleep. The Dewan’s son pretended also to go fast asleep, but
really he was careful to keep awake, for he thought it safer to be on
the watch in a strange place.

His prudence was rewarded, for after a time he saw the
Prince’s wife leave her sleeping husband and go out of the
house.

The Dewan’s son followed her and saw her enter the house of a
Gosain who lived on the outskirts of the village. He went near and
listened at the door. He heard the Gosain ask the young woman why she
was so late in coming, and her answer that she had been detained by the
visit of her husband. The Gosain reproached [188]her
for not having told him that she was married, and she protested that
she had known nothing about it until her husband appeared. The Gosain
said that she must choose between him and her husband, and she answered
that she would never give him up. “Then” said the Gosain
“if you really mean it, go and bring me your husband’s
head.” At this the Dewan’s son hurried back and lay down on
his bed. Presently he saw the woman come with a sword and cut off her
husband’s head. But when she took it to the Gosain, he rose and
beat her with his iron pincers and drove her out, swearing that he
would have nothing more to do with a woman who was so heartless as to
kill her own husband. Then the woman returned and placed the severed
head by her husband’s body and raised a great outcry, that her
husband had been murdered. The people of the house came and at first
they charged the Dewan’s son with the crime and were about to put
him to death; but he called the Gosain as a witness and the real facts
were proved by his evidence, and the murderess was hanged.

The Dewan’s son would not allow the Prince’s body to be
burnt but insisted on taking it with him, that it might be cremated at
his own home. So he took it on his back and carried it off.

He thought that, as he had come so far, it would be better to visit
his own wife before going home. So, when he reached the village where
his wife lived, he hid the Prince’s body in a hollow tree and
went to his father-in-law’s house.

That night when they had gone to bed, the Dewan’s son saw that
his wife had something on her mind, so he resolved to watch her.

When she thought that he was asleep, he saw her rise and go out of
the house. He followed her to a shrine of Mahadeb; there she smeared
the ground with cowdung and worshipped the god and said “O Siva!
I have [189]worshipped you for many days; now my husband has
come to take me to his house, and you must find another
worshipper.” The Mahadeb answered “You have served me for
many days; call hither your husband; as you have worshipped me for so
long, I will confer a boon on you.” So she went and called her
husband and as he knew what had happened, he had no hesitation in going
with her to the shrine. There the Siv bade him ask a boon, and he
prayed that the Raja’s son might be restored to life, The Siv
bade them bring the body and cover it with a wet cloth; and when they
had done so, the body began to breathe and presently the Prince rose up
alive and well. The Dewan’s son told him all that had happened
and the next day they went home, taking with them the wife of the
Dewan’s son, through whose virtue and piety the Prince had been
restored to life.

LXII. Spanling and His Uncles.

There was once a little man named Spanling (Bita) because he was
only a span (Bita) high; and he had a beard one span and four
finger-breadths long. His father was dead, and he lived alone with his
mother and he was as cunning as anyone in the world. He had one
cow-buffalo and this he always grazed at night, for fear that the sun
might melt it. Once it happened that as he was following his buffalo,
he got buried in its droppings and he was so small that he could not
get out.

However, next morning, some girls, who were gathering cowdung for
fuel, found him and set him free. Spanling decided to get rid of the
buffalo after this; so he killed it and flayed it and when the skin was
dry, took it away to sell. Before he found a purchaser night came on,
so he climbed a tree with his hide to be out of danger. During the
night a gang of thieves came to the tree, and began to divide their
booty. While there were busy over this, Spanling let the hide fall with
a clatter [190]into their midst, and they all ran away in a
fright, leaving all their stolen goods behind.

When day dawned, Spanling climbed down and found piles of gold
waiting for him. He took it home and sent his mother to borrow a wooden
measure from his uncles to measure it with. When he returned the
measure, one of the gold pieces was left sticking in a crack. His
uncles at once hastened to enquire how he came to be measuring gold.
Spanling told them that he had sold his buffalo skin at a town which he
named, for an enormous price and no doubt they could find the same
market, if they chose to kill their buffaloes. The uncles hurried home
and killed all their buffaloes and took the hides to the city, which
Spanling had named, but they were only laughed at when they asked more
than the price which was paid every day for hides. The uncles came home
very angry at the way in which they had been tricked by Spanling, and
in revenge they burnt his house down. Finding himself homeless,
Spanling gathered the ashes of his house into sacks, loaded them on a
cart and drove away. When evening came he camped by the roadside in
company with some other carters and, in the middle of the night, he
quietly changed his sacks of ashes for some of the sacks in the other
carts. When he got home he found that the sacks which he had stolen
were full of gold coins. He again sent to his uncles for a measure and
when the measure was returned a gold coin was again left sticking in a
crack. The uncles at once came to enquire how Spanling had got the
money. He told them that he had sold the ashes of his house for gold
and, as their houses were bigger than his, they would doubtless make
their fortunes if they burnt them down and sold the ashes. The uncles
took his advice but when they tried to sell the ashes they were only
laughed at for their pains. [191]

LXIII. The Silent Wife.

There was once a madcap of a fellow, whose wife got on very well
with him and did all the house work very nicely, but she would never
speak a single word to him. As nothing he tried would make her speak,
the madcap at last hit on a plan of taking her on a long journey. But
even when he told his wife that she must come with him to a far
country, she did not utter a word. When all was ready for a start the
madcap bathed his feet and took a lota of water into the house
and pouring it out, prayed to the spirit of his grandfather thus
“Grandfather, grant that my wife may speak; if you do not fail me
in this, I will make offerings to you on my return; grant that we may
come back together happily; teach her to speak to me soon.”

Then he set out with his wife and they travelled on until they
entered a dense forest, where there was no sign of human habitation. As
they went on, the tailor birds and babblers began to chatter and scream
at them. The madcap got angry at this and called out to the birds that
if they did not stop, he would chase them and go on chasing them for a
day and a night. Then he sat down and watched them. His wife stood
waiting by his side, and soon she began to wonder what she would do and
where she would go, if her husband really went in chase of the birds.
So at last she spoke to him and said “Come, get up; we must make
haste out of this jungle.” Directly the words were out of her
mouth, the madcap knelt down and bowing to the ground said “I
thank you, Grandfather”. Then he rose and went on with his
wife.

Presently they met a bear; the madcap called out “You brute of
a bear, what do you mean by coming to meet us like this? I will chase
you and go on [192]chasing you till to-morrow morning.” But
his wife besought him to come along and not leave her. Directly she
spoke, the madcap cried “Bravo” and kneeling down thanked
his grandfather. They went on and presently a jackal crossed their
path; the madcap cursed it and vowed that he would chase it all the
night. Again his wife urged him to come on and again the madcap knelt
down and thanked his grandfather; but his wife did not know why he did
so, nor did she trouble to ask.

Just as they reached the edge of the forest they saw a leopard and
this also the madcap threatened to chase. “Then go and chase
it,” said his wife, who now felt safe. So he went in pursuit of
the leopard, but after going a little way he lost sight of it and went
back to where his wife was. “What has become of all your
boasting?” said she. “You have not chased it till to-morrow
morning.” “No,” said the madcap “I have killed
it; if you don’t believe me, come and see.” But she did not
want to go back into the jungle and said no more about it. As his wife
had broken her silence the madcap saw no use in going further and they
turned homewards; all the way his wife went on chatting and singing
along with him. When he reached home he sacrificed a number of goats to
his grandfather, and lived happily with his wife ever after.

LXIV. The Dumb Shepherd.

There was once a very rich and powerful Raja and in his heart he
thought that there was no one so powerful in the world as himself; thus
he thought but he told no one of his thought. One day he made up his
mind to see whether others could guess what he was thinking, so he
called together his officers and servants and dependants and bade them
tell him what thought was in [193]his heart. Many of them made
guesses, but not one gave an answer which satisfied the Raja.

Then the Raja told his dewan that he must without fail find some one
who would, guess his thought, and he gave the dewan exactly one
month’s time in which to search. The dewan searched high and low
but all in vain, and as the time drew near he grew more and more
anxious, for he feared that he would fall into disgrace. But he had a
daughter and she consoled him and told him to cheer up, as she would
find a man on the day fixed to read the Raja’s thoughts. The
dewan had to take what comfort he could from this promise, and when the
appointed day arrived, his daughter brought a dumb shepherd whom they
employed and bade her father take him to the Raja. The dewan thought it
very unlikely that the dumb shepherd would succeed where others had
failed, but he saw no alternative to following his daughter’s
advice.

So the dewan presented himself before the Raja with the dumb
shepherd and found a large company assembled to see what happened. The
two stood before the Raja and the dumb man looked at the Raja. Then the
Raja held up one finger, at this the dumb shepherd held up two fingers.
Then the Raja held up three fingers, but at this the dumb man made
signs of dissent and ran away as fast as he could. Then the Raja
laughed and seemed very pleased and praised the dewan for having
brought him such a clever man, and gave the dewan a rich reward.

The dewan was still at a loss to know what had happened, and begged
the Raja to explain what had passed between him and the shepherd.
“When I held up one finger,” said the Raja “I asked
him whether I alone was Raja, and he by holding up two reminded me that
there was God, who was as powerful as I am. Then I asked him whether
there was any third, and he [194]vehemently denied that there was.
Thus he has read my thoughts, for I have always been thinking that I
alone am powerful, but he has reminded me that there is God as well,
but no third.”

Then they all went their ways, and that night the dewan questioned
the dumb shepherd as to how he had been able to understand the Raja:
and the dumb man explained “I have only three sheep of my own,
and when I appeared before the Raja he held up one finger, meaning that
he wanted me to give him one of my sheep, and as he is a great Raja I
offered to give him two; but when he held up three ringers to show that
he wanted to take all three from me, I thought that he was going too
far and so I ran away.”

By this lucky chance the dewan earned his reward from the Raja.

LXV. The Good Daughter-in-Law.

There was once a very rich man who had seven sons and the sons were
all married and lived with their father. The father was a miser: he
lived in the poorest manner in spite of all his wealth and hoarded all
his money. His eldest daughter-in-law managed the household and she
alone of the family did not approve of the miserly way in which the
family affairs were conducted.

One day a Jugi came to the house and asked for alms. The eldest
daughter-in-law happened to be away at the time, fetching water from
the stream. Those of the family who were at home flatly declined to
give the poor beggar anything and turned him away from the house. So
the Jugi went away, cursing them for their miserliness. On his way he
met the eldest daughter-in-law coming back with her jar of water and
she asked the Jugi why he seemed so angry. When she heard how he had
been treated, she at once besought him to [195]return to the house
and explained that she was the housekeeper and that that was the reason
why none of the others had ventured to give him alms.

The Jugi returned with her and she gave him a seer of rice to
put in his bag. At first the Jugi refused to take it, on the ground
that she was only giving it for fear of his curses but she assured him
that she never refused alms to anyone who begged. So the Jugi took the
rice and then asked what boon she would accept in return. The woman at
first said that she was in want of nothing, but, on the Jugi pressing
her, she said that she would like to be able to understand the language
of birds and beasts and to see the disembodied souls of men. Then the
Jugi took a feather from his bag and drew it across her eyes and blew
into her eyes and ears and she found herself possessed of the powers
for which she had asked. But before he left, the Jugi told her that she
must never reveal to any human being the boon he had conferred on her,
for if she did she would die.

Years passed and nothing happened but then it chanced that a Chamar
who lived at the end of the village died, and as he had been a good and
kind man his family wept bitterly at their loss. The woman saw the
spirit of the Chamar being taken away in a grand chariot and she also
wept for the death of so good a man. Her family became very suspicious
at her showing sorrow for the death of a stranger of another caste.

A few days later the miserly father-in-law died and the woman saw
three beings dragging him out of the house by his heels, and she
laughed to see him treated so for his sins. But the family were shocked
by her laughter and concluded that she was a witch and had killed her
father-in-law by her witchcraft; so after the funeral they held a
family council and called on the woman to explain why she had laughed.
She assured them that if she told she would die, but they insisted
[196]and at last she told them of the boon conferred
on her by the Jugi, and what she had seen, and then she lay down upon
her bed and died.

LXVI. The Raja’s Dream.

Once upon a time there was a Raja who had no children. So he and his
wife agreed that he should marry again. His second wife bore him two
sons, and they were very pleased that the Raja should have heirs and
all lived happily together. But after the two sons had been born, the
elder Rani also gave birth to a son. This caused discord in the family,
for the younger Rani had counted on her sons succeeding to the Raja,
but now she feared that the son of the elder Rani would be preferred.
So she went to the Raja and besought him to send away the elder Rani
and her son. The Raja listened to her and gave the first wife a
separate estate and a separate house and sent them away.

Time passed and one night the Raja had a dream, the meaning of which
he could not understand; he dreamt that he saw a golden leopard and a
golden snake and a golden monkey dancing together. The Raja could not
rest until he had found out the meaning of the dream, so he sent for
his younger wife and her two sons and consulted them. They could give
no explanation, but the younger son said that he had a presentiment
that his brother, the son of the elder Rani, could interpret the dream.
So that son was sent for, and when he appeared before his father and
heard the story of the dream, he said “This is the
interpretation: the three golden animals represent us three brothers,
for we are like gold to you. Thakur has sent this dream in order that
we may not fight hereafter; we cannot all three succeed to the Raj and
we shall assuredly fight if one is not chosen as the heir. It is
intended that whichever of us can find a [197]golden leopard, and a
golden snake and a golden monkey and make them dance before the people,
he is your principal son and shall be your heir,” The Raja was
pleased with this interpretation and told his three sons that he would
give the Raj to whichever of them could find the three animals by that
day year.

The sons of the younger Rani went away, feeling that it was useless
for them to make any attempt to fulfil the conditions; even if they got
a goldsmith to make the animals, they would never be able to make them
dance.

But the other brother went to his mother and told her all that had
happened, and she bade him be of good courage and he would find the
animals; if he went to a Gosain who lived in the jungle, he would be
told what to do.

So the Raja’s son set out, and after travelling for some days
he found himself benighted in a dense jungle. Wandering about, he at
last saw a fire burning in the distance, so he went to it and sat down
by it and began to smoke. Now the Gosain was sleeping near by and the
smell of the smoke awoke him, and he rose and asked who was there.

“O uncle, it is I.”

“Really, is it you my nephew? Where have you come from so late
at night?”

“From home, uncle.”

“What has brought me to your memory now? You have never paid
me a visit before. I am afraid that something has happened.”

“You need not fear that, I have come to you because my mother
tells me that you can help me to find the golden leopard and the golden
snake and the golden monkey.”

At this the Gosain promised to help the Raja’s son to find the
animals and then put the cooking-pot on the fire to boil; and in it he
put only three grains of rice, but [198]when it was cooked, they
found that there was enough to make a meal of. When they had eaten, the
Gosain said “Nephew, I cannot tell you what you have to do; but
further in the jungle lives my younger brother: go to him and he will
tell you.”

So when it was morning the Raja’s son set out, and in two days
he reached the second Gosain and told him of his quest. The Gosain
listened to his story and put the cooking-pot on to boil and in it
threw two grains of rice, and this, when cooked, was sufficient for a
good meal. After they had eaten, the Gosain said that he could not tell
how the animals were to be found, but that he had a still younger
brother who could tell. So the next morning the Raja’s son
continued his journey, and in two or three days he came to the third
Gosain and there he learnt what was to be done. This Gosain also put
the pot on to boil but in the pot he only put one grain of rice and a
bit of a grain, yet when cooked it was enough for a meal.

In the morning the Gosain told the Raja’s son to go to a
blacksmith and have a shield made of twelve maunds of iron and with its
edge so sharp that a leaf falling on it would be cut in two. So he went
to the blacksmith and had a shield made, and took it to the Gosain. The
Gosain said that they must test it, and he set it edgewise in the
ground under a tree and told the Raja’s son to climb the tree and
shake some leaves down. The Raja’s son climbed the tree and shook
the branches, but not a leaf fell. Then the Gosain climbed up and gave
the tree a shake and the leaves fell in showers and every leaf that
touched the edge of the shield was cut in two. Then the Gosain was
satisfied that the shield was rightly made.

Then the Gosain told the Raja’s son, that further on in the
jungle he would find a pair of snakes living in a bamboo house; and
they had a daughter whom they [199]never allowed to come out of
the house; he must fix the sharp shield in the door of the house and
hide himself in a tree, and when the snakes came out they would be cut
to pieces; then, when the snakes were dead, he was to go to their
daughter and she would show him where to find the golden animals. So
the Raja’s son set out and about noon he came to the home of the
snakes, and he set the shield in the doorway as the Gosain had said,
and at evening, when the snakes tried to come out of the house, they
were cut to pieces. When her father and mother were dead, the daughter
came out to see what had happened, and the Raja’s son saw that
she was very beautiful. He went to her and began to talk and it did not
take them long to fall in love with each other. The snake maiden soon
forgot her father and mother, and she and the Raja’s son lived
together in the bamboo house many days.

The snake maiden strictly forebade him to go anywhere to the west or
south of the house, but one day he disobeyed her and wandered away to
the west. After going a short distance he saw golden leopards dancing,
and directly he set eyes on them, he himself was changed into a golden
leopard and began to dance with the others. The snake maiden soon knew
what had happened, and she followed him and led him back and restored
him to his own shape.

A few days later, the Raja’s son went away to the south and
there he found golden snakes dancing on the bank of a tank and directly
he saw them, he too became a golden snake and joined the dance. Again
the snake maiden fetched him back and restored him to his own form. But
again the Raja’s son went out to the south-west and there he saw
golden monkeys dancing under a banyan tree, and when he saw them he
became a golden monkey; again the snake maiden brought him back and
restored him to human shape. [200]

After this the Raja’s son said that it was time for him to go
back home. The snake maiden asked why he had come there at all, and
then he told her all about the Raja’s dream and said that as he
had found the animals he would now go home.

“Kill me first” said the snake maiden; “you have
killed my parents and I cannot live alone here.” “No, I
will not kill you, I will take you with me” answered the
Raja’s son, and the snake maiden gladly agreed. Then the
Raja’s son asked how he was to take the golden animals with him,
for so far he had only seen where they were. The snake maiden said that
if he faithfully promised never to desert her, nor take another wife,
she would produce the animals for him when the time came. So he swore
never to leave her and they set out for his home.

When they reached the place where the third Gosain lived, the
Raja’s son said that he had promised to visit the Gosain on his
homeward journey and show him the golden animals; but he did not know
what to do, as he had not got the animals with him. Then the snake
maiden tied three knots in his cloth and bade him untie them when the
Gosain asked to see the animals. So the Raja’s son went to see
the Gosain, and the Gosain asked whether he had brought the golden
leopard and snake and monkey.

“I am not sure” answered the other, “but I have
something tied up in my cloth,” and he untied the three knots and
found in them a clod of earth, a potsherd and a piece of charcoal. He
threw them away and went back to the snake maiden, and asked why she
had put worthless rubbish in his cloth. “You had no faith”
said she “if you had believed, the animals would not have turned
into the clod and the potsherd and the charcoal.” So they
journeyed on, till they came to the second Gosain, and he also asked to
see the golden [201]animals and this time the Raja’s son set
his mind hard to believe and, when he untied the knots, there were a
golden leopard and a golden snake and a golden monkey. Then they went
on and showed the animals to the first Gosain, and then went to the
house where his mother lived.

When the appointed day came, the Raja’s son sent word to his
father to have a number of booths and shelters erected in a spacious
plain, and to have a covered way made from his mother’s house to
the plain, and then he would show the dancing animals. So the Raja gave
the necessary orders, and on the day fixed all the people assembled to
see the fun. Then the Raja’s son set the three animals on the
ground and his wife remained hidden in the covered way and caused the
animals to dance. The people stayed watching all day till evening and
then dispersed, That night all the booths and shelters which had been
erected were changed into houses of gold; and when he saw this, the
Raja left his younger wife and her children and went and lived with his
first wife.

LXVII. The Mongoose Boy.

Once upon a time there was a Raja who had two wives. By his first
wife he had six sons, but the second wife bore only one son and he was
born as a mongoose. When the six sons of the elder wife grew up, they
used to jeer at their mongoose brother and his mother, so the Raja sent
his second wife to live in a separate house. The Mongoose boy could
talk like any man but he never grew bigger than an ordinary mongoose
and his name was Lelsing.

One day the Raja called all his sons to him and said that he wished,
before he died, to divide his property among them. But the sons said
that they had rather he did not do so then; they wished to go abroad
and [202]see the world, and if he would give each of them
some capital to start, with, they would go abroad and trade and even if
they did not make much profit they would have the advantage of seeing
the world.

So the Raja gave his six sons twenty rupees each to start business
with; but when Lelsing also asked for some money, his brothers jeered
at him and declared that he certainly could not go with them, for he
would only get eaten up by some dog. Lelsing made no answer at the time
but afterwards he went to his father alone and begged again for some
money. At last the Raja, though he scarcely believed that Lelsing would
really go out trading, gave him ten rupees.

The six brothers made everything ready and one morning set out on
their travels, without saying anything to Lelsing. But Lelsing saw them
start and followed after them, and as the brothers were resting in the
middle of the day they looked back and saw Lelsing galloping along to
overtake them. So they all travelled together for three or four days,
till they came to a great jungle and camped on its outskirts. There
they debated how long they should stay away from home and they decided
that they would trade for six months and then go back.

The next morning they entered the jungle, and as they travelled
through it, the six brothers managed to give Lelsing the slip, so that
when they came out of the forest they found themselves at Nilam bazar,
but Lelsing after wandering about for some time came out at Sujan
bazar.

The six brothers bought sun-horses at Nilam bazar, and began to
trade. But Lelsing at Sujan bazar looked about for someone who would
engage him as a servant. No one would employ a mongoose, and Lelsing
was in despair, for he had very little money. At last he began to
enquire whether anyone would sell him a cheap horse, and learnt that
the horse market was at Nilam bazar; [203]so he went to Nilam
bazar and there found his brothers trading, but he did not make himself
known to them. He tried to buy a horse but they were all too highly
priced for him, so at last he had to be content with buying a donkey
for three rupees and some articles to trade with.

When the six months expired, the brothers went home; and a little
after them came Lelsing, leading his donkey, his brothers laughed at
him but the Raja did not laugh; and Lelsing showed his father and
mother what profits he had made by his trading, which his brothers
declined to do. The Raja was pleased with Lelsing for this and declared
that, in spite of his shape, he was a man and a Raja. It only made his
brothers more angry with him to hear Lelsing praised.

Two or three years later there was a famine in the land. Lelsing
foresaw it and he dug a large hole in the floor of his house and buried
in it all the grain on which he could lay his hand. The famine grew
severe, but Lelsing and his mother always had enough to eat from their
private store. But his brothers were starving and their children cried
from want of food. Lelsing had pity on them and sent his mother with
some rice for them to eat. The Raja and his sons were amazed that
Lelsing should have rice to give away, and they went to his house to
see how much he had; but they found the house apparently empty, for
they did not know of the store buried in the ground. Puzzled and
jealous the brothers made up their minds to burn down Lelsing’s
house. So one night they set fire to it, and it was burnt to ashes: the
store buried in the ground was however uninjured.

Lelsing put the ashes of his house into sacks and, loading them on
his donkey, set out to sell them. As he found no buyers, he rested for
the night under a tree by the road side. Presently a band of merchants
[204]with well loaded pack-bullocks came to the
place. “You must not camp here” called out Lelsing to them
“I have two sacks of gold coin here and you may take an
opportunity to steal them. If you are honest men, you will go to a
distance.” So the merchants camped a little way off, but in the
middle of the night they came and carried off Lelsing’s sacks,
leaving two of their own in their place, and hurried on their way. In
the morning Lelsing made haste to carry home the sacks which had been
changed, and when he came to open them he found them full of rice and
rupees. He sent his mother to borrow a measure from his brothers with
which to measure the rupees; and when he returned it, he sent it to
them full of rupees.

His brothers came running to know where he had found so much money.
“I got it by selling the ashes of my house” said Lelsing
“and it is a pity that I had only one house; if I had had more
houses, I should have had more ashes, and should have got more money
still.” On hearing this the brothers at once made up their mind
to burn their own houses, and take the ashes for sale. But when they
did so and took the ashes for sale from village to village they were
only laughed at for their pains, and in the end had to throw away the
ashes and come back empty handed. They were very angry at the trick
which Lelsing had played on them and decided to kill him and his
mother; but when they went to the house to do the murder, Lelsing
happened to be away from home and so they were only able to kill his
mother.

When Lelsing came home he found his mother lying dead. He placed the
body on his donkey and carried it off to burn it on the banks of the
Ganges. As he went, he saw a large herd of pack bullocks coming along
the road. He quickly propped the body of his mother against a tree
which grew by the road and himself [205]climbed into its branches,
and when the bullocks came up he began to call out “Take care,
take care: you will have my sick mother trampled to death.” But
the drivers were too far behind to hear what he said. When they came
up, he climbed down from the tree and charged them with having allowed
their bullocks to kill his mother. The drivers had no wish to face a
charge of murder; and in the end, to secure their release, they made
over to Lelsing all their bullocks, with the merchandise which they
were carrying.

Lelsing threw his mother’s corpse into some bushes, and drove
the laden bullocks home. Naturally his brothers wanted to know where he
had got such wealth from, and he explained that it was by selling the
dead body of his mother and he was sorry that he had only one to
dispose of. At once his brothers went and killed all their wives, and
took the corpses away to sell; but no one would buy and they had to
return disappointed.

Another trick that Lelsing played his brothers was this: he used to
mix rupees in the food he gave his donkey, and these passed out in the
droppings; and Lelsing took care that his brothers should know of it.
They found no rupees in the dung of their horses, and consulted Lelsing
as to the reason why. He told them that if they gave their horses a
blow with an axe while they ate their grain, they would find rupees in
the dung. The brothers did as they were advised, but the only result
was that they killed all their horses.

More and more angry, the brothers resolved to kill Lelsing by guile.
So they went to him and said that they had found a wife for him, and
would take him to be married. When the procession was ready, Lelsing
got into a palki. His brothers made the doors of the palki fast and
carried him off towards a deep river, into which they meant to throw
him, palki and all.

When they reached the river, they put the palki down [206]and
went to look for a suitably deep pool. Lelsing found that he was
outwitted, and began to weep and wail. Just then a shepherd came by,
driving a flock of sheep and asked what was the matter. Lelsing cried
out that they were going to marry him against his will, but that anyone
who would take his place in the palki could marry his bride. The
shepherd thought that this would be a great opportunity to get a wife
without spending any money on the marriage, and readily changed places
with Lelsing, who drove away the flock of sheep. The brothers soon came
back and, picking up the paiki, threw it into the river and went home,
thinking that they had at last got rid of Lelsing.

But four or five days later Lelsing appeared, driving a large flock
of sheep. His brothers asked him, in amazement where he had come from,
“You threw me” said Lelsing “into a shallow pool of
the river where there were only sheep, but in the deeper parts there
are cattle and buffaloes as well. I can take you to fetch some of them
if you like. You take your palkis to the bank of the river,—for I
cannot carry you all—and then shut yourselves inside and I will
push you into the water.” So the brothers took their palkis to
the river side and shut themselves in, and each called out “Let
me have the deepest place, brother.” Then Lelsing pushed them in
one by one and they were all drowned. Then he went home rejoicing at
the revenge which he had taken for their ill treatment of him.

LXVIII. The Stolen Treasure.

Once upon a time three jars full of money were stolen from a
Raja’s palace. As all search was fruitless the Raja at last gave
notice that, whoever could find them, should receive one half of the
money. The offer brought all the jans and ojhas in the
country to try [207]their hand, but not one of them could find the
treasure.

The fact was that the money had been stolen by two of the
Raja’s own servants and it fell to the duty of these same two men
to entertain the ojhas who came to try and find the money. Thus
they were able to keep watch and see whether any of them got on the
right track.

Not far from the Raja’s city lived a certain tricky fellow.
From his boyhood he had always been up to strange pranks, and he had
married the daughter of a rich village headman. At the time that the
Raja’s money was stolen his wife was on a visit to her father,
and after she had been some time away, he went to fetch her home.
However, on his way, he stopped to have a flirtation with a girl he
knew in the village and the result was that he did not get to his
father-in-law’s house till long after dark. As he stood outside
he heard his wife’s relations talking inside, and from their
conversation he learnt that they had killed a capon for supper, and
that there was enough for each of them to have three slices of capon
and five pieces of the vegetable which was cooked with it.

Having learnt this he opened the door and went in. The household was
amazed at his arriving so late at night but he explained that he had
dreamt that they had killed a capon and were having a feast: and that
there was enough for them each to have three slices of capon and five
pieces of vegetable, so he had come to have a share. At this his
father-in-law could do nothing but have another fowl killed and give
him supper; he was naturally astonished at the Trickster’s powers
of dreaming and insisted that he must certainly go and try his luck at
finding the Raja’s stolen money.

The Trickster was taken aback at this, but there was no getting out
of it; so the next morning he set out with his father-in-law to the
Raja’s palace. When they arrived they were placed in charge of
the two guilty [208]servants, who offered them refreshments of curds
and parched rice. As he was washing his hands after eating, the
Trickster ejaculated, “Find or fail I have at any rate had a
square meal,” Now the two servants were named Find and Fail and
when they heard what the Trickster said, they thought he was speaking
of them, and had by some magic already found out that they were the
thieves.

This threw them into consternation, and they took the Trickster
aside and begged him not to tell the Raja that they were the thieves.
He asked where they had put the money, and they told him that they had
hidden it in the sand by the river. Then he promised not to reveal
their guilt, if they would show him where to find the money when the
time came. They gladly promised and took him to the Raja. The Trickster
pretended to read an incantation over some mustard seed, and then
taking a bamboo went along tapping the ground with it. He refused to
have a crowd with him, because they would spoil the spell, but Find and
Fail followed behind him and showed him where to go. So he soon found
the jars of money and took them to the Raja, who according to his
promise gave him half their contents.

LXIX. Dukhu and His Bonga Wife.

Once upon a time there was a man named Bhagrit who had two sons
named Lukhu and Dukhu; and Lukhu used to work in the fields, while
Dukhu herded the buffaloes. In summer Dukhu used to take his buffaloes
to drink and rest at a pool in the bed of a dry river.

Now in the pool lived a bonga girl and she fell in love with
Dukhu. So one day as he was sitting on the bank she appeared to him in
the guise of a human maiden. She went up to him and began to talk, and
soon they [209]became great friends and agreed to meet at the
same place every day. As the girl was beautiful Dukhu fell deeply in
love with her and resolved to marry her, not knowing that she was a
bonga. One day the bonga-girl asked Dukhu to come home
with her to dinner, as he had stayed too late to go to his own house;
but he said he was too shy to do so, as her parents knew nothing about
him. The bonga-girl said “Oh no, I have told my people all
about our love, but if you won’t come with me, stay here till I
fetch you some rice; it is too late for you to go home now; by the time
you come back, the buffaloes will have wandered off for their afternoon
grazing.” So Dukhu agreed to wait while she brought the rice, and
she got up and moved away and disappeared behind some bushes, but a
minute later Dukhu saw her come smiling towards him with a pot of rice
on her head; though how she had fetched it so quickly he could not make
out. She came to him and put it down and told him to wash his hands and
come and eat his dinner. Dukhu asked her whether she had had her own
dinner and she said that she would go back and have that later. Then he
proposed that she should eat part of what she had brought; and she said
that she would do so, if he did not want it all. Dukhu resolved to test
her, for it would be a proof of true love, if she ate what he left
over. So after eating half the rice he said that he was satisfied and
when she found that Dukhu would eat no more she took what was left;
then he was satisfied that she really loved him and they began to talk
of getting married, and he told her that there would be no difficulty
about it, as his elder brother Lukhu was already married.

Then Dukhu asked the bonga to take him to her house to see
her parents, so one day she led him into the pool and as he went in,
the water never came [210]above his ankles; and somehow they passed
along a broad road until they came to the bonga girl’s
house, and this was full of tigers and leopards and snakes. At the
sight of them Dukhu was too frightened to speak; the bonga said
that she would not let them touch him and offered him a large coiled-up
snake to sit on; but he would not sit down till she came and sat by his
side. Then the bonga father and mother asked their daughter
whether this was her husband, and when she said “yes” they
came and made obeisance to him.

After they had had their dinner she took him back and he knew that
she was a bonga; but still he could not give her up. After this
the bonga girl brought Dukhu his dinner every day on the bank of
the river, and he never went home for his midday-meal at all. His
brother’s wife asked him why he did not come home and he said
that he did not get hungry and was content with some buffalo’s
milk; but she did not believe him and resolved to watch and see who
brought him his dinner, but though she went and watched every day she
only saw him sitting alone, and the bonga girl was invisible to
her. But one day she saw him disappear into the pool, and come out
again.

When she told this at home, Dukhu’s father, Bhagrit, got very
angry and decided to find out who made Dukhu disappear into the pool.
He resolved to bale out the water and find out what was at the bottom.
So he sent for men with baling baskets and began to divide off the
water with dams, but out of the water a voice was heard,
singing;—

At this sound the workmen were frightened and [211]stopped; but Bhagrit made them go on, saying
that whatever happened should be on his head. And when the dams were
finished, they began to bale out the water; thereupon a voice
sang:—

But they paid no attention and baled the water dry, and at the
bottom of the pool they found an enormous fish, for the bonga
girl had turned into a fish. And they went to kill it, but the fish
sang:—

Nevertheless they killed it and dragged it on to the bank. Then they
began to cut it up, and as they did so, it sang:—

Nevertheless they cut it up, and Bhagrit divided the pieces among
the workmen, but they were too frightened to take any and preferred to
take the smaller fishes as their share. So he told Lukhu’s wife
to take up the pieces and wash them: and as she did so the song was
heard:—

And she was very frightened, but her father made her wash them and
then they took home the pieces and lit a fire and ground spices and
turmeric and heated [212]oil and made ready to cook the fish. Then
the fish sang again:—

But she nevertheless put the pieces into the pot to boil, when lo
and behold, out of the pot jumped the pretty bonga girl. Then
Bhagrit said to his neighbours.—“You see by my persistence
I have got a daughter-in-law”—and she was duly married to
Dukhu. At the wedding the bonga girl said “Listen, Father
and all of you: I tell you and I tell my husband—however much we
quarrel let not my husband strike me on the head, let him beat me on
the body, I shall not mind; but on the day that he hits me on the head:
I shall depart for good.”

After the marriage the family became very prosperous and their crops
flourished and every one liked the bonga girl; but between her
and her husband there were constant quarrels and their friends could
not stop them. One day it happened that Dukhu smacked her on the head.
Then the bonga girl began to cry and called her father-in-law
and mother-in-law and said “Father, listen, the father of your
grandson has turned me out, you must do your work yourselves
to-day;” then she took her child on her hip and left the house;
and they ran after her and begged her to return, but she would not
heed; and they tried to snatch the child from her but she would not
give it up, and went away and was seen no more.

LXX. The Monkey Husband.

One very hot day some children were bathing in a pool, when a
Hanuman monkey snatched up the cloth [213]which one of the
girls had left on the bank and ran up a tree with it. When the children
came out of the water and went to take up their clothes, they found one
missing, and looking about, they saw the monkey in the tree with it.
They begged the Hanuman to give it back, but the monkey only
said—“I will not give it unless its owner consents to marry
me.”—Then they began to throw sticks and stones at him but
he climbed to the top of the tree out of the way.

Then they ran and told the parents of the girl whose cloth had been
stolen; and they called their neighbours and went with bows and arrows
and threatened to shoot the monkey if he did not give up the cloth, but
he still said that he would not, unless the girl would marry him. Then
they shot all their arrows at him but not one of them hit him; then the
neighbours said. “This child is fated to belong to the monkey and
that is why we cannot hit him.” Then the girl’s father and
mother began to cry and sang:—

and he answered

And as he did not listen to the father and mother, her
father’s younger brother and his wife sang the same song, but in
vain; and then the girl herself begged for it, and thereupon the monkey
let down one end of the cloth to her; and when she caught hold of it,
he pulled her up into the tree, and there made her put on her cloth and
ran off with her on his back.

The girl was quite willing to go with him and called out as she was
carried away: “Never mind, father and mother, I am going
away.” The Hanuman took her to a cave in the mountains and they
lived on fruit,—mangoes [214]or jack or whatever fruit was
in season. The monkey climbed the trees and shook the fruit down; but
if the girl saw by the marks of teeth that the monkey had bitten off
any fruit, instead of only shaking it down, she would not eat it, and
pretended that she had had enough; for she would not eat the leavings
of the monkey.

At last the girl got tired of having only fruit to eat; and demanded
rice. So the monkey took her to a bazar, and leaving her on the
outskirts of the village under a tree, he went and stole some pots from
a potter and rice and salt and turmeric and pulse and sweetmeats from
other shops, and brought them to the girl. Then she collected sticks
and lit a fire and cooked a meal; and the monkey liked the cooked food,
and asked her to cook for him every day. So they stayed there several
days. Then the girl asked for more clothes and the monkey tried to
steal them too, but the shopkeepers were on the watch and drove him
away.

The girl soon got tired of sleeping under a tree so they went back
to the cave and the monkey gathered mangoes and jackfruit and told her
to go and sell them in the market and then she would be able to buy
cloth. But when she had sold the fruit, she stayed in the village and
took service with a well-to-do shopkeeper, and never returned to the
monkey. The monkey watched for her and searched for her in vain, and
returned sorrowfully to his hill; but the girl stayed on in the village
and eventually married one of the villagers.

LXXI. Lakhan and the Wild Buffaloes.

Once upon a time there was the only son of a widow, who used to tend
the sheep and goats of a Raja and his name was Lakhan. One day he
harnessed one of the goats to a plough and ploughed up a piece of high
land and sowed hemp there. The crop grew finely, but [215]one
night a herd of wild buffaloes came and ate it all up; at this Lakhan
resolved to pursue the buffaloes and shoot them.

His mother did all she could to dissuade him but he made up a bundle
of provisions, and set off on his journey with a stick, and a bow and
arrows, and a flute made of the castor oil plant. He tracked the
buffaloes for some days and one evening he came to the house of an old
witch (hutibudhi) and he went up to it and asked the witch if he might
sleep there. She answered “My house is rough and dirty, but you
can choose a corner to sleep in; I can give you nothing more, as I have
not a morsel of food in the house.” “Then,” said he,
“I must go to bed hungry” and he lay down supperless.

In the middle of the night the witch began to gnaw at Lakhan’s
bow and he heard her gnawing and called out “What are you
munching? Give me at bit,” but she answered that it was only a
little pulse which she had gleaned from the fields and she had finished
it. So Lakhan said no more; but during the night the witch bit his bow
to pieces and when he saw this in the morning, he was very unhappy; for
it was useless to find the bison, if he had nothing to shoot them
with.

So he went home and had an iron bow and arrows made by a blacksmith,
and then started off again. As before he came to the witch’s
house and arranged to sleep there; and in the night the witch tried to
bite the bow to pieces, and Lakhan heard her crunching it and asked her
what she was eating: she said it was only a little grain which she had
gleaned. In the morning he found the bow all right, but the
witch’s jaws were badly swollen. Lakhan laughed at her and asked
what was the matter and she said that she had toothache.

So Lakhan went on his way rejoicing and at last reached the place
where the wild buffaloes rested at [216]night; he waited there and
while he waited he swept away all the droppings and made the place
clean, and then climbed up into a tree. At evening great herds of
buffaloes came to the place and they were so many that Lakhan was
afraid to shoot. So he stayed there, and every day he used to sweep the
place clean, while the buffaloes were away, and at night time hid
himself in the tree.

The buffaloes determined to find out who their benefactor was, and
they chose an old cow to stay behind and watch. The next day the old
cow pretended that she was too weak to rise, and was left behind when
the herd went out to graze. Lakhan thought that she was too old to do
him any harm, so, although she was there, he got down from the tree and
cleaned up the place as usual, and even swept quite close up to the old
cow buffalo. In the evening the other buffaloes came back and the old
cow told them that it was a human being who swept their resting place
clean; and when they promised not to hurt him, she pointed out the tree
where Lakhan was. Then the buffaloes told him to come down and swore
not to kill him but to support him and keep him as their servant. They
told him to make a leaf bowl and they filled this with their milk, as
much as he could drink, and they arranged that he should stay at the
sleeping place and keep it clean, and when he wanted milk he was to
play on his flute and they would come at the sound.

So every noon he used to blow the flute and the cows came, running
and gave him more milk than he wanted so that he used even to bathe
himself in milk, and this made his hair grow very long.

One day a parrot belonging to a Raja saw him drying his long hair in
the sun and the parrot went to the Raja and told him that he had found
a husband for the Raja’s daughter, with beautiful long hair; but
that no one could [217]go near where he lived because of the wild
buffaloes; however the parrot undertook to bring him with the help of a
tame crow of the Raja’s: so the crow and the parrot flew off to
the jungle, and they decided that the best way to entice Lakhan away,
was to carry off his flute. So when the cows gave him milk at noon and
he put down his flute, the crow seized it in his beak and flew away to
the top of a tree. When Lakhan missed the flute and saw the crow with
it, he began to throw stones but the crow flew off with it, keeping
just out of range; the crow flew from tree to tree and seemed to be
always just about to drop the flute and in this way enticed Lakhan on,
till they came to the Raja’s palace and Lakhan followed the crow
right inside and they shut the door on him and made him marry the
princess.

After some time his wife’s brothers began to talk rudely about
him saying “I suppose this fellow is some poor orphan, without
any relations” and when Lakhan heard this he said that if they
wanted to see his cattle and buffaloes they must make a yard for them.
So the Raja gave orders for a large cattle yard to be made, and when it
was ready Lakhan took his flute and put his wife on the roof of the
palace and he himself climbed a tree and blew on the flute. Then the
wild buffaloes came running at the sound and gored to death every one
they met, and Lakhan and his wife became Raja and Rani.

LXXII. The Boy with the Stag.

Once all the men of a village went out to hunt in the hills and a
certain orphan boy wanted to go with them, and although they told him
that there was no water in the hills and he would die of thirst, he
insisted on starting. The first day they found no water, but the orphan
boy managed to endure it; but the second [218]day he suffered so
much, that he begged the hunters to take him to water; they told him
that there was no water and they could not take him to any. So he set
off alone in the direction in which he understood there might be water,
but he soon lost his way in the jungle; so in despair he climbed a
meral tree and picked the fruit and threw it in all directions
and to his joy he heard one fruit splash as it fell into water; so he
climbed down and sure enough close to the tree he found a pool and
drank his fill.

And then he saw a fawn stuck fast in the mud at the edge of the
pool, so he fixed an arrow to his bow and crept towards it, resolved to
catch it alive if he could, but if it ran away, to shoot it. The fawn
did not move and he managed to seize it and pulling it out of the mud,
he rubbed it clean and put his bow string round its neck and took it
home. The fawn grew up into a stag and he trained it to fight and one
day he matched it to fight with a goat. The agreement was that the
owner of the winner should take both the animals; in the fight the stag
was victorious, so the boy won the goat. Then he matched his stag with
a ram and a bullock and even with a buffalo, and the stag was always
victorious and in this way he soon grew rich. Seeing him so rich one of
the villagers gave him his daughter in marriage and took him to live in
his house, and so he lived happily ever afterwards.

LXXIII. The Seven Brothers and the Bonga Girl.

Once upon a time there were seven brothers who lived all alone in
the jungle, far from human habitations. None of them was married and
they lived on the game they killed. It chanced that a bonga
maiden saw the youngest brother and fell deeply in love with him. So
[219]one day when all the brothers were away hunting,
she placed in their house seven nicely cooked plates of rice.

When the brothers returned in the evening from the chase, they were
astonished to find the rice waiting for them; all but the youngest said
that it must be some plot to kill them and refused to touch the food,
but the youngest wished to eat it. His brothers would not let him and
told him to throw the rice away; so he took it outside the house, but
instead of throwing it away, he ate up the whole seven plates full,
without letting his brothers know. But when they went to bed that
night, the youngest brother snored loudly, because he had eaten so
much, and thereby his brothers guessed that he had eaten the rice, and
they were very unhappy for they were sure that he was about to die.
However in the morning he was none the worse; so they went out hunting
as usual but the youngest brother suffered continually from thirst, the
result of overeating, and this convinced his brothers that he had eaten
the rice, though he denied it.

When they reached home that evening, they again found seven dishes
of rice placed ready for them. And that day the youngest brother and
the youngest but one ate; and the day after there was the rice again,
and the three youngest ate it. Then the eldest brother said:
“To-morrow I will stay behind and watch, and see who it is who
brings the rice; we have no servant, if I can catch the person who is
so kind to us, I will engage him as a cook for us, and we need have no
more of this mystery. Do you bring back my share of the game you
shoot.”

So the next morning the eldest brother stayed behind and hid himself
and watched. But he could not see the bonga, though she brought
the rice as usual; and when he told his brothers this, it was decided
that the second brother should stay behind the next day, and
[220]see if he had better luck; and that day they all
ate the rice, except the eldest brother, who said that he would never
eat it, until he knew who brought it; so the next day the second
brother watched but he also could not see the bonga.

One by one all the brothers watched in vain, until only the youngest
one was left. Then they said to the youngest brother: “Now it is
your turn and if our friend does not show himself to you, we will eat
no more of his rice.” So the next day the other brothers went off
to hunt and the youngest stayed at home; he did not trouble to hide
himself, but sat in the house making a bow. At noon he saw the
bonga girl coming with the rice on her head, but he took no
notice and pretended to be looking down at something. Then the
bonga came into the courtyard and put down the rice and looked
about and said: “I saw something like a man here, where has he
got to?” and she looked into the house and still the youngest
brother kept silent; then she spoke to him and asked whether he was
ill, that he had not gone hunting. He answered her that he was not ill,
but had been left to watch for the person who brought them rice every
day. Thereupon the bonga went outside and brought in the rice
and putting it down, said: “It is I who do it. Come, wash your
hands and I will give you your dinner,” but he said: “First
tell me what all this means,” and she said: “It means that
I want to live with you.” He objected. “How can I marry you
when my brothers are not married?” She answered that if he
married her, they would soon find wives for his brothers. Then she
urged him to eat, but he said that if he ate one plateful, his brothers
would question him, so the bonga girl went and brought an extra
dish and he ate that. And as they talked together, he soon fell deeply
in love with her, and promised to consult his brothers about her living
with them; but he saw a [221]difficulty which would arise if
she married him, for his elder brothers would not care even to ask her
for water, and thus she would be really of very little use in the
house; so with some hesitation he proposed that she should marry the
eldest brother and then they could all talk freely to her; but the girl
would not agree to this and said that there would be no harm at all in
their talking to her, provided that they did not touch her, and she
would not mind giving his elder brothers water.

So they plighted their troth to each other, subject to the consent
of the brothers, and towards evening the bonga girl left,
promising to return on the morrow. When the brothers returned they
discussed the matter and agreed that the youngest should marry the
girl, provided that she promised to keep house for them. So the next
day the girl came back and stayed with them; and they found wives for
the other brothers, and got cattle and buffaloes and broke up land for
cultivation and though the brothers did not altogether give up hunting,
they became rich.

A certain jogi found out where they lived and once every year he
came to ask for alms; one year he came just after the bonga girl
had borne a child, so as she was doing no work, it was her
sisters-in-law who brought out food for the jogi. But at this he was
displeased, and said that he would only eat at the hands of the girl,
who had given him food the year before. They told him that she was in
child-bed and could not come out. Then he said: “Go and tell her
that the Jhades Jogi has come and wants her arm tassel.” So she
sent out her arm tassel to him and he put it in his bag and got up and
went away. Thereupon the bonga girl arose and left her baby, and
followed him, and never came back. At evening the brothers returned
from hunting, and heard what had happened. They were very distressed
and told their wives to look after the baby while they [222]went
in pursuit. They followed as hard as they could and caught up the Jogi
on the banks of a river; then they tried to shoot him, but their arrows
were powerless against him, and he by magic turned the seven brothers
into stones.

So the Jogi carried off the woman to his home. He was a Raja in his
own country and he had a big garden; and an old woman who looked after
it used to make garlands every day and bring them to the Rani, and the
Rani used to pay their weight in silver for them. In the course of time
the child who was left behind grew up and when he used to play with his
fellows at pitch and toss and there was any dispute about the game his
playmates would say “Fatherless boy, you want to cheat!” So
he asked his aunts whether it was true that he had no father and they
told him that the Jhades jogi had carried off his mother, and how his
father and uncles had gone in pursuit and had never returned. So the
boy decided to go in search of his mother and he set off, and first he
met some goatherds and he sang to them:—

But they could tell him nothing. And then he met some shepherd boys,
and he sang to them:—

But they could tell him nothing. Then he met some boys tending
buffaloes and he sang;—

[223]

But they could tell him nothing. Then he came to a thorn bush, with
a number of rags fluttering on it, and he sang:—

And the plum tree said “The Jhades jogi brought your mother
this way, and I did my best to stop them. If you don’t believe me
see the rags as a proof.” And he put his hand on the tree and
went on. And then he came to a squirrel which was chattering in a
banyan tree, and he sang:—

And the squirrel said “I have been calling you since
yesterday. The jogi brought your mother this way, go on and you will
overtake them. And your father and uncles also came this road.”
The boy was cheered by this news and he put his hand on the
squirrel’s back and said “You are a fine fellow to give me
this clue” and the marks of his fingers were imprinted on the
squirrel and that is why squirrels have striped backs to the present
day.

Then he went on and came to a river and he decided to sit and have
his lunch there; he did not know that his father and uncles had been
turned into stones in that very place, but as he sat and ate, his eyes
were opened and he saw the stones weeping, and he recognised them, and
he dropt a little food on each that they might eat, and pursued his
way, until he came to the Jhades jogi’s kingdom, and he went to
the old woman who kept the Jogi’s garden and asked to be allowed
to stay with her and help her to make the garlands. [224]

One day when he had made a garland, he tied to it a ring which had
belonged to his mother. So when the old woman took the garland to the
Rani, the Rani wondered why it weighed so heavy, and when she examined
it she saw her own ring. Then she asked the old woman who had tied the
ring there, and when she heard that a strange boy had come, she at once
ran to him and recognised her own son.

Then they planned how they could kill the Jhades jogi and escape!
The mother agreed to find out in what lay the life of the Jogi. So she
questioned him and worried him till he told her that his life lay in a
certain pumpkin vine. Then the boy went and cut down the pumpkin vine,
but the Jogi did not die; then the Rani worried and worried the Jogi
till he told her that his life lay in his sword; then the boy stole the
sword and burnt it in a fire of cowdung, but still the Jogi did not
die; then his mother again worried and plagued the Jogi till at last he
told her the truth and said “In the middle of the sea is a cotton
tree, and on the tree are two Bohmae birds; if they are killed I shall
die.”

So the boy set off to the sea and on the road he met three old women
and one had a stool stuck to her back, and one had a bundle of
thatching grass stuck on her head, and the third had her foot stuck
fast to a rice-pounder, and they asked him where he was going, and he
told them, “to visit the shrine of the Bohmae bird”: then
they asked him to consult the oracle and find out how they could be
freed from the things which were stuck fast to them, and he promised to
do so.

By-and-bye he came to the sea and was puzzled as to how he was to
cross it. As he walked up and down the shore he saw an alligator
rolling about in pain with a swollen stomach; and when it saw the boy
it said “I am like to die with this pain in my stomach, how can
[225]I be cured?” and the boy proposed that it
should take him to the cotton tree in the midst of the sea and there
they might learn a remedy from the Bohmae birds. The alligator agreed,
so the boy got on its back and was taken across the water. Then the boy
sat at the foot of the cotton tree and sang:—

But the birds were frightened and flew to the top of the tree. But
as he went on singing, they became curious and came down and asked what
was the matter, and he said “There are three old woman and one
has a stool stuck to her and one a bundle of grass and one a rice
pounder; how are they to be freed?” And they said “The
first old woman never asked visitors to her house to take a seat; if
she does so in future she will get rid of the stool,”—and
as they said this they came nearer—“and the second old
woman, if she saw anyone with straws sticking in their hair never
offered to take them out. If she does so in future she will be
freed,” and as they said this they came nearer
still—“and the third old woman would not allow widows and
orphans to use her rice pounder: if she does so she will be
freed:” and as they said this they came quite near, and the boy
seized them and broke their wings, and as he did so the Jogi’s
arms were broken; then he snapped off their legs, and as he did so the
Jogi’s legs were broken; and the birds screamed and the Jogi
howled.

Then the alligator carried the boy back, and by the time it reached
the shore it was cured of its pain. On his way back the boy told the
three old women of what the birds had said; and when he got to the
Jogi’s palace he twisted off the heads of the Bohmae birds and
then the Jogi’s head fell to the ground. [226]

Then he started homewards with his mother, carrying the birds and
their heads; and the Jogi’s head came rolling after them. But he
saw a blacksmith’s fire burning by the side of the road and he
threw the birds into the fire and the Jogi’s head rolled into the
fire and was burnt, and that was the end of him. When they came to the
river where his father and uncles were turned into stones, he bathed in
the river, and then put a cloth over the stones and they were restored
to human shape; and they rubbed their eyes and said “We must have
slept a long time” and were astonished when they heard how the
Jogi had turned them into stones. Then they all went home and lived
happily ever after.

LXXIV. The Tiger’s Foster Child.

Once upon a time a Potter woman went to dig earth for making pots,
and while she was working she was prematurely delivered of a boy. And
she considered whether she should carry the child home, or the basket
of clay, but in the end decided to take the clay which was urgently
wanted, while she would doubtless have plenty more children in the
course of time. So she went away, leaving the baby in the pit. At
evening a tiger came by and heard the child crying and he took pity on
it and carried it away and he and his wife reared it.

As the child grew up they used to take him to the tigers’
assembly. He was not at all afraid of the tigers and understood all
they said and one day he heard them saying that the Pargana (tribal
chief) tiger was a great man-eater. At this he was very angry and set
off to look for the man-eater, without telling his foster parents. When
the Pargana tiger saw the boy coming he had just finished cleaning his
teeth, and he thought “This is lucky, here is my breakfast
coming;” but just [227]as he was about to spring on the
boy, the boy caught hold of him and tore him to pieces.

The news of this exploit soon spread, and the tigers called a
meeting to consider the matter, and they told the foster father that he
must take steps to prevent the boy doing any such thing again. So the
tiger and tigress went home and told the boy that it was time that he
went back to his own people, as he had brought shame upon them; the boy
objected that men would not receive him, but they told him to go as an
orphan boy and beg in the villages till he found his mother.

So he went away and when he came to a village he sang:—

And thus he went begging from village to village and one day he came
to the village where his father and mother lived. His mother heard him
a long way off and running to him knew him for her son. Then she
brought water and oil and turmeric and bathed him and anointed him, and
gave him new clothes and fed him on curds and parched rice. And the
villagers collected, and when they heard the stories of the mother and
son, they believed them and gave a feast in honour of the boy, and took
him into the village.

LXXV. The Caterpillar Boy.

Once there was an old woman who lived on the grain she could collect
from other people’s threshing floors. One day as she swept up a
threshing floor she found a caterpillar among the paddy; she threw it
away but it came crawling back again; she threw it away [228]again, but it said “Do not throw me away,
take me home with you and you will prosper.” So she let it stay
and that day she found that she collected a whole basketful of rice; at
this she was delighted, and put the caterpillar on the top of her
basket and took it home. There she asked the caterpillar what work it
would do, and it said that it would watch the paddy, when it was spread
out to dry after being boiled, and prevent the fowls and pigs from
eating it.

So the caterpillar used to watch the paddy while the old woman went
out looking for food; and every day she brought back a full basket of
rice, and so she soon became rich. It got whispered about that the old
woman was so prosperous, because she had a caterpillar boy in her
house.

One day the caterpillar said that he wanted to go and bathe, so he
went to the river and took off his caterpillar skin, and bathed, and as
he rubbed his head, one or two hairs came out, and these he wrapped up
in a leaf and set the packet to float down the stream. Lower down the
stream a princess was bathing and when she saw the packet come floating
down, she had it fished out, and when she opened it she saw the hairs
inside and she measured them and found them to be twelve fathoms long;
then the princess vowed that she would not eat rice, till she found the
man to whom the hairs belonged. And she went home and shut herself in
her room and refused to eat.

At this her father and mother were much distressed, and when they
heard what had happened the Raja said “Well she wants a husband,
I will find him for her.” And he sent a notice throughout his
kingdom saying that he would give his daughter and half his kingdom to
the man who had hair twelve fathoms long. Everyone who heard this came
with his sons and the princess was told to look at them and choose whom
she liked; [229]but none had hair twelve fathoms long, and she
would take none of them. Then the Raja asked whether everyone in the
kingdom had come, and he was told that there was a caterpillar boy, who
lived with an old woman, who had not come, so the Raja sent to fetch
him, but he said that he had no arms or legs and could not go; so they
sent a palki for him and he was brought in that. And when the palki was
set on the ground, the caterpillar boy rolled out and the princess said
that he should be her husband.

At this her father and mother were much ashamed and remonstrated
with her, but she persisted in her fancy, so the marriage took place.
They sent the newly married pair to live in a house at the outskirts of
the village and only one maidservant accompanied the princess. Every
night the caterpillar boy used to take off his skin and go out to
dance, and one night the maidservant saw him and told her mistress. And
they agreed to watch him, so the next night they pretended to go to
sleep, but when the caterpillar boy went out, they took his skin and
burnt it on the fire; and when he came back, he looked for it, but
could not find it. Then the princess got up and caught him in her arms,
and he retained his human form, and he was as handsome as a god.

In the morning the caterpillar boy and his wife stayed inside the
house, and the Raja sent some children to see what had happened, and
the children brought back word that there was a being in the house, but
whether human or divine they could not say. Then the Raja went and
fetched his son-in-law to the palace, but the caterpillar was not
pleased and said to his wife; “They treat me very well now that
they see that I am a man, but what did they do before?” However
he stayed in his father-in-law’s palace.

Presently the Raja said that his kingdom was too small [230]to
give half of it to his son-in-law, so he proposed that they should go
and conquer fresh territory, and carve out a kingdom for the
caterpillar boy. So they went to war and attacked another Raja, but
they were defeated and their army cut to pieces. Then the son-in-law
said that he would fight himself; so he drew his sword and brandished
it and it flashed like lightning and dazzled the eyes of the enemy and
his shield clanged on his thigh with a noise like thunder; and he
defeated the other Raja and took his kingdom and carried off all his
wealth.

But the Raja thought that as his son-in-law was so strong, he would
one day kill him also and take his kingdom: so he resolved to find a
means to kill him. On their way back from the war they found no water
on the road and were distressed with thirst. One day they came to a
large tank and found it dry. So they made a sacrifice in the hopes that
water would flow. First they sacrificed goats and sang:—

But no water came. Then in succession they sacrificed sheep, and
oxen and buffaloes, and horses and elephants, but all in vain: and
after each failure the Raja said “Son-in-law, it is your
turn,” and at last his son-in-law said “Well, let it be
me;” and he armed himself and mounted his horse and went and
stood in the middle of the tank, and he sang:—

And the Raja answered:—

[231]

And as he sang the water welled out up to his horse’s knee and
then to its belly; and he still sang and the water rose to the
horse’s back and then to his own waist, and to his chest, and he
still sang, and it reached his mouth and then he was completely
submerged and the tank was full. Then they all drank their fill and the
Raja said to his men “We have sacrificed this Saru prince. I will
kill any of you who tells my daughter what has happened” and they
promised not to tell, but they forgot that there were two dogs with
them. And when they got home each man’s wife brought out water
and welcomed him and the princess asked where her husband, the Saru
prince, was, and no one answered; then she sang:—

and the Raja answered

And she sang to them all, but no one told her anything, and then she
sang to the two dogs, who were named Chaura and Bhaura:—

and they answered

Thereupon she began to cry, and every day she sat and cried on the
bank of the tank. [232]

Now the two daughters of the Snake King and Queen had received the
Saru Prince as he disappeared under the water, and when they heard the
princess crying every day they had pity on her; she used to
sing:—

So the daughters of the Snake King and Queen took pity on her and
told their frog chowkidar to restore the Saru Prince to his wife; and
the Prince and his wife went home together. When the Raja and his wife
saw their son-in-law again, they were terrified, but he said nothing to
reproach them. The princess however could not forgive them for trying
to kill her husband and always looked angrily at them; then the Raja
and the Rani took counsel together and agreed that they had done wrong
to the prince, and that he must be a magician; and they thought that
their daughter must also be a magician, as she had recognised the
prince when he was a caterpillar, and she could not even see his long
hair; so they were afraid and thought it best to make over the kingdom
to their son-in-law, and they abdicated in his favour, and he took the
kingdom.

LXXVI. The Monkey Nursemaid.

Once upon a time there were seven brothers who were all married and
each had one child and the brothers arranged to engage a boy to carry
the children about; so they sent for a boy and to see if he was strong
enough, they made a loaf as big as a door and they told the boy to take
it away and eat it; but he was [233]not strong enough to lift it;
so they told him that he could not carry their children. Now a Hanuman
monkey was looking on from the top of a tree, and he came down and
carried off the loaf and ate it. Thereupon the mothers engaged him to
carry the children, and he used to carry the whole seven about on his
back.

One day the children were running about the house and kept
interfering with their mothers’ work, and the mothers scolded the
monkey for not keeping them out of the way. Then the monkey got sulky
and carried off the children to a distant hill and did not bring them
back at evening. So the mothers got very anxious, but the villagers
laughed at them for engaging a monkey, instead of a human being, to
look after the children.

When the mothers heard that the monkey had taken the children to the
hill, they were still more unhappy, for in the hill lived a
rakhas (ogre) but it was too late to go in search of them that
night. Meanwhile the monkey for fear of the rakhas had carried
the children up to the top of a palm tree and when the rakhas
spied them out he tried to climb the tree, but the monkey drove him
away by throwing the palm fruit at him.

However the monkey was really in a fix, for he was sure that the
Rakhas would return, and he knew that if he let the children be eaten,
their parents would make him pay for it with his life. So he went off
to a blacksmith and bought sharp knives and tied them on to the trunk
of the palm tree: and when the Rakhas came back and tried to climb the
tree, he was so badly cut by the knives, that he fell down to the
ground with a thud and lay there groaning. Then the monkey cautiously
descended and the Rakhas begged him to cure his wounds; the monkey
answered that he would [234]cure him if he gave him complete
outfits for the children. The Rakhas said that he would give them
directly he was cured. So the monkey applied some medicines and recited
the following spells:—

And in succeeding verses, he mentioned seven coats, seven pair of
shoes, seven hats, seven swords, seven horses, and seven hogs; and as
he repeated the incantation he blew on the Rakhas, and he was
healed.

The Rakhas was to give the things mentioned in the incantation, but
when seven hogs were mentioned he objected and wished only to give one,
and in the end the monkey agreed to be content with two; so the Rakhas
departed and the next day appeared with seven waist strings, seven
dhoties, seven coats, seven hats, seven pairs of shoes, seven swords,
seven horses and two hogs. Then the monkey rigged the children out in
this apparel and mounted them on the horses; and the monkey and the
Rakhas mounted on the two hogs,—the Rakhas having faithfully
promised not to eat the children or their parents,—and they all
set out for the children’s home. When the mothers saw the
cavalcade come jingling along, they were frightened at first; but when
they recognised their children they were delighted, and they gave the
monkey and Rakhas a good dinner. Then the monkey made over the children
to their parents and gave up his post as nurse, and left amid the good
wishes of all. [235]

LXXVII. The Wife Who Could Not Keep a Secret.

Once there was a man of the Goala caste, who looked after the cattle
of a rich farmer. One day a cow dropped a calf in the jungle without
the Goala knowing, and at evening the cow came running to join the
others, without the calf. When they got home the cow kept on lowing and
the master asked whether she had had a calf; the Goala had to confess
that the calf had been left in the jungle; the master scolded him well,
so he took a rope and stick and went out into the night.

But when he got to the jungle he could not hear the calf, so he
decided to wait where he was till the morning; he was too frightened of
wild animals to stay on the ground, so he climbed a tree leaving the
stick and rope at the foot of it. Soon a tiger smelt him out and came
to the place. Then the stick and the rope took council together as to
how they could save their master; the stick saw that it could not see
in the dark and so was powerless; so the rope agreed to fight first,
and it whirled itself round in the air with a whistling noise, and the
tiger hearing the noise and seeing no one, got frightened, and thought
that there was an evil spirit there; so it did not dare to come very
near and in the morning it took itself off.

Then the Goala saw the cow come to look for her calf, so he took up
the stick and rope and followed her. The cow soon found her calf and
asked it whether it had not been very cold and uncomfortable all night;
but the calf said “No mother, I put my foot in these four pots of
rupees and they kept me warm,” The Goala heard this and resolved
to see if it were true; so he dug up the earth where the calf had been
lying and soon uncovered the rims of four pots full of money.
[236]But the Goala did not care to take the money
home for fear his wife should talk about it; he resolved to see first
whether his wife could keep a secret.

So he went home and told her to cook him some food quickly; she
asked why, and he said “The Raja has a tortoise inside him and I
am going to look at him.” Then his wife said that she must fetch
some water, and she went off with the water pot. On the way she met
several women of the village, who asked her why she was fetching water
so early, and she said, “Because the Raja has a tortoise inside
him and my husband is going off to see it.” In less than an hour
the village was full of the news, and the rumour spread until it
reached the ears of the Raja. The Raja was very angry and said that he
would kill the man who started the report, unless he could prove it to
be true. So he sent messengers throughout the country to trace back the
rumour to its source.

One messenger found out that it was the Goala who had started the
story and told him that the Raja wanted to give him a present; so he
gladly put on his best clothes and went off to the Raja’s palace.
But the Raja had him bound with ropes, and then questioned him as to
why he had told a false story. The Goala admitted that his story was
false, but explained that he had only told it to his wife, in order to
see whether she could keep a secret, because he had found four pots of
money. The Raja asked where the money was and the Goala said that he
would show it, but he wanted to know first how much of it he was to
have, for himself. The Raja promised him half; so the Goala led men to
the place and they dug up the money, and the Goala kept half and became
a rich man.

Moral. However friendly you are with a man do not tell him
what is in your heart, and never tell your [237]wife
the real truth, for one day she will lose her temper and let the matter
out.

LXXVIII. Sit and Lakhan.

Once upon a time there was a Raja who had two wives and a concubine,
but after giving birth to her second son, the first Rani died, and the
name of her elder boy was Sit and that of the younger was Lakhan. The
two children used to cry for their mother but the second Rani never
comforted them, for she hated them; it was the concubine who used to
bathe them and care for them, and their father loved them much. They
used to go to the place where their father sat administering justice
and Sit would sit behind his father and Lakhan in front. The second
Rani hated to see them with their father and would tell the concubine
to drive them away; but she refused and said that it was natural for a
father to love his motherless children; so the Rani kept silent, but
anger remained in her heart.

At last the Rani feigned to be ill and kept her bed; the Raja sent
for doctors and ojhas, and they came and saw that she could not
rise and they wanted to feel her pulse, but she would not let them
touch her; all she would do was to make the concubine tie a string to
her wrist and let the doctors hold the other end of the string; so the
doctors diagnosed the disease as best they could in this way and gave
her medicines, but she got no better.

After some days the Rani sent for the Raja and said “I am
dying and you don’t care; these doctors’ medicines do me no
good; there is one medicine only which will cure me.” The Raja
asked “What is it? I will get it for you.” Then the Rani
made him swear by Kali that he would give her the medicine she wanted,
and he swore blindly. Then the Rani said “If I eat [238]the
livers of Sit and Lakhan I shall get well, and if not I shall
die.” At this request the Raja was struck dumb.

Now the concubine and a sipahi had overheard the conversation, and
when they heard what the Rani said, they withdrew and the concubine
went and told Sit and Lakhan of what was in store for them, and Sit
began to cry:—but Lakhan said “Do not cry brother, our
father gave us life, and it is for him to take it away if he
will.” So the Raja came out from the Rani’s room and when
he saw the boys he wept and he went to them and told them to eat their
rice quickly, but they would not eat; then he had their best clothes
brought for them and told them to put them on, but they refused. Then
the Raja called for sipahis and the sipahi who had been
with the concubine, and two others, came and the Raja told them with
tears in his voice to take the two boys away and let him never see them
again, and he added so that the boys should not hear “Bring me
their livers.” So the sipahis took away the boys, and as they
passed through the bazar they bought them some sweetmeats. After
walking for a time they came to a jungle; then Sit said to the sipahis
“How far are we to go? Do here what is in your minds.”

But the sipahis went on further; then Sit again told them to do what
they had to do. But the sipahis said “Do not be frightened, we
shall not kill you; we shall not obey your father; you must go away and
never come back here.”

Now two dogs had followed them, attracted by the smell of the
sweetmeats, and the sipahis caught and killed them and cut out
their livers, and they put them on a plate and took them to the Raja.
The Rani was delighted and had the livers cooked, and ate them and the
next day she rose from her bed.

Meanwhile Sit and Lakhan travelled on, and in a few [239]days
they had eaten all their food and were very tired, and one evening they
sat down at the foot of a tree in the jungle intending to spend the
night there. In that tree a pair of birds had their nest. Every year
they hatched their eggs and reared the young: but every year when the
young were half grown, a snake came and devoured them. That year also
there were two young in the nest, and on the day that the boys rested
at the foot of the tree the snake had resolved to eat them. But when it
came, the boys heard it moving in the leaves and killed it.

At evening the old birds returned and the nestlings said that the
boys had saved their lives, and asked the old birds to give them some
of the food that they had brought. So they threw down two bits of food,
and it was ordained that whoever ate the first piece, should marry the
daughter of a Raja, and whoever ate the second piece, should spit gold;
and it chanced that Sit ate the first piece, and Lakhan the second. The
next morning the boys went on their way, and the Raja of the country
was looking for a husband for his daughter and he had sent an elephant
out with a flower in its trunk and it was arranged that the princess
should marry the man to whom the elephant gave the flower. The elephant
came upon Sit sitting by the side of the road, while Lakhan was at a
distance; and when the elephant saw Sit, it went up and gave him the
flower and the attendants mounted him on the elephant and took him to
the Raja and he married the princess.

A few days after the wedding Sit sat outside the palace with his
wife, and did not come in though it was evening, and the Raja asked him
why he was sitting outside in the dew. Then Sit began to cry and lament
his brother, singing—

[240]

Then the Raja heard how he had been separated from his brother, and
he promised to send men in search of Lakhan, and they found him in the
house of a potter; but the potter refused to give him up until he had
been paid for the days that he had entertained him; but really the
Potter had become wealthy, because whenever Lakhan opened his mouth he
spat gold, and he did not wish to lose such a valuable guest. Then Sit
mounted his horse and took five rupees and gave them to the Potter in
payment for his entertainment, and brought Lakhan home with him. When
they found that Lakhan spat gold they were very glad to keep him and
the Raja gave him his second daughter in marriage; and Lakhan made the
whole family rich.

Meanwhile Sit and Lakhan’s father had fallen into poverty; his
country had been conquered and his army destroyed and he and his wife
wandered about begging; when the boys heard this, they sent for the
concubine who had been good to them, and she came and lived with them,
but they did not forgive their father and step-mother.

Moral. There is no controlling a second wife and they are
hard to get on with. First wives are the best, they are obedient and
agree with the opinions of their husband.

LXXIX. The Raja Who Went To Heaven.

Once upon a time there was a Raja, who had many water reservoirs and
tanks, and round the edges he planted trees, mangoes, pipals, palms and
banyans; and the banyan trees were bigger than any. Every day after
bathing the Raja used to walk about and look at his trees, and one
morning, as he did so, he saw a maiden go up to a banyan tree and climb
it, and the tree was then carried up to the sky, but when he went in
the evening [241]he saw the tree in its place again; the same
thing happened three or four days running. The Raja told no one, but
one morning he climbed the banyan tree before the maiden appeared, and
when she came, he was carried up to the sky along with the tree. Then
he saw the maiden descend and go and dance with a crowd of Gupinis
(Divine milk maids) and the Raja also got down and joined in the
dance.

He was so absorbed in the dance that he took no note of time; so
when at last he tore himself away, he found that the banyan tree had
disappeared. There was nothing to be done, but stay where he was; so he
began to wander about and he soon came to some men building a palace as
hard as they could. He asked them for whom the palace was being built,
and they named his own name. He asked why it was being built for him,
and they said that Thakur intended to bring him there, because he was a
good ruler, who did not oppress his subjects and gave alms to the poor
and to widows and orphans.

There was no difference between night and day up in the sky, but
when the Raja came back, he found that the banyan tree was there, and
he climbed up it and was carried back to earth by it. Then he went home
and told his people that he had been on a visit to a friend. After that
the Raja used to visit the banyan tree every day, and when he found
that it did not wither although it had been taken up by the roots, he
concluded that what he had seen was true and he began to prepare for
death. So he distributed all his wealth among his friends and among the
poor; and when his officers remonstrated he made them no answer. A few
days later he died, and was taken to the palace which he had seen being
built.

It is said that what you give away in this world, you will get back
in the next; there you will get good wages for what you have done in
this life. [242]

LXXX. Seven-Tricks and Single-Trick.

Seven-Tricks and Single-Trick were great friends, but some one told
Seven-Tricks that Single-Trick was the cleverer man of the two.
Seven-Tricks pondered over this but felt sure that his very name showed
that he was the cleverer; so one day he went to pay a visit to
Single-Trick, and put the matter to the test When Single-Trick saw him
coming, he called a pretty girl and hid her inside the house and told
his wife to put the rice on to boil. Seven-Tricks arrived and was
pressed to stay for the midday meal; he accepted and
Single-Trick’s wife brought them water to wash their hands and
when they sat down, helped them to the rice.

As they ate, Single-Trick pretended to get very angry and began to
abuse his wife “You lazy slattern, why have you put no salt in
the rice? I will beat you for this, I will beat you into a girl
again.” So saying he caught up a club and gave her a blow with
it, and pushed her into the house and pretended to continue the beating
inside; and then came out dragging with him the pretty girl whom he had
hidden. When Seven-Tricks saw this transformation he made up his mind
to steal the club, and try whether he could beat his own wife into a
girl again. So when he went home he secretly took away the club, and
the next day when his wife was giving him his dinner he pretended to
get angry with her for not putting salt in the rice, and snatching up
the club gave her a good pounding with it, and drove her into the house
and then pulled her forth again; but to his dismay she did not look a
day younger than before. Seven-Tricks was puzzled but could only opine
that he had not beaten the woman hard enough, so he beat her till her
bones cracked; but still there was no result and he had to give up in
despair. [243]