Folklore of the Santal Parganas - Cecil Henry Bompas (paper ebook reader .TXT) 📗

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 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 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 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 Rajah'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 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 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